The idea for Date Your Spouse: Soup Saturday started when I stumbled across an article for the 30 best soups. Scanning the list made my mouth water and the idea of setting aside time to cook with my spouse each week was intriguing. So we sat down and picked a few favorites then made a grocery list and a commitment to spend time away from the grind of our daily lives to enjoy soup together (plus a glass of wine or two as well). Date Your Spouse: Soup Saturday is a stay at home way to cook together and enjoy a meal; minus the restaurant or take-out.
Tortellini Soup with Sausage and Kale
Our first soup adventure was a tortellini soup with Italian sausage and kale. This creamy and hearty soup was perfect for a cold Minnesota winter night. We went light on the kale since neither of us is huge fans. We paired it with crusty bread and a bottle of Malbec. Not only was this soup tasty, but it was also easy to make, required no fancy ingredients and was a breeze to clean up.
Hungarian Mushroom Soup
For our next Soup Saturday, we made a Hungarian Mushroom Soup. I LOVE mushrooms, so we doubled the batch and again had crusty bread with a bottle of Pinot Noir. We splurged and bought high-quality cremini and portabella mushrooms since they are the only real ingredient in this soup. We also did like the recipe suggested and did not use skim/low fat cream or milk. The soup was very creamy and delicious.
Chicken Fajita Soup
Next, we tried chicken fajita soup. This one requires a bit of advance planning. We did the chicken in the crockpot earlier in the week to simplify our Saturday Soup Date Night. Once the chicken is cooked, the rest of the soup takes just 20-30 minutes to make. We skipped the wine for this soup and instead had a favorite beer. We also enjoyed munching chips and pico while we cooked together.
Creamy Ham and Wild Rice Soup
Our next Soup Saturday featured a Minnesota favorite; creamy ham and wild rice soup. I was craving a hearty, feel-good soup and this one delivered. Despite taking a bit longer to prepare, I think this was a favorite Soup Saturday. Of course, we served it with crusty bread and a glass of wine.
Marry Me Chicken Noodle Soup
This marry me chicken noodle soup recipe is PACKED with flavor. The recipe calls for parsnip, which we’d never never cooked with before. We were pleasantly surprised by the added flavor bonus., which was enhanced with the deglazing with white wine. More flavor add and a great excuse to enjoy a glass while cooking. The recipe also used a tubetti rigati noodle but we opted for a more traditional egg noodle. Whatever noodle you choose, you won’t be dissapointed. This soup is a repeat make, for sure.
Loaded Baked Potato Soup
Our final soup was a copycat recipe for Chili’s Loaded Baked Potato soup. Another hearty choice, this soup was filling and full of flavor. This soup took just over an hour to prepare and pairs well with a bright wine like pinot noir.
For each Soup Saturday, we made our kids dinner first and let them eat it while watching a movie. This allowed for minimal distractions while we cooked, talked and laughed. For more Date Your Spouse ideas, see our Drinking Dangerously and Playing Hooky posts.
Happy Adventuring, Rochelle