We've been making big batches of soup on the weekend and eating it for meals all week long! Topping the bowl with a garnish or two is a way to add some variety, especially toward the end of the week when we're getting a little tired of eating the same thing. Here are a few we think are fun and unexpected!
1. Roasted Chickpeas - Chickpeas become crunchy on the outside and a bit chewy in the middle after some time in the oven. This would be the perfect texture contrast for a creamy pureed soup.
2. Toasted Nori - These thin sheets of pressed seaweed crisp up beautifully after a few minutes in a low oven or toaster oven, then you can crumble them on top of a bowl of soup. Mark Bittman recommends brushing the top with water for even crispier sheets!
3. Baked Tofu - Again, chewy cubes of baked tofu would add texture and substance to a simple pureed soup. Try marinating them in soy sauce or balsamic vinegar before toasting.
4. Microwave Potato Chips - Visually, we love the look of thin, frilly potato chips resting on top of a soup. Cooking them in the microwave concentrates their flavor, too!
5. Pie Dough Scraps - If you're making a pie for dessert, use some of your baked pie dough trimmings to float on your soup like crackers. Cheese straws and pieces of puff pastry also work well.
6. Roasted Vegetables - Save a few vegetables from the soup itself and roast them instead, as in the picture of roasted poblano soup above! The roasted veggies highlight the flavors of the soup and add a different texture.
What other garnishes do you like on your soup?
Related: The Wow Factor: Origami Crane Garnishes
(Image: Flickr member William.Neuheisel licensed under Creative Commons)
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Tiny pieces of soup crepe; little meatballs (minced chicken livers with marjoram, salt, pepper and breadcrumbs); butter dumplings; cous cous dumbplings...
Cheese! Croutons made out of old french bread or biscuits. Or really, just a big hunk of crusty bread to dip in. Yum!
To my lentil chili, I top with small chunks of cheddar.
Mmmmm Having that for lunch today...
The restaurant "Moustache" serves a great lentil soup and they top it with the best crunchy carmelized onions! Mmmmm.
I like a scoop of grains with really thick soups.
Hmm, does that photo look like a garnish of earthworm to anyone else?
Though I have never tried it myself, I once saw Emeril garnish a pureed soup (I think it was tomato) with plain popcorn.
I was just contemplating this issue. I made a batch of squash soup and just had some for lunch. It definitely lacked a garnish. I was thinking maybe crushed pistachios?
nuts are a go-to for me. toasted coconut can be good. for the chickpeas, my favorite is to roast with olive oil, sea salt, and cumin. mmm.
Fried shallots!
Popcorn looks really pretty as a garnish, but it gets soggy fast.
Roasted red peppers or pimientos, cheese, and nori or furikake of some kind are my favorites.
And yes, whatever is in that soup looks...mrrh. Odd.
Yes! Popcorn on tomato soup not only adds some bulk and sizzles when you add it, but balances out a too sweet batch (like most of the ones that come from boxes). The sogginess is party of the charm . . . then again, maybe it's an acquired taste. :)
I have always liked croutons on mine. Garlic or ceasar ones are great on tomato soup.
I recently made my own, and they were super easy to make. I had a loaf of home made bread that only half rose so it was really dense and doughy. I just cut it into cubes, left it out to dry, then shook it in a bag (shake 'n bake style) with some olive oil, dried parmesan cheese, herbs, and seasoning salt. Then spread it out on a pizza pan and put it in the oven for a bit.
They were great, and might have been so tasty that they all got eaten by the handful the next day. They also used up a loaf of bread that probably would have gotten thrown away otherwise.
I'll definitely be making these again.
Ha! Worm was my first thought.
One of my favourite soup recipes includes a "spice swirl" that I really like, which is really just spices warmed in oil in a pan. Also, I was reading about a topping of whipped feta cheese. The blog writer used it for pasta, but I think it would be much better on a a vegetable soup. What an ingenious idea.
I like cashews on top of my favorite curried soup. (http://appetiteforconversation.blogspot.com/2009/11/different-take-on-pumpkin.html) I bet pine nuts would taste good on a lot of soups too.