The Soup Club Cookbook Review + Giveaway

*Disclosure of material connection- I receive a copy of the book from the publisher via Blogging for Books in exchange for my honest thoughts. I was not required to write a postive review and all opinions stated are 100% my own

About the book-

Food-sharing is the hot new thing in the "getting dinner on the table" conversation, and in The Soup Club Cookbook, four busy moms share not only their formula for starting a soup club--which gives you at least three meals every month when you don't have to worry about dinner--but also 150 fantastic recipes for soups and sides and storing tips for stretching those meals across the week.
 
The Soup Club began when four friends (who, between them, have four husbands and ten hungry kids and several jobs) realized that they didn’t actually have to cook at home every night to take pleasure in a home-cooked meal. They simply had to join forces and share meals, even if they weren’t actually eating them together. Caroline, Courtney, Julie, and Tina happen to be neighbors, but a soup club is for anyone: colleagues, a group of workout buddies, a book club. All you need are a few people who simply want to have more home-cooked food in their lives.

In a soup club each person takes a turn making soup—and sometimes other dishes for sides or for when everyone needs a break from soup, so if a club has four people, in a month each person will have dinner delivered three times—a dish that can start as a full meal and stretch into more dinners or lunches or even morph into a sauce. Soup is forgiving, versatile, and perfect for sharing; it can be spiced to taste, topped elaborately or not at all, and dressed up or down. It travels well and reheats beautifully.  The Soup Club Cookbook also has dozens of tips for cooking in quantity and for tailoring soup to individual tastes and needs. Here, too, are simple guidelines for starting your own soup club, anecdotes, and a few cautionary tales  that will inspire anyone to share food and eat well. 
 
Recipes include quick and easies, classics, twist on favorites, and dozens of flavor-rich new crowd pleasers:  

   • Carrot Coconut and Chicken Chili, 
   • Senegalese Peanut Soup 
   • Faux Ramen 
   • Red Lentil Curry Soup 
   • Potato Cheddar Soup 
   • Sun Dried Tomato Soup 
   • Jeweled Rice Salad 
   • Cheddar Cornbread, 
   • Summer Corn Hash 
   • Soy Simmered Chicken Wings


My thoughts-

Some friends and I decided a few months ago that it would be fun to host a soup exchange. None of us have ever  done it and we really don't know what we are doing so I was excite to see there was a book out there like The Soup Club Cookbook. I thought it would be a great book to reference for our soup exchange coming up in a few weeks. As I began reading the book, I knew it would be so much more than what I thought. The idea that this group of friends had was to have a soup CLUB. What that entails in this case is four friends who takes turns making soup for the other three. There are 4 weeks in a month, so each friend has a designated week (just one day of that week) where they are in charge of making and delivering the soup! This means three times a month that each of these ladies get a break from cooking but still get a great home cooked meal. I think this is a genius idea! I don't know what it is these day (I probably sound like an old geezer, but I am only in my early 30's...I was just born into the wrong time period, I guess) but it seems like everyone is so wrapped up in their own worlds that they never take the time to connect with others...maybe on these 3 days these ladies can do the connecting that is so desperately absent from present day American society...a. with their friend who delivers the soup and b. with their family since they won't have to make dinner those nights. The Soup Club Cookbook really got me thinking about this whole food exchange idea and I would like to offer another suggestion- each month rotate the type of food you are making. For example: in January each week someone makes the soup, in February maybe each person makes a casserole, in March perhaps the focus is on chicken, ect. I would also suggest having a potluck get together once  month with all four families or perhaps a tea time for just the ladies of the group! I absolutely love the idea of a food exchange between friends! There are some great soup recipes in the book (which is mostly a cookbook) that would be helpful to get your own soup club started. There is also a nice section at the beginning of the book explaining exactly how the ladies run their soup exchange. Even if you don't have any interest in the club part, there are so many soup recipes here, that this is a book worthy to be added to your cookbook collection.

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