Time for a Food Swap Party: Here's How to Do It Right
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As temps plummet into single-digit territory, there’s no doubt about it: It’s perfect soup weather. Celebrate National Soup Month by thawing out with a steaming bowl—and make enough to go around. Sure, polar vortex conditions can make even the most extroverted people want to curl up under a cozy throw and wait for spring: But they’re missing a chance to beat the winter blues and build community around a bowl of soup.
Maggie Stuckey has talked with soup slurpers all over the country, in cities such as New York, Chicago, Houston, Denver, Seattle, and Portland. She spoke with a husband/wife duo in Brooklyn and a group of widows in the Pacific Northwest. Some belong to church groups; others live on the same block of high-rise apartments. The common thread: All of them get together on a regular basis to bond over pots of stew.
Stuckey, the author of Soup Night: Recipes for Creating Community Around a Pot of Soup (Storey, $20), says that digging into a pizza wouldn’t be quite the same. She think there’s something to that adage about soup being good for the soul.
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Slurping a warm bowl of soup puts people at ease. “People lean forward over the table and put both hands around the bowl and smell the soup and get the steam on their glasses—and then something wonderful comes over their face,” says Stuckey. She believes that a hearty bowl of chicken noodle or her fave, African peanut stew, embodies some of the feelings that people crave: It delivers warmth and comfort, without any fussiness or pretension. You can toss in pantry staples you have on hand, or bags of icy veggies crusted with freezer burn. Anything goes, and everyone is welcome.
It’s perhaps unsurprising that Stuckey found the most soup nights in big cities, full of transplants uprooted from other places. Sofia Gans, a graduate student in New York City by way of Michigan, found a sense of comfort and community in weekly potluck meals with people who would eventually become close friends. “The core was a group of people I went to college with but hadn’t been particularly close to. Those gatherings felt like a club I belonged to where I could find social interaction and support without needing to plan for it,” she says. “They were a huge part of what me feel ok about being in New York.”
Stuckey says that after people start soup nights, she often hears this refrain: “What we have now is like a little small town in the middle of a great big city.” She believes it to be true. “That’s what happens when you break bread with someone,” she says. “All kinds of good things are possible.”
Want to start a soup night of your own? Here’s what Maggie recommends:
- Invite people face-to-face. Create a connection from the get-go by introducing yourself to neighbors. This will leave a more lasting impression than an evite.
- No RSVPs necessary. To keep it casual, as opposed to feeling like a sit-down dinner party, allow guests to arrive late or leave early. (Made too much soup? Luckily, leftovers freeze well!)
- Craft a menu. Plan to serve at least one option for vegetarians, and set out some bread and cheese to round out the meal. (People may opt to bring something to share, but don’t necessarily expect it to turn into a potluck.)
- Repeat. Consistency is key to building a community. Pick a night—Stuckey says that Sunday evenings seem to work well—and stick with it.
- BYOS. That’s “bring your own spoon.” Ask guests to come toting their own bowl and spoon—it’ll cut way down on your cleanup work!
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