How To Throw A Cozy Fall Soup Party

Fall Soup Party: The perfect family party idea for fall, lots of decorating ideas, easy menu, and favourite recipes.

Fall is the perfect time to host a soup party.  You can do all the prep ahead of time, it’s warm and hearty on these cooler days, and it can feed a crowd.  On the weekend, we had about 25 friends from church over for a simple lunch of soup and bread.  We made all the soups from scratch.  Homemade soup will feel like a treat to your guests.  Nice fresh bread with butter is also such a crowd pleaser.  This simple lunch was such a hit with all our guests and the whole afternoon was so much fun.

The Soups

I wanted to offer a variety of soups, so our guests could try a few.  We wanted to offer a variety of different ones, so hopefully everyone could find something they liked.  We did two creamy soups, and two broth based soups.  Two of our soups also had meat in them and were more hearty.  We didn’t have any dietary restrictions to worry about, which made it easier.

We made:

• cream of mushroom soup
• roasted garlic and potato soup
• chicken noodle soup
• Italian sausage and tortellini soup

On Saturday afternoon, my husband and I made four different homemade soups.  For several of them we made a double batch.  First we made Cream of Mushroom –see our recipe here.  This was my favourite. Make it veggie, if you need to by replacing the chicken stock with veggie stock.  This creamy soup has a fairly mild taste.  Making it homemade makes it extra special.  

Next we made a Tangy Roasted Garlic and Potato Soup, it gets its tang from the buttermilk, can also easily be made veggie.  This is another creamy soup, but a little different from usual with it’s tangy taste from the buttermilk.

Next, I made a classic chicken noodle, always a hit with the kids.  It was nice to have something kind of basic for those who are a little less adventurous.

Lastly we made Italian Sausage and Tortellini, and it was probably the most popular soup.  It’s nice and hearty with the tortellini in it, and has a great mix of meat and veggies with a tomato broth base.  One tip with this one though, don’t add the tortellini until you reheat it to serve.  The pasta can get a little overdone and mushy if it’s added the night before.

Chalkboard Bunting Signs

We set everything up in the backyard, starting with the soup table.  Love these chalkboard buntings, they’re so handy since they can be changed for any party.  I also used one on the drink stand.

Drinks

If you follow me on Instagram, you’d know that I”ve been looking for one of these little carts for a while and I finally found this one on kijiji.  Here it is dressed up for the party, with the drinks banner, a bucket of ice water, and another of drinking boxes for the kids.  Up on top, a simple fall punch of peach juice, white cranberry, and ginger ale.  Apple cider would be a great choice too.

I love these sweet fall leaf paper straws and flowers in mason jars.  Love is in the details.

Easy Fall Decor

Most of us sat under the pergola, I added an easy centrepiece of garden orbs.

The garden orbs are dressed for fall by adding a few fall ribbons.  I love how simple and pretty it turned out.

We also added some more of my pine cone garland on the pergola, just like I did up on the deck earlier.

See more details of how I decorated the deck for fall here.

The deck stairs certainly make great extra seating for a party.

Buffet Style Soup Bar

After church, we stopped at the bakery and picked up lots of fresh bread, then came home to re-heat the soup before our guests arrived.  We served the soup in the large pots we made it in.  A slow cooker for each soup would have worked really well too.

I used little chalkboards to label all the soups, which worked really well so our guests could see exactly what kind of soups they were.

We had so much delicious soup, and we needed a separate table for all the bread!  It worked out well this way for traffic flow too, so I recommend this if you’re hosting your own soup party.  We used soup bowls from our regular set.  If you don’t have enough though, feel free to mix and match small bowls from the thrift store, pick up some inexpensive white ones from the dollar store, or use disposable dishes.  

We served the soup in each large saucepan or dutch ovens we made them in.  It was casual comfort food, and our serving style was casual too.  A crock pot would work well for this too, and have the added bonus that you could leave it plugged in on a low heat to keep the soup nice and warm throughout the party.  And don’t forget you’ll need a large ladle for serving each soup too.  If you don’t have enough be sure to pick up some extras so serving is easy.  It might be nice to have some salt and a black pepper on the table too, for guests who might want to add a little more to their soup.

This menu worked out really well too.  Lots of people tried a bit of everything, and everyone could help themselves to as much as they wanted.  I was able to freeze the leftovers the next day too. I was tempted to add a veggie tray and salad and cheese and crackers as side dish options, but really there were lots of veggies in the soup main course, and everyone loved that all the different soups were homemade, so I’m glad we spent our energy on them and resisted the temptation to add other options.  

The store-bought fresh bread was the perfect, easy accompaniment.  We bought four different kinds of bread plus different buns.  It’s nice to have a mix of things like sourdough, whole wheat, white, cheddar and herb.  Again lots of our guests went back and tried lots of different kinds of the bread too.  We left the loaves whole, and put out a cutting board and bread knife for guests to help themselves, but it might have been easier for serving if we had asked the bakery to slice them.

Dessert

For dessert, my husband made two big pans of apple crisp -see our recipe here, and we served it with vanilla ice cream. Yum!  It was the perfect way to finish a fall meal since apples are so perfect this time of year.

Soup Party Tips

• Do offer different options, having some creamy, some with meat, and some with broth so that guests have some options.
• Do space things out enough so that the line isn’t too congested and slow.  Have one area for soup, another for bread, and another for drinks.
• Do think through options for kids who might not be soup fans, maybe check with their parents before the party, and have some pb and j on stand by.
• Do give yourself enough time to re-heat the soup.  This took a little longer than we expected because the soups were quite cold from being in the fridge overnight and were in such big pots.
• ?Do make sure you have enough ladles to have one per pot of soup.
• Do use your crock pots for serving, if you have enough, or consider borrowing some for the party, to keep the soup warm the whole time.
• Do have extra containers to send leftovers home with guests, or to put in the freezer after the party.
• Don’t worry about having lots of side dishes, the simplicity of soup and bread is perfect.
• Do keep dessert simple after making all those homemade soups.

It was a great menu for a get-together of this size, since it could all be made ahead of time, and was easy to have guests help themselves too.  A fun buffet is one of my favorite ways to host a crowd, and soup parties are so perfect for the fall and winter especially.  Lots of guests thought the best part was getting to try all the different soups and breads.

This would also be great as a potluck party.  Have guests each bring their different types of soup.  You could even have a friendly competition and have everyone vote for their favorite soup recipes at the end of the night.  A simple soup buffet is such a great idea for your next party.  Try it for a ladies luncheons, football games, souper bowl, a fun dinner party, soup club, or potluck luncheon.

With a fun fall soup party like this, life really is a party!

More Soup Inspiration

You might also like our Homemade Tomato Soup and Grilled Cheese here.

Also check out Broccoli Cheddar Soup here.

You might also enjoy our Tortellini and Italian Sausage Soup here.