Soup Swap Day

Baby, it’s cold outside, but inside it’s nice and warm – especially when you can enjoy a hearty bowl of delicious, hot soup. Fill up a stockpot, tureen or giant crock because it’s time to celebrate Soup Swap Day!

History of Soup Swap Day

Soups have been part of human history for thousands of years, which makes sense because they are such a delicious and easy way to make a meal out of a wide variety of items that can simmer together into something amazingly tasty.

Today’s soup recipes offer a huge range of different styles, from thin bouillons to thick chowders and everything in between. The featured flavors can be anything from vegetables to seafood, or from meat to beans with a base that is creamy, tomato-y or something else entirely.

And, of course, soup recipes can probably be traced back and found in almost any cultural heritage. Whether it’s an egg drop soup from Chinese cuisine or a minestrone that comes through Italian roots, or traditional Jewish Matzo ball soup, the options are almost endless!

Now, Soup Swap Day is here to allow January cooking to be just a bit more fun. Instead of just making soup for the family and then either freezing or eating the leftovers until they are gone, Soup Swap Day allows for sharing with a neighbor or friend. This gives each household two different kinds of soup to enjoy – even though they only had to make one.

The tradition of swapping soup seems to have started with a man from Seattle, named Knox Gardener, back in the 1990s. He originally just invited a few friends to trade soups and then it became an annual tradition. By the mid-2000s Soup Swap Day gained even more traction and became a national favorite in the US and other places in the world.

Soup Swap Day offers a way to enjoy new flavors and tastes, in a much more efficient and less time-consuming manner. It’s a win for everyone involved!

How to Celebrate Soup Swap Day

Enjoy Soup Swap Day by implementing some clever ideas of your own, or getting started with some of these:

Host a Soup Swap

The perfect way to celebrate Soup Swap Day is to plan ahead and arrange for a soup swap. The simplest way to get started on a small scale is to include just one friend in the invitation and agree ahead of time which soups each person will make. But for something on a larger scale, it’s certainly possible to include several friends or family members so that each household gets several different soups to try.

Try a New Soup Recipe

Have fun learning how to make a new and different kind of soup in honor of Soup Swap Day. Perhaps this means finding a copycat recipe online for a favorite restaurant soup, such as Olive Garden’s Zuppa Toscana, or O’Charley’s famous Loaded Potato Soup. Or maybe this is the time to try an old favorite recipe passed down from grandma, or a new one given recently by a friend. Soup Swap Day is a great time to try new things and have some culinary adventures when it comes to soup.