Fall Soup and Salad Menu

I don’t know about you, but once September hits I’m thinking about cozy foods and homey, satisfying dinners. Which makes this a great time to feature a soup and salad menu! This month’s fall menu has three of my homey, comforting soups, each paired with a great and tangy salad to make for a weeknight meal perfect for those chilly nights to come.

As I was thinking about what menu I should put together for September, my mind kept going back to soup. It was a chilly, overcast day, what can I say? 🙂 Until finally I thought, why not go with it? And so I pulled out three soups and three salads, each perfect for cooler weather, to make this soup and salad menu.

– Happy Cozy, Fall Eating, Annemarie

Slow Cooker Potato Leek Soup and Winter Romaine Salad

While slow cookers are great for recipes all through the year (not heating up the house in the summer FTW!), I only want to make thick, hot soups like this Slow Cooker Potato Leek Soup once the weather starts getting colder. When there is a chill in the air, potato soup is a great way to warm up from the inside out.

And definitely try my fried croutons! They are completely awesome, add a needed crunch to the soup, and are tasty enough that they feature in two recipes in this set of menus. 🙂

Along with it, for this soup and salad menu, I chose my Winter Romaine Salad. The cool greens of the romaine and avocado provide a lovely, visual contrast to the white soup and romaine is a lettuce which stays fresh and crisp even in the middle of winter.

Pasta e Fagioli and Homemade Caesar Salad

Pasta e Fagioli Soup, or Italian Pasta and Bean Soup, is serious Italian comfort food. Every Italian family that I know of has a version of this soup, which they hand down from parent to child. Mine is lighter on the tomatoes than my mom’s and has some pancetta in it, something we couldn’t find in the market growing up, but it evokes the same cozy, happy feelings as her soup always did.

But you don’t need an Italian mom or grandma making you Pasta e Fagioli to enjoy this soup! This is comfort food for anyone who loves creamy beans, little pasta tubes, and diced tomatoes all nestled in a thick, rich broth.

Hungry yet?

I hope so, because the soup and my Homemade Caesar Salad are calling your name. The salad features the same fried croutons I used in the potato soup above, along with shaved Parmesan cheese, and the caesar salad dressing I’ve perfected over the years, until I had the right balance of all the flavors.

Should I also mention that if you want my daughter to clean her plate (which not an usual occurrence), this is the menu to make?

Slow Cooker Potato Leek Soup and Winter Romaine Salad

My last pairing in this soup and salad menu features my Roasted Tomato Soup. This is a soup I’ve enjoyed at one of my favorite, local restaurants and loved it so much that I had to find a way to make it at home and make it with canned tomatoes. Because having this soup only in August is not often enough! The key here is to use organic, fire-roasted tomatoes. They have the depth of flavor you need for this soup.

And then, of course, for all the adults in the family, that wine soaked crouton?

Totally awesome! 🙂 The thick, tomato soup with the fruity, red wine is such a great combo.

To go with the tomato soup, I decided on a great, fall salad – my Blue Cheese and Brussels Sprouts Salad. Brussels sprouts are just coming into season and they’ll be great all winter long. Sear them up, pair them with blue cheese (I love my local brand, Great Hill Blue) and dried cranberries, and you have some wonderful New England comfort food to go with the comforting Italian tomato soup! I think this menu might just be a perfect example of my culinary point of view.

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