Five Festive Soup Recipes for Rosh Hashanah Dinner

As the Jewish New Year approaches, a warm and comforting soup is considered an essential starter for the festive meal, even amidst warm weather. This collection offers five rich and flavorful soup recipes designed to impress guests from the first spoonful.

The first recipe is for a pareve French onion soup, featuring caramelized yellow onions, beef broth, thyme, and bay leaves, served with toasted baguette and optional Gruyere cheese for a dairy version. It requires about 20 minutes of preparation and 1 hour and 15 minutes of cooking.

Next is a creamy chestnut and mushroom soup, made with cooked chestnuts, a mix of mushrooms, onion, garlic, potato, and vegetable broth, pureed until smooth and seasoned with nutmeg. This soup takes 15 minutes to prepare and 40 minutes to cook. A dairy variation can be made by adding cooking cream.

A festive chicken soup with root vegetables is also presented, using chicken legs or thighs, carrots, celery, onion, parsnip, zucchini, potato, garlic, parsley, dill, bay leaves, and allspice, simmered for about two hours. The strained broth is returned to the pot with desired vegetables and shredded chicken.

The fourth recipe is for a celebratory pumpkin soup with apples, honey, and thyme. Cubed pumpkin, sweet apples, onion, and carrots are roasted with olive oil, honey, cinnamon, salt, and pepper before being simmered with vegetable broth and thyme, then pureed. This dish takes 15 minutes to prep and 50 minutes to cook.

Finally, a potato, leek, and roasted garlic soup is included. It involves roasting a head of garlic until soft, then sautéing leeks before simmering with cubed potatoes, vegetable broth, and thyme. The roasted garlic is added, and the mixture is pureed. This soup requires 20 minutes of preparation and 50 minutes of cooking, with options for a dairy version using cooking cream or Parmesan cheese.