Seasonal fare augments sales, and this summer is no exception. From hearty, traditional gazpacho to dessert soups like melon soup, adding chilled soups to your menu helps your customers stay cool. Adjusting cold soup recipes to reflect the style of your cuisine, coupled with smart advertising, will give your restaurant extra appeal. Chilled soups also tend to yield a substantial profit margin. You can heat up your sales without heating up your aluminum stock pot.

The Three Coolest Soups : Vichyssoise, Gazpacho, and Cucumber Soup

Traditional cold soups such as gazpacho, vichyssoise, and cucumber soup sell because they offer both novelty and familiarity. All three are also quite versatile, so you can adapt them to fit your menu and make them truly your own. Gazpacho can stay in its traditional form with minor ingredient variations to set you apart from other restaurants, or you can try using blanched almonds to make a white gazpacho. Other versions of this most famous of chilled soups include green and Asian gazpacho. Experiment with different vegetable combinations until you achieve the perfect vichyssoise. You may also want to replace the cream with silken tofu to score nutritional points while maintaining a smooth consistency. Cucumber soup boasts great adaptability as well, since cucumbers go well with such a wide variety of seasonings and other ingredients such as mint. As with any cold soup, remember that seasonings need to be especially heavy in order to avoid a bland result. Round out your menu with a European cherry and sour cream soup, being sure to whisk well to avoid clotting. Cherry soup, along with chilled melon soup, works equally well as an appetizer or a dessert.

Marketing Your Chilled Soups

When advertising cold soups, play up the angle of nutritional value. Many of these soups consist almost solely of vegetables or fruits. Take advantage of the colorful presentation that naturally occurs when making cold soup, and display pictures on your menu. Utilize attractive garnishes and swirls. Feature a chilled soup du jour on a display board outside of your restaurant. Menu card holders on each table can also prompt customers to order seasonal items like these soups. Come up with catchy slogans to market particular soups, especially if one of the ingredients is a specialty of your area. Most of all, remind your clients of the cooling effect cold soups give during blazing heat waves.

Using just a few pieces of professional kitchen equipment, a variety of simple ingredients and seasonings, and some savvy advertising, your restaurant can sell impressive quantities of seasonal cold soups. Be sure to put your own twist on each soup that you serve, and offer at least two or three different kinds of chilled soups to suit different customers’ tastes. Carry at least one soup that works as a main course and at least one to use as either an appetizer or dessert, and watch your customers enjoy the refreshing coolness of your chilled specialties.

Filed under: How-To • General • Resource Central • Recipes

Tags: chilled soups, cold soup, commercial kitchen equipment, cucumber soup, gazpacho, vichyssoise