Soup's On! Don't Miss the 2023 Souper Bowl in Santa Fe

It's soup weather and the SOUPER Bowl is back! Join the fun in Santa Fe, NM this weekend on 1/28/23 from noon to 2:30 pm. We had such a blast last time!

Will Jambo Cafe's Ginger Coconut Parsnip with Roasted Sweet Corn soup make another appearance? How about the Chilled Chocolate Cherry Soup with Espelette Chile Pepper, Almond Nougatine, and Lavender Cream soup from L'Olivier?

Uh oh, this post is making me hungry!

Don't just take my word for it. Scroll for photos from the 26th annual Souper Bowl. And hurry - 2023 VIP tickets have already sold out!

TICKETS: https://thefooddepot.org/souper-bowl-2023/

Thank you for supporting The Food Depot, Northern New Mexico’s food bank.

Souper Bowl in Santa Fe, NM

Instant Pot soup recipe at the end of this post.

Sexy Nerd and I had a great time for a great cause at The Food Depot's 26th annual Souper Bowl fundraiser.

We don't live in Santa Fe and you-know-who tried to skip the long drive to the Souper Bowl about 30 minutes before we needed to leave the house. "We can make soup here," he reasoned. "Let's just stay home."

Now? He insists he never said that and he has been telling everyone they need to attend the Souper Bowl next year because it is the best time ever.

Although none of the soups we were expecting made an appearance - tomato, chicken noodle, posole - traditional favorites were replaced with Chicken & Andouille Sausage Gumbo (Rowley Farmhouse Ales), Spiced Thai Coconut Potato Soup (Kingston Residence of Santa Fe), and Moroccan Veggie Stew (La Montanita Co-Op). Not a bad trade!

Cafe Mimosa was even serving Shorba...and patiently explaining to every patron (us included) that Shorba is an Arabic lentil soup.

Souper Bowl 2020 - Winners*

Best Overall Soup: Chocolate Cherry Espelette Pepper (L’Olivier)

Best Vegetarian Soup: Ginger Coconut Parsnip with Roasted Sweet Corn (Jambo Cafe)

Best Cream Soup: Green Chile Chicken Chowder (Del Charro at Inn of the Governors)

Best Seafood Soup: Avocado Gazpacho with Seared Scallops, Chile Dusted Tortilla Strips, and Jicama Relish (Santa Fe School of Cooking)

Best Savory Soup: Winter Squash Soup with Mole Spiced Onions, Pumpkin Seeds, and Granny Smith Apple (AGAVE Restaurant & Lounge)

*The real winners are the hungry New Mexicans who will receive meals because of the generosity of Souper Bowl attendees and The Food Depot volunteers. For every $1 raised, 4 meals are provided.

**Oh, and the attendees are winners too because damn, that was some good soup!

Best Overall and winner of the coveted Souper Bowl trophy, L'Olivier provided a unique option for the sweet tooths in the crowd. Judging by the popularity of What The Truck's dessert table, there were a lot of us!

Chilled Chocolate Cherry Soup with Espelette Chile Pepper, Almond Nougatine, and Lavender Cream - tastes like melted ice cream (and the Chocolate Red Chile Soup in Taos Ski Valley) and I ate more than is pictured here.

Local beer was available for purchase and guests were encouraged to help themselves to a cup of Patrick's Probiotic Soda Water.

To my surprise and delight, Starbucks had a booth with 100% FREE STARBUCKS! I'd already been concerned that 24 soups would leave me a little...overhydrated...but how do you say no to free Starbucks coffee? They even had my favorite drink, Passion Iced Tea.

Chef Nou Kimnath of Nath’s Inspired Khmer Cuisine prepared a flavorful green curry I thought would surely win her the Souper Bowl trophy for the third year in a row.

The Cream of Jalapeno with Latin-Seared Shrimp from Market Street was my top pick. I don't even like shrimp - it was that good! Also, what makes a shrimp "Latin-seared"?

Cold Potato and Leek Soup from Violet Crown

The friendly instructors at the Santa Fe School of Cooking created individual cups of Avocado Gazpacho while encouraging diners to enroll in a class. Maybe our cooking school adventures will be the topic of a future blog post.

Sexy Nerd just said no. C'mon, it will be fun!

Apple Butternut Squash Soup from Amaya at Hotel Santa Fe

Café Bon Appétit at the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) and the Santa Fe Opera made a creamy Green Chile Chicken soup. The best part was that each portion included a homemade biscuit, artfully attached to the edge of each little cup.

Misir Wot from Vinaigrette

Winter Squash Soup from AGAVE Restaurant and Lounge, featuring mole-spiced onions

Jambo Cafe is well known in NM for their African-Caribbean fusion food. Chef and owner Ahmed Obo did not disappoint with his Ginger Coconut Parsnip soup, which tasted even better than it looked. And it looked pretty good!

In addition to winning the Vegetarian category, Chef Obo was awarded for having the best decorated table.

Peach Mango Gazpacho from El Castillo Life Plan Community

Colorfully rimmed with chile and lime, these were described as soup margaritas. Cheers!

The volunteers from The Food Depot did a great job keeping everyone entertained, even revealing with a loud WOOOO from the crowd that most foodies in attendance were rooting for the 49ers in the upcoming Super Bowl.

Womp womp.

Volunteers also explained that some of the proceeds to The Food Depot are used to provide food for pets. They hadn't originally planned to do this, but realized that seniors were going hungry because they were giving what little food they had to their dogs and cats.

In addition to the privilege of being able to enjoy so many gourmet soups, we loved sharing in the enthusiasm of the chefs and the guests. What a happy place to spend our Saturday!

Cream of Broccoli - Instant Pot Soup Recipe

All this talk of soup, soup, and more soup had me craving, you guessed it, soup while writing this blog post. The best part of my Cream of Broccoli Soup recipe is that it sneaks in a healthy serving of extra veggies. Actually, the best best part is that it is the quickest, easiest soup recipe ever.

Wait. The best, best, best part is that it's delicious! Watch out, L'Olivier.

Cream of Broccoli Soup - Instant Pot Recipe

Serves 4

1 Can of Campbell's Cream of Chicken Soup (+ 1 Can of Water)
1 Package of Frozen Broccoli (16 ounce)
2 Large Handfuls of Fresh Spinach
1 Large Handful of Fresh Arugula
1/2 Cup Shredded Cheddar Cheese
1 Tbsp Dried Onion
1 tsp Garlic Powder
1/2 tsp Black Pepper
Chili Oil (optional)

Add all of the ingredients except the chili oil to your Instant Pot in the order listed. There is no need to chop anything or even stir the pot. Set to 7 minutes and end with a quick release. Stir. Garnish each bowl with chili oil.

Cake Mix Pancakes with No Eggs

When making Cake Mix pancakes , the scrumptious possibilities are endless. Red Velvet cake mix pancakes. Chocolate cake mix pancakes. Butter Pecan cake mix pancakes. Funfetti cake mix pancakes. (Yes, Funfetti cake mix pancakes!) With this 2-ingredient recipe, you can turn your favorite cake mix into your favorite pancakes. Pancake making at its finest. Cake Mix Pancakes with No Eggs Personally, I think my funny napkin is the icing on the (pan)cake. It's Sunday morning and you're planning to do all the things today - scrub those grody baseboards, polish your quartz countertop that was supposed to be low maintenance but actually isn't at all, sort through the disaster that is the freezer. While on your superhuman kick, you think I'm going to make my family pancakes for breakfast. Not just any pancakes - the best pancakes ever. I may even serve them as breakfast in bed! You pull out your favorite pancakes pan. Yeah, you're awesome sauce. But oh...

Chemical Peel Before & After

This article has been updated! My new chemical peel post, which includes pricing, Jessner peel before and after photos, product recommendations, and a helpful timeline for scheduling your treatments, is at the bottom. My original Jessner peel post (one of the most popular on my site of all time) is at the beginning. Original Chemical Peel Article Considering a chemical peel? I recently underwent my first Jessner peel and thought I'd share my results, post a Jessner peel review, and answer some frequently asked chemical peel questions. (I'm guessing that "Does a chemical peel hurt?" is a biggie!) I'd been planning to order an over-the-counter peel when we were in Iceland , but my computer led me a different direction. I decided to do this on a whim after Groupon greeted me one morning with a great $40 chemical peel deal. Now, I can read your mind. You just gasped in horror and thought You trusted your face to a discount chemical peel?! You're won...

10 Canned Cinnamon Roll Hacks

You're in for a treat. Today I'm sharing my best canned cinnamon roll hacks and improvements for turning store-bought cinnamon rolls, like the Pillsbury Grands ones or even the store brand, into something special. Dry cinnamon rolls? No thank you. They need to be OOEY and GOOEY. That's just Cinnamon Roll 101. All of these ideas keep Pillsbury canned cinnamon rolls soft, company-worthy, and delicious. These are also great for taking homemade cinnamon rolls up a notch, but what a pain that is. With these better-than-homemade canned cinnamon roll hacks, you'll never bother to bake them from scratch again. Test out some of these ideas tomorrow. Won't it be nice to dig into a mouthwatering cinnamon roll for breakfast? You can't get a better start to your day than that. 10 Canned Cinnamon Roll Hacks No Eggs Needed! Actually, make that 11 easy ways to improve store-bought cinnamon rolls: you can top them with homemade coffee whipped cream . Yum! Nope, make that...

How to Move a Mattress

My site is popular for reviewing memory foam mattresses. With today's bed-in-a-box options lasting much longer than the traditional 7 years of a spring mattress, there's a good chance you'll eventually need to move one. But how? This is how to move a mattress without damaging it - even by yourself! When we were faced with the challenge of moving our beloved Amerisleep AS3 to our new home, it seemed like my readers would enjoy the details. This handy tip should work for any memory foam bed, including Casper, Leesa, and Nectar. I'm happy to report there is an extremely simple way to do it. Apartment and dorm dwellers rejoice! How to Move a Mattress At first, I wasn't sure how to move our king-size mattress down a flight of stairs. It's a problem we've dreaded solving ever since we made the decision to build a new house. The answer? It was right in the back of our truck. Ratchet straps . This solution could also serve as a 'How To' for returning ...

Dental Memes

As the manager of two successful dental offices, my favorite memes are ones I can share with my dentistry dream team. Happy Team = Living the Dream! You don't have to work in dentistry to enjoy these. After all, everyone is a dental patient. You have visited the dentist within at least the year...right? (No guilt if you haven't! I've scheduled patients who haven't seen a dentist since the 1970s. Dentists, dental assistants, dental hygienists, and dental administrators have seen it all. We love this field because we love helping our patients. It's never too late to get back on track!) Funny Memes for Dentists Reminder: National Dentist's Appreciation Day is March 6th! Funny Memes for Dental Hygienists Reminder: National Dental Hygienist Appreciation Week is always the 2nd week of April! Funny Memes for Dental Assistants Reminder: National Dental Assistant Appreciation Week is always the 2nd week of March! Funny Memes for Dental Office Administrators Reminder: Ad...

Window Seat Idea - Dream Home Inspiration of the Day

See it? Waaay at the back of the photo? I like how the window seat extends past the window all the way to the wall. How about you? If that's not your style, how about one of these lovely window seats? I'll seat you, my pretty, and your little dog too. How perfect would this be in a home office? I'd swap out that wimpy rug with a larger one.

Reuzel: Grooming Tonic Industry Review

I'm looking out for you, my bloggy friends. At my last haircut, the hairdresser shared his favorite hair product of all time, REUZEL (which I'd never heard of), with me and I had enough sense to get the details to share with you. He didn't even have a bottle of it to sell me. It was a genuine, honest review. Also, are they still called hairdressers? Is this the equivalent of calling your flight attendant a stewardess? Stylist? Barber? Reuzel Grooming Tonic Review You know those men who have the softest, most perfect hair and it seems so unfair because most men don't even care about their hair? (Or so they say.) I think this is their secret. While you're here, be sure to read my funny haircut story . Geez, I'm awkward. The fact that I was brave enough to ask to take this photo at the salon is proof I love my blog readers. Never heard of it? That's probably because Reuzel Grooming Tonic is marketed toward men. From reading their endless 5-star reviews, men ...

Instant Pot Oatmeal & Quinoa Recipe (Healthy Egg-Free Breakfast)

*Do not add chia seeds - see note at the end of this recipe. In response to my popular Instant Pot Explosion blog post, I've had a few blog readers ask for my oatmeal with quinoa recipe, which is made in the Instant Pot. This seems a bit odd...you guys aren't trying to recreate that gooey mess in your own kitchens, right? My recipe does make delicious, foolproof Instant Pot oatmeal. It's only for patient people though. Whatever you do, do not manually release the pressure valve at the end of the cooking cycle! This recipe is also great in a Crock Pot, though that method takes longer. I like to set the temperature to Low before bed. What a hearty, indulgent breakfast to wake up to! I've been cooking up batches of my Oatmeal with Quinoa for years, long before I'd heard of the Instant Pot, and have even gifted the dry ingredients to health-conscious friends and family, who've suggested I sell this. Shark Tank, here I come! Oatmeal with Quinoa No eggs/...

Hello Fresh Complaints

Hello, my bloggy friends. I have a HelloFresh complaint and believe they are pulling a scam. Yours truly came *this close* to falling for it. Maybe scam is too harsh of a word. Sneaky? You can decide for yourself. The fact that there are so many Hello Fresh complaints online does seem suspicious. My main complaint about Hello Fresh has to do with their promotional rate, which seems like it is set up to be intentionally misleading (more on this below). Despite so many people complaining about being charged more than they thought they'd agreed to, Hello Fresh maintains this as part of their business model and continues to mislead. So it's intentional, right? I do not recommend Hello Fresh. For starters, the service is just ingredients-by-mail with recipes, not meals. You can buy your own ingredients for much less, especially now that most grocery stores conveniently offer pickup and delivery. Excellent recipes are easy to find. Click here for a list of top-rated, reader-favori...

3 Minute Toaster/Convection Oven Smores

These are perfect when you're craving a quick, sugary treat. They work equally well in a toaster oven and a convection oven. Best of all, compared to eating an entire bag of Oreos (something I have never done), they're quite healthy. What's that, you say? You already know how to make s'mores in the toaster oven? Well then, sit back and enjoy the ooey-gooey marshmallowy photos. (And if you're someone who works with me, please keep the "I've seen her polish off an entire bag of Oreo cookies" nonsense to yourself.) Step 1: Put desired amount of graham crackers on a toaster oven/convection oven-safe pan. Looks like it's time to clean this pan, Sexy Nerd Optional 1st step, which is Sexy Nerd's favorite: Spread peanut butter on each graham cracker (I'm not much of a peanut butter fan - WHAT?!? - so I skip this step.) Cover with yummy marshmallows. Top with chocolate chips. Place in the toaster o...

Kitty Deschanel

Search This Blog