Soup Garnish Ideas...

this is something that am finding myself to be stuck on ... to find different ideas for making garnishes for soups

i'd like them to be more interesting than just plain croutons or sprinklings of chopped fresh herbs and something to make the soup more interesting and presentable in favour of impression


for certain vegetable soups i like to make deep fried garnishes of vegetables in batter for example i would take little florets of broccoli/cauliflower and dip them in a batter of (soda water, self raising flower, seasoning, and some chopped herbs such as parsley to add some colour), deep fry them individually and use them to garnish the soup with, the good thing about the batter is that it enables the florets to float on top of the soup without sinking. even deep fried diced vegetables such as Carrots, parsnips, Celariac will be good too.

have thought about maybe using a Chiffonade of leafy vegetables such as Cabbage or lettuce; or crispy deep fried Julienne of leek; or fried matchstick root vegetables in battered clumps, or like game chips without batter

mini cheese scones is also another idea i came across to go with onion soup i think it was; also mini horseradish dumplings for a similar soup recipe.

yesterday made some awesome little choux buns with tomato puree and fresh chopped basil to go with a tomato soup i made... basically i made the choux paste as normal but before adding the eggs i mixed in a tablespoon of pureed tomatoes and fresh chopped basil.

egg royal i made recently to garnish a julienne consomme, which consisted of equal quantities of egg and milk beaten seasoned and strained then baked in dario mulds in a bain marie, left to cool and then diced into cubes.

would like to try a vegetable fritter garnish cooked like a pancake and then chopped into shapes diced or rounds


just a few ideas

 

Koukouvagia - have you tried Sweetcorn, Red Pepper, and Basil Soup ... as a Broth it looks good with the contrasting colours of the yellow corn, diced red pepper, and green basil leaves to garnish. 

other fried herbs/leaves would work well as garnishes for other soups too such as deep fried curly parsley, basil, sage, maybe mint and some other herbs too.

also wonton as Teamfat mentioned, i like the idea of a Popcorn garnish too.

some great ideas there Petals a whole chapter full plus soup recipes too thank you for the link.

KYH - i imagine some lightly toasted pumpkin or butternut squash seeds would compliment a pumpkin soup very nicely. 

apart from seeds how about lightly toasted flaked almonds, chopped pecans, or sprinkled ground pine nuts .. all of which should float well on top of soup if you can find a soup to which they would compliment ...   

yes mgchef, i have mentioned crisps previously but a whole parma ham crisp or pancetta crisp sinks right into soup which doesn't befit it much as a garnish and usually serves better being on the side. maybe if the crisps were broken into small pieces and then sprinkled on top mixed through with some herbs as well, such as crispy lardons of ham with mint for Puree of Pea soup.