Thanksgiving appetizers should not fill your guests up; they should simply whet the appetite. You want guests to save room for the all-important turkey and trimmings, but you will want to show off your culinary skills by serving a few items before the turkey makes its appearance.
To do this correctly, it's best to monitor how much food gets put on the table and when it appears. The types of food that should be served as appetizers should be foods that are not filling, such as soup and vegetables. But even when you serve non-filling foods, guests may still become full before the main course is delivered if they indulge themselves. To keep your guests from filling up on appetizers, limit them to small portions, preferably in individual dishes.
Creating and Serving Thanksgiving Appetizers
Your guests are expecting a feast, so don't scrimp on appetizers. Just don't overdo it with the first course. Instead of serving a whole bowl of soup, serve only a cupful to each guest.
Foods used as Thanksgiving appetizers should reflect the theme of the fall harvest. Serve squash, potatoes, corn and candied carrots as part of the meal. If you're serving mashed potatoes, you may wish to use sweet potatoes instead of regular white potatoes, or you may want to serve both. For soup, prepare a rich, golden-squash soup that exemplifies autumn.
Squashed Apple Soup
Ingredients:
Wash the squash and apples, peel them and remove the seeds. Chop the squash and apples into small pieces and dump them into a large, heavy kettle. Add the broth and water. Stir until warm, then add the remaining ingredients, except the heavy cream and parsley. Bring the soup to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for about 30 minutes or until the squash and apples are tender.
Use a food processor to blend two cups of soup at a time until the whole pot of soup is smooth and creamy. Fifteen minutes before serving, bring the soup to a boil again. Reduce the heat and pour in the heavy cream. Heat until just about to boil, stirring constantly. Garnish with fresh parsley sprigs. Serve immediately.
Garlic-Drenched Sweet Potato Soup
Ingredients:
Pour one tablespoon of olive oil into a skillet. Sautee the garlic for one to two minutes, then add the green onions and sweet potato chunks. Continue sautéeing for about eight minutes, allowing the potatoes to get a crisp outer shell on them before you add the broth.
Remove the green peas from the freezer. Pour them into a strainer and set them in hot water. Reduce the heat and simmer, covered, for about 10 minutes.
Process the asparagus in a food processor. Remove the green peas from the water and test to make sure they are no longer frozen. Squeeze out the garlic and add it to the asparagus. Minutes before you serve the soup, add the asparagus and heavy cream to the soup and heat thoroughly. Pour the soup into cups and sprinkle with green peas. Serve at once.
If you are not partial to garlic, simply omit it from the dish. Garlic gives the dish most of its flavor. If you omit the garlic, you'll probably want to replace it with about ½ teaspoon sea salt and a little cardamom.
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