Is my husband right to be embarrassed when I serve soup for lunch to guests

I don’t mind eating soup for lunch if it is only us but I don’t think is appropriate if you have invited someone for lunch unless you use it as a starter.

People tend to make more effort when inviting people in.

It more depends on the ingredients-I make a very hearty soup, using meat and/or pulses, so there’s a lot of protein, which is what keeps you feeling full- it’s a meal in a bowl. If you just use veg with no protein, then it’ll satisfy you for about 5 minutes

Lunch fine, dinner not

Homemade soup and nice bread, followed by a pudding? I'd love this.

However, I'm not a big eater, and my favourite courses are starters and desserts, so I might not be the average dinner guest.

I especially like that people could have a smaller portion of soup or have seconds etc so they could eat the right amount to fill themselves up.

I think the majority of people would see soup + dessert as a lunch thing rather than a dinner thing, but I would happily disagree with them and consume their soup.

Seems fine as an informal lunch when people are over, especially if home made and with nice bread.

Agree.
It's very ordinary, I have soup as a quick work lunch.
Bit dull to be served it if you went out for lunch and an absolute no no for dinner as the main.

For a lunch, a homemade soup, with bread would be lovely. But for a dinner I would be a bit "huh", and thinking about what I've got in the fridge at home.

Lovely for a light lunch.
But if I was served soup for dinner, I'd take a small portion as I would be expecting a meat/fish course to follow.

I think he just volunteered to cook for all guests from now on.

Hone made soup with home made bread is the type of lunch my friends normally get.

This week it was curried parsnip as the fridge was full of parsnips. On Weds they’ll be getting Turkish Lentil soup.

I don't think even the greediest guest would manage a whole goat head.

@dew141 it sounds amazing! Years ago in a previous job we had a staff canteen with a brilliant chef. He would make a vat of homemade soup every morning and my absolute favourite was his white onion soup, so creamy and velvety. If mine is half as good I will be happy!

Flashbacks of the Seinfeld episode where Jerry & Elaine can't decide if soup counts as a meal when you take someone out for lunch 🤔

Homemade soup is fine when having people round for lunch with nice bread. Then maybe a nice homemade cake. But not really for dinner.

I would be delighted to have hearty, home made soup for lunch with French bread or rolls and something nice for pudding. I used to make gorgeous soup that was very filling.

My kids would hate it, I would love it. But like the others have said, yes for lunch, but not for dinner. But tbh I wouldn't say anything as I would be grateful someone else had gone to such effort.
It sounds lovely.

@Fairislefandango i don’t think op is a chef.

No, and I'm sure you don't think I was suggesting she was. The point I was making was that serving homemade soup does not necessarily suggest a lack of confidence in the kitchen. Confident cooks also make and serve soup.

Lovely. I would eat soup with or without bread and cheese every day, every meal. Delicious.

People feel very attached to a feeling of satiation rather than whether a meal is calorifically sufficient, though. This is a tough nut to crack for many.

As for having expectations of what a host is supposed to serve when being invited to someone's home for a meal feels quite rude to me. It is a gift of their time, energy and company.

For just me and dh in winter I quite often make a very substantial, thick (non blended) soup for an evening meal. Typically it will contain lots of different veg plus one or more of red lentils/pearl barley/small pasta e.g.orzo. Always served with grated cheese.
Dh loves these soups but I wouldn’t serve them to guests unless they were unexpected and I didn’t have anything else.

For a light lunch I would serve it but definitely I wouldn’t serve it for a dinner if I invited guests , no matter how chunky or filling . I would serve it as an entree .

If I invited someone over for lunch I wouldn’t serve soup. As they’ve been invited for that meal, I’d want to serve something more substantial and special. I wouldn’t even note if someone else had invited me over for lunch and served soup though.

If I invited someone over for dinner, then soup would only be a starter or side dish. Even the heartiest soups aren’t dinner part foods, and I often eat more lightly on days I’m going to a dinner party in anticipation of more rich foods. I’d be pretty disappointed to just have a bowl of soup and some bread as a dinner guest.

If I had guests over for a weekend, I would happily serve soup as the lighter meal of the day. But not as dinner as it would be similar to the above situation.

And my view on how hearty and filling a soup is, is that there’s a reason that soup is widely seen as diet food. Soups like vegetable and lentil and minestrone, which the OP mentioned are hearty in the way they feel nourishing and warming, but a lot of that is high volumes of liquid and vegetables. It’s filling in the moment, but it’s not a very substantial meal. Looking at two recipes I’ve found on the internet for soup, the minestrone soup has 225 kcal per serving and a vegetable and lentil soup has 264 kcal. That’s not a lot, even with bread. There’s also the fact that a bowl of soup is largely the same flavours and textures throughout, so even if you increase the serving size, people are likely to get bored with the dish before they are truly satisfied so eat just enough to take the edge off their hunger.

I doubt it’s enough for someone taller/ larger.

If course it would be. Some soups are extremely filling, and served with crusty bread and cheese it would fill anyone up if they ate enough. We aren't talking about consome and one thin slice of bread here.

I think some posters on this thread have never eaten a large bowl of thick, substantial soup before.

Love soup for lunch, a firm favourite in this house is tomato soup with a cheese toastie. I'm just always really grateful when someone cooks for me so would be very happy with that, and a nice pudding too - delicious.

Soup is ok as a starter but I wouldn't specifically invite folk for lunch and just give them soup. It would be fine if they just happened to be here at lunchtime though.

Bloody lovely I say!!! My mother in law makes a wicked soup!!!