Vol au Vents with Campbells Soup or bechamel sauce?

[Travelcrazy]

I am having a dinner party for 10 and to simplify things I thought an easy starter would be Mushroom vol au vents a bit bigger than normal and rectangular.
I think my Mum used to use undiluted soup as the sauce but I am worried about doing this in case they are horrid. Any opinions please?
Also would a garnish of rocket, pear and walnut go with them?
Thanks for any help.

I remember using a tin of mushrooms in a thick cream sauce, & also a similar tin with chicken, in vol-au-vent cases. They were not soups, & used straight from the tins without cooking. I titivated them with a sprinkling of paprika !
I don't know if they're still made.

Yup - it’s horrid by today’s standards. I’d make the sauce.

Make the sauce. Campbells soup of old is not the same as Campbell's soup of today.

Tinned chicken in white sauce was a popular one and you could also get tinned creamed mushrooms. I don’t think condensed soup would work IMO

It was certainly a thing in the 1970s/80s to use condensed soup as a vol-au-vent filling, and maybe OK today if they were part of a buffet or canapés, but I think as a dinner party starter you may need to up the game a little. What about roasted veg with pesto? Maybe sprinkle with some feta cheese and just garnish with a rocket salad. What’s the main course going to be?

I would just do the rocket, pear and walnut plus blue cheese. Giant soup vol au vents don’t sound v nice and will be very filling for a starter.

If you’ve bought a can of the soup recently and know how it tastes and the consistency, go with that.

OMG this has given me flashbacks to working in hospitality and doing this for xmas buffets! Poking the pastry middle bit down and spooning disgusting, gloopy, cold mushroom soup from a massive can in to them 🤢
Don’t do it @Travelcrazy

Don't use cold condensed mushroom soup. It wouldn't take long to make a bechamel based filling for them. But it would be quicker to use the puff pastry to make a tart or tartlets that you just cook and serve, rather than making vol au vents where you'd need to cook the pastry, cook the filling, and then assemble.

Thanks all I will go with the tarts as @SilenceInside suggested

Honestly I’d rather have simple food salad, bread, olives etc than vol au vents filled with cold soup.
Pear and rocket salad sounds good though.

Do you not like these guests?

To be honest, a lot of pastry as a starter is a bit much and a bit old fashioned these days.

Do a big platter in the centre of the table with chicory, pear and blue cheese salad and serve with walnut bread.

https://www.raymondblanc.com/recipes/chicory-walnut-pear-and-roquefort-salad/

Wouldn't touch Campbells after the remarks made by a CEO about it being shit food for poor people.

Supposedly the M & S canned chicken in white sauce is really well rated @Travelcrazy. Maybe do a test run with that?