Souplantation Gives an Early Taste of the Holidays

It's Thanksgiving in July at , where a slate of new dishes for the fast-approaching holiday season is undergoing a final round of taste tests to see who makes the plate.

With their forks ready, palates cleansed and eyes enticed by the colorful spread, about two dozen testers at the eatery's Rancho Bernardo headquarters surveyed the dishes to dish out their own first impressions.

"Looks like grandma used to make," RB resident Susan Baker said as she scooped up some of the green bean casserole.

This was a different tasting from the typical panels held periodically throughout the year. Instead of having testers try multiple portions of a current dish, with one portion being a new recipe under consideration, the Thanksgiving testers were trying out brand new items on color-coded plates. Another switch is how the new dishes will be served: at your home.

After a successful offering of take-home cobbler last year, which restaurant patrons could buy in pre-packaged containers and take home to bake, Souplantation is planning to offer several new cobblers for at-home baking. Two of the tested recipes—the green bean casserole with crispy onions and sweet potato and maple cream bake with pecan praline topping—will also be sold for at-home preparation. Autumn pumpkin and walnut cobbler, and maple glazed sweet potatoes with apples, raisins and walnuts will be served in the restaurant in November.

That is, if the testers' tongues approve.

Baker, who was pulled in by the green bean casserole, ended up pushing that green plate away.

"Not even close," she said when asked if, as anticipated, the casserole had lived up to her grandmother's recipe. The sauce just ran off the beans, making it difficult to get a good taste, she said.

But as with most matters of opinion, the decision on this dish was split; it's the chef's favorite.

Michael Schwanemann, the culinary services manager, said it can be difficult to find something that everyone likes. The company culls opinions from several testing sessions—in this case, four with about 100 different testers from Souplantation's Club Veg program—to see how the recipe can be improved or if it is likely to be popular as is. Tasters fill out surveys on colored paper that matches the plates for each item. During Friday's session, the plates had been mistakenly switched for two dishes—a slipup caught by RB resident Patrick Horgan—but staff said they didn't think it would affect the results because they had called out the correct colors when directing tasters to fill out the surveys.

During Baker's session Friday morning, the autumn pumpkin and walnut cobbler appeared to be a crowd favorite. With added whipped cream, the cobbler elicited the mmms and delighted groans common at family Thanksgiving tables.

In the words of one tester, "That's good stuff."

The sweet potatoes and maple cream bake brought out some head nods, the silent approval of a well-done dish. 

The tasting panel wrapped with a traditional testing of a new recipe for Joan's Broccoli Madness. Tasters were given three plates and asked to identify which two tasted the same, and which one tasted different. They could also indicate if they coudn't distinguish between any of the three. Schwanemann said this kind of testing can help cooks know whether a new recipe is different enough for a change, or if they need to start again.

The green bean casserole and the sweet potato and maple cream bake will be available for pre-order from Nov. 1 to Nov. 22, with samples offered at the restaurant in the lead up. The dishes come in GenPak oven-ready plastic containers. The maple glazed sweet potatoes will be served in November through Thanksgiving.

Eight cobblers will be offered for sale in November and December: orchard apple; blueberry; tart cherry; cranberry apple; mixed berry and apple; Georgia peach; caramel apple; and the autumn pumpkin and walnut.

For more about Souplantation's recipes, or to join the free Club Veg program to participate in future tastings, visit souplantation.com.

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