Soup, Salad & Business Strategy: Why I Can't Portion Food (or Workload) Correctly
I'll Take Soup & Salad for 400, Alex
The Eternal Miscalculation
You’d think after decades of adulting, I’d know how to portion food correctly. But no. I will forever be the person who decides that an entire head of lettuce is an appropriate serving for two people.
Somewhere deep in my subconscious, I must believe that salad shrinks as soon as it hits a bowl. Why else would I continuously chop enough romaine to supply a midsize restaurant?
And soup? Forget it. There is no small-batch soup. My hands refuse to measure out ‘just enough.’ I start with a reasonable amount of broth, and before I know it, I’ve added an entire Costco-sized bag of carrots, a pasta shape I hastily selected, and what can only be described as a reckless amount of seasoning.
The Science of Overestimating Food (That I Refuse to Learn From)
Studies show that humans are notoriously bad at estimating volume, especially when it comes to irregularly shaped food (like leafy greens) and liquids (like soup).
It’s called the volume illusion—our brains struggle to process how much space something takes up until it's too late. That’s why you look at a pile of lettuce and think, Yeah, that’s a decent handful, and then next thing you know, you’ve made enough salad for a wedding reception.
The same applies to soup—our brains don’t account for ingredient expansion. Ever measured out what seems like a reasonable amount of pasta, only to have it quadruple in size the second it hits boiling water? Exactly.
The Leftovers Dilemma
Leftover soup? Not the worst problem. Leftover salad? A ticking time bomb.
The moment dressing touches lettuce, you have exactly 7 minutes before it turns into a sad, wilted disaster.
And yet, I still store it in the fridge as if I’m going to eat it later. I will not. Future Me will pretend it doesn’t exist until it becomes an unrecognizable sludge in the crisper drawer.
The Endless Salad Cycle
1️⃣ Chop way too much lettuce.
2️⃣ Convince myself it’s fine.
3️⃣ Add dressing. Realize I have made a huge mistake.
4️⃣ Serve everyone an overfilled plate, watch them eat one-third of it.
5️⃣ Store the leftovers, fully knowing they’re doomed.
6️⃣ Ignore them for 3 days.
7️⃣ Gag audibly while throwing away a soggy bag of regret.
8️⃣ Repeat.
How to Break the Cycle (Maybe)
✅ Portion soup ingredients separately before adding them to the pot. This prevents the oops, I added too much moment when your single-serving meal turns into enough to feed a small army.
✅ Use smaller bowls. Trick yourself into thinking less is more.
✅ Stop panic-chopping. The lettuce will still be there if you need more.
✅ Make dressing separate. Prevents the inevitable soggy apocalypse.
✅ Accept your fate. Maybe you were meant to overproduce salad.
And because I can't actually not talk about business…
Maybe my chronic overproduction of salad and soup is really just a metaphor for entrepreneurship.
You start out with a simple idea—something manageable, something reasonable. And then, before you know it, you’ve committed to WAY more than you originally planned.
Like that one time I said yes to organizing an entire Oktoberfest, because apparently, two whiskeys in, I thought logistics and event planning were part of my early on skillset.
The good news? Just like in business, you figure it out. You adapt. You scale back next time (or at least pretend you will). And when all else fails?
You freeze the soup.
💡 Do you also suffer from chronic over-serving? What’s the most ridiculous amount of food you’ve ever made by accident? Bonus points if it was soup. Because I know I’m not the only one drowning in stockpot regret.