Should Minnesota have a state soup? If so, is it wild rice soup? Cream of mushroom?

A Republican lawmaker wants an official Minnesota state soup. 

State Rep. Jim Nash, R-Waconia, confirmed to the Reformer that he is offering the amendment to a state budget bill to designate a state soup study group.  He said that like many amendments offered during floor debates, it was meant to be in jest and to make a point. 

“There have been so many advisory commissions and councils and different things that I believe ultimately are outsourcing decisions that legislators need to be making, so I’m making a very humorous offering of a group of people who would come together to figure out what the state soup should be,” he said. “It’s not serious in the least.”

Pressed on what the soup should be if the amendment is adopted, he said: “Clearly it would be cream of mushroom. What good Lutheran church lady could make tater tot hotdish, which of course is the king of all hot dishes, without cream of mushroom?”

Nash said he did some research and asked grocers what is the top selling soup in their stores and learned it was cream of mushroom, a key component of tater tot hotdish.

According to the amendment language, the study group must issue a “report (that) must include a recipe that may be used to prepare the recommended soup.”