Chocolate at Thanksgiving sounds like dessert until it lands in the soup pot with toasted chiles, roasted squash, turkey stock, black beans, or sweet potatoes. Then it becomes something else: earthy, aromatic, and surprisingly savory.

Corn has fed the Americas for thousands of years, and few dishes show its range better than soup. In one pot, corn can be sweet and creamy, smoky and spicy, thick and hearty, or bright with herbs and seafood.

Pumpkin soup can be sweet, smoky, spicy, creamy, brothy, or almost stew-like. The same basic ingredient, pumpkin or winter squash, changes completely once it meets coconut milk, chiles, curry spices, rice flour, smoked meat, or fresh herbs.

A harvest table does not have to begin with turkey. In many homes, the first sign of abundance is a pot of soup: squash simmering with spice, beans thickening in broth, corn softening beside chiles, or greens melting into a stew.

A good holiday soup does more than fill bowls. It sets the mood, gives guests something warm to hold, and buys the cook a little breathing room before the rest of the meal lands on the table.