Start your Thanksgiving dinner with one of these elegant soups, each chosen to highlight the flavors of fall. Many of these recipes can easily be prepared in advance of the holiday meal. For more soup ideas, including those featuring leftover Thanksgiving turkey, see our Thanksgiving Leftovers gallery.

A little crunch never hurt anyone, and it certainly helps this soup reach its full flavor potential with sautéed chestnuts and melted Gruyere.

This creamy and delicious soup calls for a relatively inexpensive caviar that you can find at Whole Foods or other specialty-food markets. You can make the soup one week in advance and refrigerate it until you’re ready to re-heat it for Thanksgiving dinner.

Use butternut squash, acorn squash, sugar pumpkin, or any other winter squash you prefer to create this flavorfully seasoned soup that's surprisingly low in fat. Whole-wheat croutons dusted with Parmesan cheese make a savory garnish.

Celebrate the flavors of fall with this creamy pureed pumpkin, potato, and turnip soup. As a timesaver, you may use canned chicken broth in place of the homemade pumpkin stock. This soup makes an ideal starter for Thanksgiving dinner.

Cauliflower is simmered with thyme until tender and then pureed with three heads of roasted garlic cloves and sauteed onions. Each bowl of soup is garnished with caramelized cauliflower florets. This cauliflower soup is a light, flavorful starter ideal for Thanksgiving dinner.

This creamy butternut squash bisque can be prepared up to three months ahead of Thanksgiving dinner and frozen. The soup is seasoned with cinnamon and a bit of cayenne powder. For a different flavor, use ground nutmeg or cloves instead of cinnamon, or add a Southwestern touch with a small amount of chili powder.

Roasted chestnuts and cremini and shiitake mushrooms mingle in this elegant first-course soup. The base of this soup can be prepared in advance and refrigerated up to three days or frozen up to one month, saving valuable time on Thanksgiving Day.

This delicious pureed soup gets loads of flavor and texture from winter squash and potatoes. Use buttercup, butternut, Hubbard, or kabocha squash in this recipe. The crostini garnish is brushed with cream that has been infused with chopped rosemary, parsley, and thyme, then broiled until crisp. The soup and crostini can be made up to two days before Thanksgiving.

Bartlett pears, butternut squash or pumpkin, and turnips bring sweetness and earthiness to this creamy fall soup. Thin slices of baked pears make an elegant garnish that looks lovely on the Thanksgiving table.

Kids and adults alike will love this simple, silky soup made from pureed broccoli stems and florets. Each serving is topped with cheesy baguette toasts.

Fresh wild mushrooms combined with dried porcini and morels add up to an elegant starter with rich flavor. This creamy soup gets extra depth from Madeira wine or cognac.

This soup blends sweet red or golden apples with mellow butternut squash. A combination of ground spices, including cumin, coriander, and ginger, adds vibrant flavor. Garnish each serving with diced apple, sour cream, and sliced jalapeno chile.

Start your Thanksgiving dinner with this creamy celery soup, which can be made up to two days in advance. Garnish each serving with a toasted baguette slice.

Whole peeled chestnuts and Yukon Gold potatoes add structure to this festive pumpkin soup, enhancing the texture. Make a large batch, and freeze it for up to one year; simply leave out the cream and add it when reheating the soup. Use a dry, starchy pumpkin or squash, such as Hubbard or Buttercup, for this Thanksgiving soup.

Cumin and smoky, spicy chipotle chiles in adobo add a Southwestern touch to this sweet potato soup. Serve as a Thanksgiving starter, garnished with sour cream and optional toasted tortilla wedges.