Any suggestions for a soft food diet?

Does she have an appetite? She may respond much better to food that is "real" food that just happens to be soft. Before my MIL died she had a terrible time. The nursing home just pureed whatever the kitchen was fixing for others and it was just terrible. She simply couldn't get it down. There was a microwave near the nursing station so I could make things and warm them for her when I went to see her. More rarely I would take a toaster oven with me to finish off something.

Here are some things I would take for her: souffle (made at home and baked in a toaster oven I took with me), scrambled eggs, soft omelette, homemade puddings made with extra eggs, (she especially loved creme brulee without the brulee), mashed potatoes with real gravy, butternut squash soup (lots of real soups that are blended are wonderful, also try variations on vichyssoise), chicken liver pate, mousses both sweet and savory, homemade applesauce with a bit of cinnamon and lemon, various things made with yogurt or cottage cheese and soft fruits, smoothies if she can handle the cold. Some fruits, like watermelon cut into chunks and de-seeded can be managed also. Something like banana might be too dry unless you mix it into something with more liquid. Some days she could manage seedless grapes, other days not. For a special treat look up David Liebowitz'blog on French hot chocolate. The milk is simmered a long time to make it thicker. This concentrates more of the nutrition in the milk into the amount that she will actually eat. I found it re-heated nicely. This was always a concern for MIL as she didn't eat much even when she was enjoying it. I packed as much nutrition as I could into the things that she could eat.

As you might detect from the list, MIL had a flair for things that leaned toward haute cuisine. Many of these things were not difficult variations to make, but she was impressed enough by the names to make more of an effort to eat them. She was much happier with cassoulet than well-cooked beans, though I did need to make a bit of duck confit to make it more authentic. Things that go through the blender are fine if they are foods that are supposed to be that way, like smoothies or fruit and yogurt. That is way different from putting chunks of pork chop, green beans, and potatoes in a massive blender--which is what the kitchen provided her. It was easy to compete with that.

MIL was dying anyway and we all knew that, but I felt that having good food when I could make it there on my days off was important to the quality of life she was able to have in her final months. I was concerned about the nutritious content of her food not because there was any hope of her recovery but because I thought she may feel a bit better if the parts of her body that could still function had some energy to use. Making variations of great dishes also gave us something to talk about. She could happily reminisce about wonderful meals in her past, great restaurants she had visited.

In your mother's situation, you may want to combine some of these items for a more well-balanced diet, but I think you will find it easier to balance the diet over several meals rather than just one. It would work nicely, for instance to make a vegetable-based soup for lunch, then a soft pate spread on soft bread for the evening meal. Making several courses of soft foods for one meal ends up seeming too much like a soft diet rather than real food. It is also a whole lot of work to try making so many things for every meal.

Things with melted cheese can be nice, but be careful to check with the doctor. Sometimes too much cheese can gum up the digestive tract.

I suggest using google or websites like Mayo clinic. They are good resources for diet info. Don't forget about ready to go baby food.

While there is almost nothing that can't be pureed I think what you are looking for must also be easily digested, you might try googling "GI soft food diet" which is a bit different from the type of diet advice we usually give her for those with swallowing problems.

https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/soft-food-diet