Five Hearty Winter Soups
- Ashley
- Dec 4, 2017
- 5 min read
This year, I made a goal to make and try more soups. They really are the perfect meal for this time of year, and no matter the size of your family, you can make as much as you'd like for either just one meal or to have leftovers for the rest of the week. Thankfully, as a small family of two, my husband and I can have soup for work lunches for pretty much an entire week :) Also, most of these soups take less than 30-45 minutes to throw together.
Below are five soup recipes I've tried this autumn. I'll mention some tips and tricks for different dietary preferences, as well as what worked and what didn't when preparing according to the recipes. All pictures are from the respected websites where the recipes live.
If you have any soup recipes that you love making this time of year, or if you try anything below and add your own twist, let me know! I'm always open to trying more things as we move into winter.
As a native Marylander whose family lives off as many natural resources as they can, my husband has loved this recipe for as long as he can remember. While his grandmother will usually make this during the summer after a morning of catching crabs, the meat can be frozen after it's picked and this can be prepared any time during the year. While I'm not posting her original recipe, I tried to find one as similar to hers as possible. The only addition to the one linked is that she suggests using white wine to develop the flavors - it tastes just as good without though if you don't drink alcohol.
If you don't eat crab, you can either do imitation crab ("imitation" that I'm pretty sure still contains real crab though so read your labels . . . ), or you can substitute with your favorite kind of fish.
This soup is really nice on a cold day - very rich and soothing. It might be because it's an old family recipe, but it just feels so comforting to eat. I would also suggest pairing this with a piece of crispy baguette.
This recipe was given to me by my sister-in-law after she made it for us. It can easily be catered to fit whatever is in your pantry: you can use other kinds of pasta noodles if you don't want or have tortellini, scrap the beans, substitute the spinach for kale or leave it out altogether, throw in whatever vegetables you'd prefer. Endless options! My husband and I went a little heavy with what we added when we made it, but left out the shredded chicken and used vegetable broth for a vegetarian option. We liked using kale instead of spinach, and we added mushrooms.
My only real suggestion for this recipe is to go a little light-handed on the Italian seasoning. We used the suggested amount and I felt like that's all we could taste. You can opt in other flavors instead, whether it be solely oregano or rosemary, or an alternative route of Old Bay, or just salt and pepper. I would increase the garlic a smidge, especially if cutting back on the Italian seasoning.
I also think not adding white beans, especially if you want other vegetables in it, would be fine. I like beans in soup, but with a cheese tortellini and, in our case, mushrooms, it made for a really hearty meal - not a bad thing, just a little heavier than I was anticipating :)
This recipe is 100% vegan, but oh-so-filling and creamy. Rob still talks about this and I made it back in September or October.
I've had some people tell me they don't like the taste of curry, and I get it. It can be super overpowering, but I feel like this recipe really balances it well with other flavors. You have the thick richness of the coconut milk, the freshness of the cilantro, the onion, garlic, sweet potato, and lentils. Diced tomatoes for acidity. Because I love cilantro, I added some to the soup at the end and let it simmer for a couple minutes just before serving. I also garnished with cilantro. Obviously, cater to what you think you'll like, but it turned out really great and the cilantro infused the leftovers too. Ugh. It's just so good.
This could easily be a comforting winter staple in our house, and has quickly become a favorite. I highly recommend it if you're looking to try something a little outside of the ordinary. It takes about 30 minutes to make.
I made this soup last week and I have to admit, I was initially disenchanted upon tasting. I had high expectations since I got the recipe out of Martha Stewart's magazine, but when I served it, my husband and I both agreed that it was pretty bland. But I'm including it anyway because I think there is some real potential here. It definitely needed more salt and pepper, which, to be fair, the recipe says to season to taste. Lately, we've been holding out on adding salt and pepper in recipes for health reasons, but this soup definitely needed them. I think this would also be pretty good with turkey bacon or a similar no-meat substitute (not blended but chopped and mixed in like the broccoli florets), potato hunks (also not blended), and probably more cheese. I also didn't use the lemon juice it suggested, and I bet that would have helped too.
Once I seasoned it, this turned out to be a warm, comforting soup. But again I say: make sure you season it!!
When I made this the first time, I was determined to make it a crockpot recipe. Note: this is not a crockpot recipe. There might be a way to make it one, but my flour pilled up and the overall color and texture made for a weird-looking soup. Making it regularly works great though, and, either way, it is so good. As someone who has never tried vegan cheese, I can't even tell you what would happen if you substituted it for all of the regular cheese in this. It's an indulgent soup, for sure, and women in the comments said they cut back the amount of cheese included without a problem. You can also swap out the chicken broth for vegetable or imitation chicken broth to make it 100% vegetarian.
It did taste pretty similar to what you get at Panera Bread, and the nutritional values are listed on this website to totally ruin it for you. Haha! But again, this is a hearty, comforting soup that should be enjoyed with a thick piece of warm bread. I love this recipe and it hits the spot every time. :) You could probably add in some other vegetables, but its simplicity and creaminess is pretty good as is.
Thanks so much for reading! If there are other recipes you want me to discuss, just let me know and I'd be happy to include what my husband and I have been making in our kitchen recently! :) xoxo
