These Soup Recipes Will Warm Your Soul This Winter

You can use just about any mushroom you like for this stew (or a mix of varieties), as long as you add the more delicate ones during the last hour of cooking.

This soup is packed with mushrooms, tofu, cabbage, and noodles. It’s easy and perfect for a cold night.

Notes: Nigella seeds (also called kalonji) add an oniony flavor. Look for them and for tamarind concentrate at Indian markets and some specialty food stores. If you can’t find tamarind concentrate, substitute 1/4 cup lime juice mixed with 2 teaspoons molasses.

A beauty to look at, this hearty vegetarian soup will brighten any winter table.

At the community garden where she tended a plot, Olympic Peninsula cookbook author Kate McDermott often helped create a budget-friendly communal “stone soup” of produce contributed by her fellow gardeners. Like the soup in the folktale, this recipe can be made with whatever bounty of vegetables comes your way. It’s from the author’s second cookbook, Home Cooking with Kate McDermott.

For pho, a rich-tasting broth is crucial. But how do you produce one quickly? The answer: Simmer whole pieces of chicken in chicken broth. Leftover poached meat can be mixed with mayonnaise, chopped celery, and a pinch of curry powder for chicken salad.

Packed with veggies and thick udon, this makes for a hearty, warm dinner.

Seattle chef Kristi Brown’s pho-inspired soup is a lovely launching point for wintery improvisation. Feel free to swap in various meats, condiments, and other vegetables according to what looks good at the market and reflects the season and the community you’re in. The broth takes at least 8 hours to develop fully, so you might want to shop one day, make the broth the next day, then serve the soup on the third day.

This soup is a real trickster—onions and cauliflower blend into a purée so smooth, you’d swear it included cream. It’s also a good introduction to this vegetable for those who think they can’t stand cauliflower, since its sulfurous flavor is very mild here and no cauliflower is actually visible. But if you do love it, keep the soup a little chunky so you’ll have some florets in your bowl.

This top-rated pasta soup features Italian sausage, chopped veggies, canned diced tomatoes, and cannellini beans.  Serve with crusty bread for a hearty meal.