Soups Worth Making

Just made the red lentil and coconut soup and my house smells amazing. I didn’t have golden raisins or scallions, so used apricots and shallots. It tasted incredible.

So many beautiful soups to choose from. I will have no problem finding vegan soups to keep me warm. Thanks.

Perfect timing, it’s coming into Autumn now in Australia. Soups are calling. Keen to check out that garlic soup & your pumpkin & rice one in particular, thanks!
Heidi xo

Soup time for certain here in London – it’s just miserable.
I’m attempting to recreate the middle east with a rose petal fish soup with aioli and a green chutney!

OMG. That tomato soup looks amazing and I will have it. I am making that this weekend! Thanks for posting…with pictures… Mmmmm

While in Kyoto did you have soup made from oatmeal? My hosts called it “gruel”. We couldn’t communicate the ingredients but I remember it being very savory. I’ve tried finding a recipe to no avail. If you do, please post it. It was one of the best soups I’ve ever eaten!

Hi Heidi,
I am also a lover of soups. This week, I tried this recipe from The Kitchn:
http://www.thekitchn.com/recipe-roasted-beet-soup-recipes-from-the-kitchn-184115
It was really good.
Thanks for the round up, it’s really inspiring.

Yummm these all look incredible. I’m traveling in Central America presently and really missing comforting healthy food. I made the simple tomato soup recipe when I was back in Seattle, it was incredible. The first night I had it with coconut cream and toasted almonds, but the next day for leftovers was even better with quinoa, greek yogurt, and sautéed kale. Perhaps I will try making one of these recipes in my hostel this week!

I love soup. I particularly love your Green Curry Broth. A healthy bowl of soup before a meal can help fill you up so you don’t overeat at lunch or supper.

I am a huge fan of soups as well. This winter has been a long one for us Long Islanders and soup has been my go to meal. Comforting, healthy and easy to make. Thanks for these inspiring recipes!

Such creative soup recipes and inviting pictures; looking forward to trying some of them. I have my g-to favorites, but I think it’s time to broaden my soup horizons!

Heidi, have you ever traveled in Kyushu? I live in Kyushu 6 months a year and spend a lot of time learning Japanese home cooking with my mother-in-law. She taught me to make this very simple, but elegant egg soup. http://bit.ly/Zdasjo It’s great for spring. The Cherry blossoms are in full swing here, did you see any?

I also fell in love with the New Year Noodle Soup in Japan! I lived there for one year and decided to learn how to prepare all my favourite dishes from there. There was no other way than taking cooking classes with a Japanese chef, so all of you, Japanese food lovers from Canada, I can highly recommend Dirty Apron which offers one of the best cooking classes in Vancouver! However, I still feel like learning much more, can anybody here recommend a nice book on the subject?

I love love love your vegetarian tortilla soup – it’s so satisfying in every way that soup is meant to be. I make it often.

Thanks for the great soup reminders! I made the garlic soup last night even though my husband thought it didn’t sound “filling enough”. We both loved it and it is now in the rotation with the most wonderful Green Lentil (or split Pea) soup. I served it with the Carrot, Mint and Date salad.. Yum! Thank you so much for all that you do!

My favourite of your soups – and I have a bowl of it in my fridge, even as we speak – is your rustic cabbage soup, which I have made several times with multiple variations.

These photos look so cozy!

Wow. The Coconut red lentil soup is to die for. I made it last night and the family went crazy. Reckon on this being a regular weekly feature in our household for some time to come. Thank you.

Wow, precious recipes for a soup monster like me! Here there’s no hint of spring watsoever, but there’s a very simple soup that just makes me smile because it tastes like sunshine:
carrot-orange-soup.
leeks and fresh ginger sauteed in olive oil, about 750gr of carrots on top and simmered with water or broth until tender, then pureed. a dash of cream or coconut milk and the freshly squeezed juice of a big orange stirred in just before serving. bright-colored soup comfort!

This post is perfect as there’s no sign of warmer spring weather where I live. I love the simplicity of them all and the idea of adding grains and an egg to make it a more substantial meal. Lovely post.

I can’t wait to hear about your travels!

I adore your kabocha french lentil soup (although kabochas are over now for another year 🙁 ), the pumpkin and rice was a real winter treat too! From scandifoodie I made a wonderful and unusual beet and licorice soup.
Also I made the lunch salad you posted recently last night and it was so delicious. I made the dressing vegan by using coconut youghurt seeing as you said you thought it might work with coconut cream and it was perfect. Added a roasted beet for sweetness and might add apple next time. Do post if you think of other combinations for that brilliant dressing please!

Did you enjoy at Naoshima? It was good choice! I am looking forward to see your new pictures on ‘travel’.

I LOVE soup for dinner! Soup appears on our dinner menu twice this week: {i} Potato, Green Cabbage & Leek Soup with Lemon Creme Fraiche, and {ii} Cauliflower Soup with Chive Oil. I must try your tomato soup when we return from our travels next week! Look forward to hearing about your time in Japan.

simple farro and bean stew is a favorite at our house

I love your recipe for Green Curry Broth- the light broth allowed many of my friends who usually shy away from aromatic ethnic dishes to discover that curry is something wonderful and delicious.
I recently posted a recipe for Soybean Sprout Soup. It’s a very simple and traditional Korean recipe, and I’d love to know what you think. I used dried pollack for the broth, but I think dashi would make a good vegetarian substitution.

I love all of your soups that I’ve tried – seriously they are my secret weapons in my arsenal, but one of my all time favorites is the chickpea noodle soup. It’s just so comforting! Sometimes I’ll chop up some greens to toss in at the end for a little more balance, but nothing beats a bowl of that in the cold Ohio winters!

my fav five ingredient soup: bacon, onion, vegetable broth, white cannellini beans and kale. just add whatever seasonings you wish – i usually do garlic, basil, oregano and salt/pepper – topped with a bit of parm and red chilli flakes for some heat (can’t add it to the pot of soup since my husband is a bit wimpy with the heat!).

Oh my goodness, Heidi – My friend and I just left Naoshima this afternoon! What a fantastically inspiring place! I do hope you blog about it! I loved the happy yellow pumpkin in front of our hotel and the beautiful Sakura blossoms that grew on the branches like corn on the cob.
Thanks for your blog!
Lynn from Tokyo

Agree with Camila above…The yogurt on the lentil soup is a great idea. Definitely trying that out!

One of my favourite soups for this time of year is a Coconut, Sweet Potato and Black Turtle Bean. It turns the most amazing shade of purple and is packed with interesting, creamy textures.
Saying that i’m definitely going to have to try your dried Fava bean and Mint… Thanks!

I absolutely love your Red Lentil Soup with Lemon and I also make your Green Lentil Soup with Curried Brown Butter frequently. I love drizzling it with the extra brown butter as well as a drizzle of thick coconut milk. The colors and flavors are to die for. We’ve tried it topped with crisped up tofu cubes or paneer that I cook with a bit of the curried brown butter.

OH Japan, I’d like to go there. And I will one day 🙂

I just love your Mixed Mushroom Soup. Its incredible depth flavor from such simple ingredients never ceases to amaze me. And I eat it for breafast as a savory alternative to oatmeal or other breakfast cereal.

The Japanese make the greatest soups! Thanks for sharing!

I’m enjoying beet borcht from Jessica Prentice’s Full Moon Feast this week:
leek, carrot, celery root, tomato, beet, caraway
served on homemade sauerkraut with a bit of greek yogurt and black pepper on top.
purple tastes so good!

I absolutely love your Simple Farro & Bean Stew. I made it for the first time recently and it’s been a regular since then. I like to make a bit pot and freeze it in individual portions for lunches. With good olive oil, it is incredible.

I’ve always enjoyed your Lively Up Yourself Lentil Soup recipe. The saffron yogurt really puts it over the top for me!

I’ll be in Kyoto Friday. Sakura season – I can’t wait! I’d love to have any recommendations for places to eat or go in Kansai. I lived in the Kyoto area for a couple years, but I find there are always new places to discover 🙂

I am slightly addicted to your rustic cabbage soup. Years ago I added chili powder, cayenne, and lots of lemon to it and I love it so much it has become the meal I most frequently cook! It’s my go to for comfort, colds, and for an easy-to-prepare dish when cooking for friends. Thanks for the recipe that has given me so much joy for years!

This post was a blessing. Totally in the soup-mood. Your new years soup was fabulous!

I love your recipe for the soup with french lentils, fennel, and kabocha squash! I’ve blogged about it and made it at work several times and it ha always been well received! The coconut red lentil soup will always be a staple in my house…

What a wonderful variety! I can’t wait to try the Cocunut Red Lentil Soup. Sound delicious.

I made the Pasole in Broth this evening. So easy since I had homemade veg bouillon in the freezer a la a previous post. Delicious, whole family loved.

Heidi, I love your soups and can’t wait for winter to settle in here in Canberra!
I recently made Alice Hart’s Smoky Black Bean and Roast Tomato Soup which was truly wonderful. I served it with homemade charred yogurt flatbreads and it made the perfect light dinner.
Definitely one worth making!

Soup, beautiful soup! Your Simple Tomato Soup is one of my all-time favorites. It strikes that perfect balance (as do most of your recipes, now that I think of it) between lightness and heartiness. Other favorite soups of mine are borscht (the color, the sweet and sour tang with the fresh dill and a dollop of sour cream…swoon…), potato leek (utter simplicity), tortilla soup made with toasted chiles, and Chinese hot and sour soup, with lots of scallions, fresh cracked pepper and vinegar. Really looking forward to hearing about your Japanese journey.

I agree with Heather, I love you Lively Up Yourself Lentil Soup. It’s so great. Easy, healthy, and delicious. We make it alot!

Your green lentil curried soup is the best thing I make. I’m obsessed with it!!! And oh I have Japan envy… We went last year and loved it so much!! we actually miss it!

Hi! Do you plan to do a travel posting on your Japan trip? I would love some (updated) recommendations if you have them? Thanks!!

I hope you enjoyed Naoshima as much as I did when I visited. I have lived in Japan for 35 years and my Naoshima trip was one of the best ever in Japan!

I just made the simple tomatoe soup for a group of friends on Sunday. Everyone loved it! it was perfect, a warm bowl of soup with friends on a cold day. Thank you Heidi!

Heidi thanks for compiling soup recipes! Big admirer of your work!

I make your New Year’s soup all of the time and love it. Can’t wait to see the pics from Japan – that is on my list of places to visit.

I actually just posted my favorite soup ever!
http://saltbird.com/2013/03/favorite-soup/
I think you will appreciate 🙂

One soup that has recently entered my repertoire is a variation on this white bean and fennel soup with tarragon: http://www.valleyflorafarm.com/content/white-bean-and-winter-tarragon-soup-fennel
I use a homemade mushroom stock and plenty of fennel, leave off the ham and let it cook for about 4 hours. The first time I made it, I was a little nervous that it wasn’t that flavorful, but then when I added the tarragon at the last minute, it really came together into something extremely hearty and delicious.

I absolutely loved your Pierce Street Vegetarian Chili–sad that it didn’t make the cut 🙁

Soups are my weekly mainstay. I make a different one each week. Besides all of your recipes, I often make the Green Soups in Anna Thomas’ “Love Soup” cookbook. Can’t wait to hear about Japan. Planning on going there myself next year.

Soups are my weekly mainstay. I make a different one each week. Besides all of your recipes, I often make the Green Soups in Anna Thomas’ “Love Soup” cookbook. Can’t wait to hear about Japan. Planning on going there myself next year.

One of my go-tos is your Chickpea Noodle Soup. It is so simple and comforting. Who knew so few ingredients could be so warming and delicious! I’ve made numerous pots this winter to fend off the bitter NY cold. Eataly carries whole wheat pappardelle and, with a dollop of hot sauce, it’s perfect.

Wow. If these are your favorites, I can’t wait to try them. Your celery soup with rice and green pea with ginger appear regularly on my table and I think both are ah-maz-ing. (Especially that pea soup. Served it at a brunch recently – huge hit!)

One of my all-time favorites is your Lively Up Yourself Lentil Soup. After making it countless times I still can’t believe how simple and easy it is! Last week I made a very large batch (5x) and people are still talking about it.

I have made each and every one of these. New Year’s Noodle is by far my favorite. I’m a vegan and your recipes are always so easy to transition to vegan. Thanks for the reminder to revisit some of these favorites.

Thanks for all the soup recipes.
Any chance we will hear more about Japan?

HS: Working on it!

You have so many fabulous soups on here. LOVE it!

Ooo, thanks for this! Always on the lookout for great soup recipes. Perhaps the theme of your next cookbook?

Hi Heidi,
This is a great round-up…I’ve made almost every one of these soups! However one of my staple week-night soups is missing from this list–your “Lively Up Yourself” Lentil Soup! It is so simple to throw together and I usually have all of the ingredients on hand. The soup is so hearty and warming– I love it. I’ve also enjoyed experimenting with adding different spices and herbs to mix it up a little each time I make it.

This is so great! You have completely opened my eyes to creativity in soup. I can’t wait to try…well….all of them! Thanks for this collection.

I haven’t made soup since my beloved Dutch oven cracked in half as I was in the middle of using it on the stove! These soup recipes look to good to pass up, so I will have to find another Dutch oven or stock pot to cook some of these! Great ideas as always!

Nothing like soup to soothe the exhaustion of travel. And I’ve always wanted to try Richard Olney’s garlic soup. Thanks and welcome home!

The New Years Noodle Soup is, I’m convinced, the cure for the common cold. Nothing is better when I’m feeling under the weather or on a -40° night. Winters are long and dark here in Interior Alaska and it’s hard to get warm. This soup does the trick! Thank you!

Visited Costa Rica recently and had a gazpacho type cold soup with avocado,tomato, mango, yellow onion, red and yellow peppers and vegetable broth. It was an amazing soup. Have you ever made something similar?

This little corner of Winter/Spring blend weather makes a perfect case for cozy comforting soups. The red lentil soup catches my eye. Especially since I have the lentils in the kitchen. I’ve been experimenting with pumpkin empanadas, which will go quite nicely with any of these good soups.
Era3-my thoughts are with you and your Dad. I’m a health researcher, so I might be able to help with some suggestions or questions if you’d like.

Oh you were in Japan .. Next time when you come here, please schedule the trip two weeks later. It is the best season of Japan, cherry blossom time.

Soups are an ultimate comfort food for me. I’m looking forward to trying the garlic soup! As I opened your blog, all the ingredients are readied on my counter to make a delicious cauliflower soup. It’s chunky goodness is irresistible even to the little ones.

Woohoo! I use every excuse to make the New Year Noodle Soup and/or promote it. It was the recipe I shared with a bride-to-be at her bridal shower. I estimate my husband and I make it two-three times a month in the wintertime. Thanks, and welcome home.

Oh, Japan! I am planning a trip to Japan next year with my hubby and would love to hear more about your trip, places you visited and where you ate, recommendations, etc.

I’m currently living in the Netherlands, the country is just a messy mix of gray skies, frost, rain and snow.
In the couple of next days I will surely cook my way through some of your soups, the colours and falvours and warmth they bring will be a nice change.
I love your crockery by the way.

I just passed the link along to a neighbor. I figure, if I make one and she another, we’ll get two of them this week. (Maybe I need to send it to a couple of other neighbors.) Thanks; these grouped postings are quite helpful.

Heidi, thanks for this little round-up. I just made the red lentil soup with lemon last week and adored it! I was sick with a cold and was stuck cooking for myself, and even though I really, really, didn’t feel like being in the kitchen, the soup was a snap to put together and was a real comfort.

Heidi – my Dad is sick, and it is heartbreaking watching him deteriorate. He can’t eat much, but I think the garlic soup might be something he could stomach. So thank you for this – a bit of light in a dark time.

HS: I’m so sorry to hear this Era3.

ooh, any chance we’ll see a veggie ramen recipe soon??

HS: So tricky! It’s on my list for sure.

I have to tell you how much i love your soups, my husband is always so impressed when i make one of your soups! The fava bean soup blew him away (he grew up on fresh fava beans in Turkey), but my monthly cooks are always the orzo with roasted tomates (I use kale though) and the red lentil coconut curry….that soup is amazing!! I am always amazed at how tasty your dishes come out without having to add any dairy (I try to omit dairy), because you can make almost anything taste good with cream or cheese but it takes talent and thought to make something dairy free delicious! Thank you 🙂

Dear Heidi,
I´m a big fan of “your” Hassan’s Celery and White Bean Soup with Tomato and Caraway. Our favourite in this time of year (end of winter in Prague) are pumpkin soups (best are made one from oven-roasted pumplik with garlic and rosemary and one from butternut squash with apple and fresh ginger) and plain pureed soup of parsley and celeriac.

There are a few soups in your recipe archives that I make again and again:
– Vegetarian Split Pea
– Mixed Mushroom
– Porcini Mushroom
– Baby Lima Bean w/ Chipotle Broth
Thanks for those and all the others!

Yum, definitely got some soup cravings going!

Coming into soup weather as we soon will be, I too, love the Melissa Clark tomato soup – simple yet hearty and deliciously warming in cold weather.
Another of my favourites is from your archives – the Red Lentil and Brown Rice soup, which I make a lot as always have both those ingredients in the cupboard – again a simple soup that is delicious with different bits and pieces to garnish it…..

These soups are so inspiring. The coconut red lentil soup is definitely on my list to try. The weather in the UK is still so cold and grey that soup is just what I need at the moment. I’ve been making lots of beetroot soup this winter and carrot and ginger for extra warmth.

Living in hot, sweaty Bangkok means I don’t have such a seasonal need for comforting soups. Although, unable to shake a cold, the pumpkin and rice soup is just what I need tonight – looks devine!

Your red lentil soup with lemon has become one of the staple soups in my diet. It’s so good and so easy to make. A great blend of spices!

from Japan, and glad to hear that you enjoyed Japan 🙂

I make the simple tomato soup once every 10 days or so. It’s been a lifesaver this winter in Seattle. Welcome home!

HS: LOVE hearing that Megan. Hope to see you soon! xo

soup is my favorite meal, i am thrilled to try each of these inspired recipes, starting tomorrow with tomato!
japan! how exciting!

Oh please please post about Japan soon! I am trying to plan a trip there for next month.

HS: You’ll love it – Japan is one of my favorite places to travel, I’m trying to wrangle a map of some favorite Tokyo spots. Kyoto is magic. Mt. Koya-san, Naoshima Island….I’ll do my best to pull something together. We fly into Tokyo, and out of Osaka.

I am this close to heading to the grocery store at 10:45 at night to get started on some of these soups, yum.

Your coconut red lentil soup and New Year noodle soup are probably my two favorite soups and I make both of them a LOT. I’ll have to try the rest!!

What a great roundup. Tomato, coconut lentil. pumpkin and rice…yes please!

I loooove soup! I’ve blogged a couple times about my favorite recipes, and now these are on the list for sure!
I’m excited to see what you ate on the plane because I’m leaving in less than two weeks for a month long trip to Europe! Your ideas are going to be very welcome. 🙂

Not long ago, I made your Spring Minestrone soup from SNC and fell in love with it – I made it 3 times in one week! I did the recipe version twice, then the 3rd time I tried the Asian-inspired version. Next up is your coconut red lentil soup – I have everything ready to go and can’t wait to get a pot made!

What creative soups! Can’t wait to hear about what you ate on the plane.