Roasted Cauliflower Soup

After starting at a head of cauliflower, I decided it was time to make some soup. While I love the classic Alice Waters' recipe, I didn't have all the ingredients on hand. I found this recipe with very simple ingredients and gave it a try. It's a wonderful, cozy winter recipe. 

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Stanley Tucci’s Pasta Fagioli

I recently made this soup and it's a wonderful meal in a bowl. There's protein and vegetables and feels like a complete lunch or dinner. Serve with crusty bread and enjoy. This also freezes well if you have leftovers.

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Easy, Healthy Broccoli Soup

Last time I went grocery shopping I was a bit too optimistic and ended up with way too many veggies. I ended up freezing a head of broccoli, and had no clue what I would eventually make with it. We recently had a cold snap so broccoli soup suddenly sounded great. I found this recipe and couldn't believe how creamy the soup was without having any dairy in it (unless, like me, you sprinkle cheese on top). This is is very easy to make and makes about 3 minutes from start to finish.

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Coconut Curry Chicken Soup

My sister first made this soup a couple of years ago and my whole family loved it. It has been on rotation ever since then and is an easy, delicious Thai inspired soup. Your can make this recipe even simpler by using rotisserie chicken instead of cooking chicken yourself. This recipe and be adjusted to suit your flavor preferences and will still be great! We've had version with less chilies and have had to omit the fish sauce as well for dietary restrictions. Any way we've had it, this soup does not fail and the leftovers are just as great as day 1. My photos don't do this justice as I skipped the garnishes this time around, but trust me, this is delicious!

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Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup

It's the time of year where the weather is cold and all I want to do some days is curl up with a good book and a bowl of soup. My mom first made this recipe and we have loved it ever since. The soup is a classic comfort food, but definitely a bit time consuming. This is best to make on a day or evening when you are at home anyway since it has long simmer times. The egg noodles make a big difference here, so try finding them for this recipe. They have a slightly different flavor than traditional pastas.

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Quick and Easy Miso Soup

My friends and I have started a tradition where we have make-your-own sushi night. I tend to host them at my place and I usually have some appetizers ready to go since the sushi rolling process can be time consuming. One thing that I have made for each night is this miso soup. It's so simple and you can flavor it to your liking very easily. When I first made this I couldn't believe how easily it came together. I did have to go to an Asian grocery to find some of the ingredients (like the seaweed and the Japanese style bouillon). Once you have the basic ingredients on hand this soup is very easy make a second time. Enjoy this with some homemade spicy tuna rolls of Japanese style ginger and carrot dressed salad.
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Butternut Squash and Apple Soup

I first discovered this soup at my sister's house. She was making a giant pot of this on a very cold day and it was the perfect dinner. Luckily, she had made this soup many times and had already perfected it to her taste preferences. The two tips she gave me were to halve the recipe if I was not feeding a huge group. She also suggested reducing the amount of curry powder. She said the first time she made it exactly as the recipe stated it was a curry overload. I like curry flavors, but my sister prefers a hint of curry- nothing too overpowering. I also always prefer my soups to be a little spice, so I add red pepper flakes. This recipe is also a great vegan option that is filling but not heavy. However you tackle this soup, it's a delicious comfort food and freezes very well for future use.

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Alice Waters' Spicy Cauliflower Soup

This recipe comes from "The Art of Simple Food" which is a staple cookbook in my family. The soup itself is very filling and has a great punch to it. If you're not crazy about spicy food you will definitely need to tone this recipe down. Even with a dollop of plain yogurt the soup is spicy, hence the name.  This soup keep well so plan on having leftovers. If you do have leftovers, store the soup on its own and only top with the yogurt, lime and cilantro when ready to serve again.

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Spicy Curried Carrot Soup

I realized I had about 3 pounds of carrots in my fridge that I needed to start using up. Since the weather has been cold, a carrot soup seemed like the perfect plan. I found this recipe and was excited by the ingredients and flavor combinations. This soup is delicious, but you need to like curry. I love spicy soups, but feel free to remove or cut back on the chili.

This soup is really filling and is a meal in itself. Serve with some crusty bread and a small salad and you're set. This is only a soup of 2, so you most likely won't have leftovers, but the recipe can easily be doubled.

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Thai Sweet Potato Soup

As the snow is falling, I'm going into hibernation mode. My immersion blender has been getting lots of use since I seem to constantly be in soup moods. I've been trying to keep my soups healthy and avoid using cream to create a smooth texture. Coconut milk is a great way to add this silkiness to a curry soup.

You can make this soup with a variety of vegetables. You can use pumpkin, butternut squash or anything similar. I had a mixture of sweet potatoes and regular potatoes at home, so that's what I used. This soup is pretty thick, which I love, but feel free to add more stock if you want a thinner soup. I made this soup fairly spicy, so adjust the amount of chili and curry paste to your liking. I sometimes top this soup with finely chopped cilantro if I have it around.

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Yellow Split Pea Soup

Autumn has officially arrived. It's rainy and cold and all I want to to is curl up under a blanket. The other thing I love to do when the weather gets like this is have cooking sprees. On my days off I tend to hang around the kitchen trying out new recipes or remaking some of my favorites. I just had my second rainy day off in a row and decided it was time to make the first soup of the season. I initially wanted to make a traditional split pea soup, but could only find yellow peas. Then I decided to stick with making a healthy soup since I've been eating way too many unhealthy things over the past 2 days.

This soup is incredibly hearty. I served it as a main course for a family dinner night (which is what we call a night when all my roommates are home and we sit down to have dinner together) and everyone loved it, even the fussy eaters of the house. It's a really healthy soup since the only source of fat is the olive oil. If you can't find yellow split peas, this soup is also great with regular green split peas. I made some fresh rolls to go with the soup and found that it was the perfect dinner on a rainy day.

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Chipotle Sweet Potato Soup

This recipe is another one sent to me by my sister. I think she is trying to make me jealous since we don't have ingredients like chipotles in adobo in my village. In fact, we seem to be missing most spices I usually cook with (cumin included). I absolutely love the flavor chipotles in adobo add to any recipe and hope that you can all access this great ingredient. You won't use the whole can of chipotles for this recipe, but they freeze really well if you end up with lots of extra.

My sister found this recipe and tweaked it a bit to suit her preferences, which are usually also my preferences, so the variation I'm posting is hers. She said it makes lots of soup, so you may might want to invite someone over to help you finish off the pot. Hopefully I can try this recipe soon since it seems like a delicious, hearty soup.

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Simple Potato Leek Soup

What I love about this Martha Stewart recipe (aside from how easy it is to make), is the creamy texture she creates without using any cream or other heavy dairy product. The flavor of the leeks come though without being overwhelmed by the potatoes. Even when there is a massive pot of this soup in the kitchen for days I don't seem to get sick of it. This soup also tastes great days after you make it and it freezes well too.

If you've never worked with leeks before, makes sure you really wash them thoroughly. After you slice them, push apart the rings before washing. You'll be surprised how much dirt gets stuck between the layers of leeks. Aside from this step, there really isn't anything difficult about this soup. If you're really starving when you make this, you could get away with keeping the heat higher in the final step of simmering and cooking the potatoes until they are tender. I've made this soup when I didn't have a blender available before and still found it to be great. I hand mashed some of the potatoes in the pot to try making the texture a little creamier and that worked alright. You definitely do not need to garnish this soup with anything if you're not too worried about a colorful presentation. I bet a dollop of sour cream would also go well as another garnish option.

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Tuscan Minestrone Soup

As much as I love creamy soups, they're not something I prepare at home often. If I'm going to have a pot of soup in my fridge for a few days, I'd rather have it be something healthier. This soup is filled with so many veggies that you never feel guilty about eating a second or third bowl in one evening. Yes, there is cheese on top, but what soup is complete without that? I love that this soup is vegetarian, yet leaves you feeling full and satisfied. I leave my soup thick and chunky, but you can add more broth or water to it if you prefer your soups runnier. Sometimes I puree half of the soup and mix it back into the pot to create a texture that is rich and smooth, but also hearty. Dunk in some sliced crusty French bread, and you have yourself a perfect winter meal.

This recipe does not have to be followed to a tee. The original recipe uses dried white beans, but to make things simpler, I just use the canned variety. The one thing that add lots of flavor is the fresh rosemary, so try to avoid dried rosemary if you can. After sautéing the vegetables, your kitchen will smell great from the onions and rosemary. This is when I start to get impatient since the second I smell good food I am instantly hungry. The longer you can keep your spoon out of the pot, the more flavor your soup will have. I cook the soup longer than the recipe asks for, but it only makes the final product even better.

Adapted from Carol Field via Soup's On
Serves 6 to 8

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 onion, diced
2 stalks celery, diced
1 carrot, diced
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 springs fresh rosemary
5 teaspoons tomato paste
1 small head of savoy cabbage, thinly sliced
small bunch of kale (about 10 ounces), thinly sliced
3 leeks, cleaned and thinly sliced
3 zucchini, thinly sliced
small handful of fresh basil, chopped
2 tablespoons chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
12 cups chicken or vegetable broth
salt and pepper, to taste
2 cans white beans, drained and rinsed
Parmesan cheese, to sprinkle on soup

Heat the oil in a large, deep pot over medium-low heat. Add the onions, celery, carrots, garlic, and rosemary. Sauté until the vegetables begin to brown, about 15 minutes. Pour the chicken (or vegetable) broth into the pot. Mix in the tomato paste, cabbage, kale, leeks, zucchini, basil, and parsley. Add some salt and pepper to taste. If the mixture is too dense for your liking, add some hot water. Cover the pot and reduce the heat to low. Simmer for 60 minutes. Add the beans, cover, and continue to simmer another 30 minutes. Serve with a generous sprinkle of Parmesan cheese. Pin It Now!

French Onion Soup

Mmmm, onion soup. I could eat bowl after bowl of this stuff. With the dropping temperatures, soup season has officially started and I thought the best way to kick it off was by making a big bowl of French onion soup. It's one of those classic soups that I never get sick of, which is probably party due to the fact that there is delicious melted cheese on top. When this soup was made, three of us managed to finish off the pot, and we could have probably all gone for more (yes, it was that good). This soup tastes like it is made at a fancy French restaurant, but in reality all it takes are some basic ingredients.

I have to confess that when I first put these soups under the broiler, they were in pretty hideous ramekins (see photo below) and I could not imagine that being the final picture of this soup. While in the process of transferring the soup into a mug, the bread sort of drowned and the cheese was hidden under onions. So don't worry, yours will probably look like a real French onion soup, unlike mine. Also, for recipes like this, I usually use up any bottle of red wine that I have lying around.

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Lentil Soup

Believe it or not, it's soup weather in Southern California. It's cloudy and 60ºF here, which many people would consider alright or pretty nice (especially anyone living in the Lake Tahoe area), but not when you have absolutely no cold tolerance. Seriously, I have none. I'm at the point where it gets embarrassing because my lips turn blue/purple in the cold and strangers think I am dying or need medical care. So in my book, 60º warrants a nice bowl of soup.

One of the easiest soups to make is this lentil soups. The ingredients are simple, it's budget friendly, and the flavor gets better by the day. This is another one of those recipes that you don't need to take too seriously. If you add a few more ingredients or swap out dried for fresh herbs, it will still be good. What I love about this soup is that it's really filling and hearty, but it's healthy and (almost) vegetarian. I prefer the flavor of chicken broth, but use vegetable broth instead if you want to keep it completely vegetarian. Serve this with a loaf of crusty bread and you'll be set for dinner (or lunch). If you don't own an immersion blender or food processor, the texture won't be as creamy, but the flavor will still be great.

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Minestrone Soup

I'm one of those people who is jinxed when it comes to staying healthy when flying. If there's someone on the plane who has a cold, I'll leave the flight with it. And that's exactly what happened on my last flight. I woke up this morning and realized what I thought was just an annoying sore throat was now officially a cold. Well, there goes my appetite. But, the one thing that always seems to go down well on a sick day is a hearty bowl of minestrone soup. There are so many variations to this soup that it seems like anything consisting of tomatoes, beans and veggies can be labeled "minestrone." Not feeling up for a trip to the grocery store, I was relieved to see that the fridge had pretty much every ingredient I wanted to use (except zucchini).

Since minestrone soup recipes seem to be such a hodge-podge of vegetable and flavors, I'm going to give you a recipe that has been my savior today. Here's my disclaimer: having a cold means my sense of taste is pretty nonexistent right now. I think this tasted great, but if I was feeling 100% I might find things to tweak here and there.
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Persian Barley Soup (Asheh Jo)

I love Persian food. Growing up, some of my friends came from Iranian backgrounds and their mothers were the best cooks (seriously, I would still gladly live off their food). I've always wanted to be able to cook like them, but have never given it a try. For about a month now (in the middle of summer) I've been eyeballing this recipe, wondering when I'd be able to make it. It combines so many things I love into what looked like a perfect winter soup. I finally got around to making this recipe today, after my first gloomy, cold and rainy day since June. While I was making this soup, I was really skeptical. The dish doesn't come together until the end when all the flavors have been cooking together for a while. But once this happens, it is awesome. It's a meal in a bowl, and even though I made a salad and garlic and Gruyere bread, I would have been more than happy just having the soup.

To me, Asheh Jo is more like a stew than a soup in terms on consistence since it's filled with lots of chunky ingredients and is not meant to be liquidy. Do not skip the step of shredding the beef in a food processor or blender. At first the meat was too tough and stringy, but shredding it solves all these problems. I was last minute in making this recipe and didn't have time to soak the beans overnight, so I used canned beans and it worked out fine. The lentils can be dry as that is plenty of time for them to cook. Don't skimp on the herbs either since they're a huge source of flavor. In my grocery store I can only get 1/2 cup chopped chives from one bunch, so make sure you have enough. Also, try not to be lazy and skip the garnish, the shallots add a great flavor! This soup is time consuming, but it is so delicious and makes a ton of soup, so you can easily freeze some and have some as leftovers.
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