20 Soup Recipes That Will Warm Your Soul This Winter

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

A little cream goes a long way in this earthy, supremely comforting soup.

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.

This spicy Chicken Laksa is a Malaysian soup that may have a long list of ingredients, but it’s super easy. Malaysian kitchens weave Chinese, Indian, and Malay culinary strands into a complex cuisine.

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.

We updated ribollita, a hearty, comforting Tuscan vegetable soup thickened with lots of day-old bread, with this lighter version. (We’ve added the bread at the end and only on top—and used oil sparingly.)

A delicious concoction of beans and vegetables, perfect for a cold winter day.

We like the robust flavor of red Swiss chard in this soup recipe from Sunset reader Juliet Grossman, of Temecula, California. You could also make it with green Swiss chard, which is milder, or spinach.

We left the soup chunky with a clear broth, but you could easily purée it to create a smooth soup. Just don’t skip the avocado mixture, as it makes a refreshing contrast to the beans and spice.

Day-old bread thickens this soup from Cathy Whims of Nostrana in Portland, giving it a custardy texture. The soup has a spicy kick, so cut back on the chile flakes if you’d prefer a milder flavor.

Romesco is a classic Spanish sauce made of ground tomatoes, peppers, onions, garlic, olive oil, and almonds. We turned it into soup. The powdered milk and the silky texture of cooked onions and roasted peppers help make it creamy, and the lentils add thickness.

This pretty soup takes on an added delicacy if you use ravioli made with thinly rolled pasta, but it’s good with the sturdier type too.

This soup is called “Sidekick” for two reasons: One, it’s a grilled cheese sandwich’s best friend, and two, it was a favorite at Sidekick Cafe—Cowgirl Creamery’s dearly missed lunch counter in San Francisco’s Ferry Building.

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.

The flavors are very gentle, making this a great family dish.

Reader Christine Datian, of Las Vegas, likes to use lots of spices in this soup recipe. Our version is medium-hot, but if you like it a little spicier, use the higher amount of serrano chile and a pinch more cayenne.

The slightly salty broth and fresh herbs in this easy fish stew are delicious soaked up with crusty bread.