Healthy Soup

 

Soup season is here! There’s a lot to love about fall—beautiful weather, changing leaves, cozy baked goods, and hot drinks—but the soup recipes are hands down my favorite part.

I adore soup. I love making it, I love eating it, and I love packing up the leftovers so that I can enjoy it again the next day. When I’m stressed, I turn to soup because I find it meditative to cook. When I’m snowed in, I turn to it because I keep a stash stored away in my freezer. And when I’m in need of a healthy reset, I turn to it because it just makes me feel good inside.

To celebrate the start of soup season, I’m sharing my best tips for making soup recipes, as well as 35 of my favorite soups and stews. In addition to classics like French onion and butternut squash soup, you’ll find a host of inventive, veggie-forward soup recipes like zucchini soup with coconut and basil and a creamy white bean chili. I love them all, and I hope that you will too.

Best Tips for Making Soup Recipes

1. Season to taste. Raw vegetable ingredients need seasoning, and vegetable broths vary in salt level. If your soup is bland, don’t hesitate to add generous pinches of salt and lots of fresh black pepper. Taste as you go!

2. Drizzle with olive oil. I always finish soups with a generous drizzle of olive oil. It adds richness and makes the flavors sing.

3. Save some for lunch! Soup often tastes better on the second day, so be sure to make enough to have leftovers. Most soup recipes also freeze well for up to a few months. Check out this post for my best freezing tips!

4. Spice to your level. Customizing your soup is the fun, creative part of cooking soup recipes. If you’re making a recipe that calls for lots of spice but you prefer milder flavors, start with less. If you like things spicy, add more! Taste as you cook, and adjust the flavors to make something you really love.

Favorite Autumn Soup Recipes

In Chicago, soup season lasts from September to…well, way later than it should. I make soup recipes the whole way through, but I especially crave them now, in the heart of autumn. These 5 easy soup recipes are my favorites at this time of year. They’re cozy, comforting, and/or filled with aromatic flavor from herbs like rosemary, sage, and thyme.