Dial Up the Comfort: Favorite Winter Soup Recipes

This creamy, lemony, mushroom soup with roasted garlic, roast chicken, and noodles is one of those recipes that I'm happy to eat all year round, but it feels especially comforting on evenings when the sun sets early and the air is crisp and cool.

This Latvian Stew recipe is based on a dish from the pages of A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles. It's a simple, comforting combination of tender, slow-cooked pork shoulder, carrots, onions, apricots, and prunes that's warm and flavorful, and even better the next day.

Here's an excerpt from the pages of the novel that inspired this rich stew: “...the onions thoroughly caramelized, the pork slowly braised, and the apricots briefly stewed, the three ingredients came together in a sweet and smoky medley that simultaneously suggested the comfort of a snowed-in tavern and the jangle of a Gypsy tambourine.”

This vegan broccoli cheese soup is a bowl of veggies disguised as creamy, cheesy comfort food. It contains a rainbow of vegetables including potatoes, carrots, tomatoes, onions, garlic, and a ton of broccoli. But, it tastes rich, velvety, and cheesy without actually containing any cream or cheese.

Zuppa Toscana literally means "soup in the style of Tuscany", a definition that leaves a lot of room for interpretation.

This hearty version is packed with buttery yellow potatoes, Italian sausage, bacon, and kale. It's creamy, delicious, comforting, and completely crave worthy.

Tender sirloin and crispy bacon swim in a garlic red wine broth with chewy pearls of barley, sweet carrots, and earthy roasted mushrooms. Beef and barley soup is rich and meaty enough to be called a stew, but ready to eat in just over an hour.

This Green Chili recipe is the result of years of tweaking and testing (and eating!), until it was packed with as much rich, meaty chili flavor as I could cram in there. The recipe makes a giant pot of Chili - enough for a crowd or for dividing up and freezing into smaller portions. 

Eat this Pork Green Chili on its own, in big bowls, with warm flour tortillas for dipping. Or, use it to smother burritos, enchiladas, or Chili Rellenos.

This creamy, warm and slightly spicy Spanish Potato Soup is comfort food at its best. Buttery Yukon Gold potatoes are cooked in a broth flavored with onion, red pepper, garlic, cumin, oregano, and paprika.

Add some sour cream, cheese and pork carnitas and serve with warm tortillas or bread to sop up all that delicious broth.

This is the most flavorful and delicious split pea soup I've ever eaten, and exactly the kind of thick and creamy soup I crave on a cold day. The recipe includes plenty of ham for the meat eaters or vegan substitutions if you're looking for a meatless meal. Most importantly, this split pea soup is topped with crispy truffle fried potatoes which takes it from delicious to 100% irresistible.

This is one of those fast cooking, super satisfying recipes that has a guaranteed spot on permanent meal time rotation at our house.

Pre-roasted chicken and black beans are simmered in a red chili broth flavored with garlic, onions, oregano, and cumin.

Then, come the toppings... Pile your bowl with tortilla chips, avocado, lime, green onions, jalapeños, cilantro, and sour cream.

The soup is an hearty, mouthwatering weeknight meal that will be on the table in just over 30 minutes.

This is one of those hearty soups that tastes like something you've been cooking all day, but actually only takes about an hour. The soup is packed with vegetables and tender pieces of marinated sirloin steak. Unlike tougher cuts of beef, sirloin doesn't need to simmer for hours to get tender, and allowing it to marinate overnight makes it extra tender and flavorful.

This creamy black bean soup is spicy, smokey, and savory with hints of sweet and sour. It's filling without weighing you down, decadent and nutritious, and the kind of vegan food that could please even the most dedicated meat eater.

The soup comes together in under an hour and will keep well in the refrigerator for days. In fact, it might even be better the next day.

This creamy, curried roasted cauliflower soup with toasted coconut and crispy fried mushrooms is all about layer after layer of flavors and textures that stick to your ribs and warm you from the inside out.

Red lentils are cooked until tender and creamy in a broth flavored with paprika, cumin, and a few pieces of ham, then topped with bright, flavorful Aleppo Pepper Oil and fresh parsley.

This simple recipe is one of my favorite things to make on lazy evenings when I want a hot, comforting, nutritious meal in under an hour, without putting in a lot of work. 

Vegetarian Chili packed with beans, onions, poblano peppers, red bell peppers, zucchini, and tomatoes simmered in a spicy red wine broth, then topped with a spicy red wine broth chimichurri sauce, fresh Pico de Gallo, and fried tortilla strips.

The chili is delicious on it's own, but the toppings really do take it to a whole new level.

This creamy chicken chili packs some serious flavor thanks to the addition of chorizo sausage, green chilies, chipotle peppers, roasted corn, and salsa verde.

Butternut squash is roasted in brown butter and sage then pureed with shallots, garlic, a hint of maple syrup and crushed red pepper, enriched with sour cream, and garnished with applewood smoked ham, croutons, and cilantro.

This versatile creamy chicken and rice is the most delicious kind of magic. It's one of those recipes that is the perfect opportunity to use up whatever leftover meat and veggies are in your refrigerator, transforming them into a warm and comforting meal.

Traditionally, French onion soup is made by cooking onions for a long time on the stovetop over low heat until they are rich golden brown. This makes a delicious, flavorful broth, but it's also time-consuming and requires you to be home for the several hours that the onions are cooking.

Cooking the onions all day in a slow cooker is SO much easier and still produces a delicious, flavorful French onion soup.