14 Favorite Winter Soup Recipes that Dial Up the Comfort

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#1. Creamy Chicken Noodle Soup with Garlic and Mushrooms

Creamy, lemony, mushroom soup with roasted garlic, roast chicken, and noodles is exactly the kind of meal that warms you from the inside out.

Start to finish, this creamy chicken soup will take you about an hour. It reheats really well, so I like to make enough for at least a lunch or two, and even better if we can eat it again for dinner later in the week.

#2. Latvian Stew

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."

#3. Vegan Broccoli Cheese Soup with Crispy Fried Potatoes

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.

#4. Zuppa Toscana

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

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

#5. Beef and Barley Soup with Mushrooms and Bacon

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.

#6. Green Chili with Hatch Chile and Pork Ribs

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.

#7. Spanish Potato Soup

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.

#8. Split Pea Soup with Crispy Fried Potatoes and Truffle Oil

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.

#9. Quick and Easy Chicken Tortilla Soup

This chicken tortilla soup 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.

#10. Black Bean Soup with Pickled Onions and Cilantro Oil

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.

#11. Curried Roasted Cauliflower Soup with Crispy Fried Mushrooms

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.

#12. Red Lentil Soup with Ham and Aleppo Pepper Oil

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 red lentil soup 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. 

#13. Vegetarian Chili

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.

#14. Rotisserie Chicken Soup in 30 Minutes or Less

This super easy method to making chicken soup can be used to make any number of servings using almost anything in your refrigerator and pantry and is as warm and comforting as a hug from your favorite person.

Because honestly, I can't help but think that we all need a few more ways to get dinner on the table in a not-precious but still delicious use-what-you-have kind of way. Also, we probably all need more hugs even if they come in the form of chicken soup.

Homemade Bread Recipes to Serve with Soup

Homemade Dinner Rolls: These dinner rolls have been a staple recipe in my family for decades.

They show up on holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas, and on birthdays, and family dinner nights, and nearly every time someone in my house says, "Can we have those rolls?" Or, when someone invites us to dinner and says, "Would you please, please bring those rolls?"

Homemade Flour Tortillas: Soft, warm homemade tortillas are one of the best things in the whole wide world. Combine that with how easy they are to make and flour tortillas from scratch becomes one of the few life decisions for which there can be no regrets.

Unless you eat them all yourself. Even then. Probably worth it. This all-butter recipe is so easy and delicious, you may never buy tortillas again. 

Flaky Buttermilk Biscuits: If you're craving fluffy, tender buttermilk biscuits with hundreds of flaky, buttery layers, stop right here. Here's how to make homemade buttermilk biscuits that are soft on the inside, slightly crispy on the outside, and rise to impressive heights with layer after delicious layer.

Homemade loaves of honey wheat bread or simple white bread: Both of these recipes will give you two loaves of this soft, fluffy homemade bread in about 3 hours, with only about 20-minutes of hands-on effort.