Winter, summer, spring, or fall there are great soupls for every season that make the best use of seasonal ingredients. Whether a light and refreshing gazpacho or a hearty lamb daube, soup can make the meal - or be the meal.
I've had more bowls of bland, watery, insipid winter squash soup than I want to count -whether made with butternut, buttercup, or kabocha squash. So several years ago I set out to create a rich, complex, and satisfying squash soup and eventually came up with this recipe.
Serves 2.I suppose you could call this Cream of Mushroom Soup, after all it includes both cream and mushrooms. But the order is wrong it is more a Mushroom Soup with cream. Super savory but light, musky and fresh, simple and sexy.
Serves 2.This bean soup with country ham involves a trick I've never seen anyone else use. It seems so obvious and makes the beans so exceptional, and yet...
Makes 4 servings.Cheddar Soup? How can you go wrong? Extra sharp cheddar layers its distinctive bite over the unctuous richness of milk and cream. Serves 2.
This soup is best made with fresh tomatoes in season, but it’s also pretty good made with canned tomatoes in the dead of winter.
Serves 2.Beef Burgundy is another of those wonderfully hearty, slow-cooked meals suitable for a Dutch oven or slow cooker. And like most such dishes, it's even better on the second day, so this recipe plans for leftovers.
Serves 2 with leftovers.This traditional Italian soup, Pasta e Fagiole, recipe combines pasta and beans to produce a richly flavored and very inexpensive meal.
Serves 2.This French beef stew recipe is unusual because the meat is marinated in a vegetable mixture of onions, carrots, and celery, which brings an unusual lightness to the flavors.
Serves 2.This lentil soup is a great way to not only make use of leftover turkey bones, but some of the leftover turkey as well. Although the recipe makes a lot, it freezes beautifully.
Serves 6.What makes this soup so good is the beans soaking up the homemade stock as they cook - of course the country ham helps.
Serves 3.This chili recipe uses diced meat instead of ground beef, which gives it more character. It also includes homemade chile powder.
Serves 2 with leftovers.Fall and winter are the seasons for soups, stews, and braises. These are all cooking methods that involve cooking in liquid but most cooks make a serious mistake when making these dishes: they boil the meat,
don't.
This recipe for potato soup (or chowder) is simple and earthy and it manages to be filling without being heavy. A medium starch potato such Yukon Golds contribute to the thickness of the broth without the need to use flour.
Serves 4.Cold summer soups are particularly welcome at cookouts, barbeques, and even picnics where you're outside in the summer heat. I thought a collection of recipes for cold soups might be a nice addition to the holiday. So I've posted a few of my own recipes and included some of the favorites of other About.com guides.
My recipe for gazpacho is somewhat untraditional, but it's rich, lucious, and packed with the bright flavors of summer - everything one could ask for in a gazpacho recipe.
Serves 4.Vichyssoise is a cold leek and potato soup. This recipe for Vichyssoise has been adapted to serve 2.
Senate Bean Soup is served daily in the US Senate cafeteria. This version adds a bit of country ham to the mixture making it even more savory.
When I snap off the woody ends of asparagus for one dish or another I collect the ends in a plastic bag and freeze them. At the end of the season I make this asparagus soup recipe using the woody ends to make stock.
Serves 4.This is a wonderfully cool and refreshing recipe for cucumber soup with a nice touch of exotica from the curry. Serve as a first course at dinner – particularly with fish – or with a sandwich for lunch.
Serves 2.
