Oh how I love fall, whether it’s crisp, cool and crunchy or grey, rainy and blustery. Every day that I wake up to the sound of pouring rain or the sound of blowing leaves makes me smile. Pulling on a cozy sweater or wrapping a scarf around my neck makes me feel completely content. The fall flavours of apple, pumpkin, cinnamon and gingerbread are taking over my kitchen. Life is good.
Fall also means I add soup to our weekly dinner menu, and with soup comes amazing breadsticks, scones, French bread, and sourdough. I think half the reason I love soup so much is the sides. Besides the obvious, delicious lure of fresh bread, there are so many other options that don’t quite constitute dinner on their own. The other night we had mini cocktail sausages wrapped in puff pastry alongside our soup and called it dinner. Cheese and crackers are also a perfect accompaniment to soup, along with nachos, muffins, and simple veggies and dip.
I’ll be honest: I like soup for dinner more than my kids do. They love classic chicken noodle soup, so we definitely have that often, at least once a month, but other soups are always greeted with scepticism. For me, soup is one of my favourite ways to get a ton of veggies in one place, the perfect way to use up extra produce at the end of the week, and an excellent way to experiment with flavours and textures.
One of the best things about soup is that it’s easy to make a big quantity and it makes great lunches throughout the week. When I stayed with my parents last winter my mom made at least two kinds of soup every single week, and hot lunches were the norm. I guess you could say I was spoiled ;)
These soups all deserve a place in your meal rotation this fall and winter – and tell me if you have another favourite you eat regularly in your house!
4) Slow Cooker Ham & Lentil Soup
6) Bacon & Butternut Squash Soup
7) Jalapeno Butternut Squash Soup
8) Slow Cooker Tomato Basil Parmesan Soup
9) Spinach & Sausage Soup (30 minute meal)
10) Roasted Red Pepper & Sweet Potato Soup
Enjoy this beautiful season!
Hi Anna,
It snowed yesterday for the first time here in Hamilton. There’s nothing like sitting in church with the snow falling outside, knowing that at home you’ll be having warm soup for lunch and dinner. In this case, that was the tomato basil parmesan soup, and it was perfect. Like poetry in my bowl. James, too, agreed that it was “well-balanced.” I’m sure we aren’t the only family grateful for the ideas that you give to our beloved wives and mothers. Thanks for the work you do here!
Jeremy, thank you so much for the upbuilding and encouraging comment, it is very much appreciated. And I’m impressed with your parenting that your little guy can consider a meal so thoughtfully :)
We have soup at least once a week this time of the year too! There’s something so cozy and comforting about it! Even had it for dinner tonight :)
Love these soups – I’m always looking for new ones to try.
These look delicious. We love making taco-style soup: ground turkey, veggies, diced tomatoes, beans if you like and eating it with tortilla chips, avocado and a little cheese on top. I like it because the veggie types and quantities are so easy to play with and it’s like tacos for winter.
Yum! I love soup :)
I crave soup like crazy in the winter! Thanks for all of the recipe ideas.
We have soup pretty much every Wednesday all winter long (and often during the summer too). One thing I’ve started to do is keep a large container in the freezer labeled “Soup Add-ins”. Any left-overs that could even remotely go into soup which are too large to eat as you clear the table but not large enough for a meal tomorrow … freeze them in a small yogourt container, and when frozen I pop it out and add it into “Soup Add-ins” container. At the end of the summer I had several giant carrots from my garden, too woody to eat raw — cooked them, pureed them, frozen in smallish quantities — waiting to be added to soup. Just this past week we had middle eastern lamb stew … we’d eaten all the lamb out of it, but I pureed the broth and vegetables and added it into bean soup … flavour was incredible!
Obviously, if you’re following a specific recipe you have to be careful what you add in, but for just random left-over style soup, this method gives you something new every time.
And thanks for this compilation of soup recipes … maybe I’ll work my way through them this winter.
We eat soup occasionally in the summer too but Carl is never very impressed with that :) The soup add-in container is a brilliant idea! We had celery from our garden that was too bitter to eat so I froze it in bags for soup, but I should keep adding to the bags so they’re handy when soup making time comes. Soup is awesome for cutting down food waste…that’s where my broccoli and cauliflower stems usually end up too :) The lamb stew sounds amazing…I’ve yet to cook with lamb!