Enjoy a world of affordable, simple and satisfying soups this winter
From a spicy laksa to Italian wedding soup, there’s a world-tour of warming winter soups to discover. These recipes, selected by Fresh Ideas Food Editor Amanda Lennon, cover all budgets and are perfect for a cosy night in. “The great thing about soups is that they’re so forgiving,” says Amanda. “You can play around with the ingredients you have on hand and still end up with something delicious.” Ditch the suitcase and passport, and travel the world from the comfort of your kitchen this winter.
01
Thai tom yum soup
This fragrant Thai soup is light yet totally satisfying and packed with veggies. You can adjust the amount of tom yum paste and chilli to suit your tastes – the lemongrass, kaffir lime leaves (also known as makrut lime leaves), lime and garlic add plenty of flavour.
Tip: To release the flavour and fragrance of lemongrass, bruise the stick by placing it on a chopping board and – using the flat edge of a large kitchen knife – pound along the stem a few times.
02
Turkish slow-cooker lamb & rice soup
Here’s a perfect soup for a cosy weekend gathering. If you use lamb shoulder instead of a lamb leg roast, remember to spoon off any excess fat that rises to the top before adding the rice in the last hour or so of cooking.
03
Italian wedding soup
While it might not actually be served at Italian weddings (its name comes from the way the ingredients combine to create a marriage of flavours), this hearty soup is definitely cause for celebration. Don’t have orecchiette (ear-shaped pasta)? Any other short pasta, such as fusilli (corkscrew), penne or farfalle (bow-tie), will be just as delicious.
04
Moroccan-style spiced lentil soup
This lentil soup is warming and quick for a winter midweek dinner. Coriander, paprika and rosemary from the Moroccan spice mix adds a fragrant flavour, plus it’s on the table in 30 minutes. This recipe also freezes beautifully, so feel free to double the quantities and save some for another time.
05
Braised beef & noodle soup
With rich, umami flavour, a glossy broth and chewy noodles, this winter soup recipe is comfort in a bowl. Adjust the amount of hot pepper paste to suit your taste, and use any Asian greens you want, such as bok choy or choy sum.
If you can’t find beef short ribs, you can use chuck steak or any other beef cut that requires slow cooking – they’re the ones with the most flavour!
06
Jeongol with kimchi
Korean-style hotpot
Bring the scents, flavours and fun of hotpot home. Traditionally, the broth is kept hot in the centre of the table and ingredients for cooking are served in bowls or on platters. People then serve themselves, dunking the thinly sliced meat and veggies in the broth. Once ingredients are cooked to preference, the soup is ladled into bowls with rice.
Gochujang (Korean chilli paste) adds heat to this dish, so experiment with the quantity to suit your taste. To make things even simpler, swap the rice for microwave rice.
07
Mille-feuille nabe
Japanese-style hotpot
The French phrase mille-feuille literally means 1000 sheets, layers or leaves, and it perfectly describes this nabe (Japanese hotpot) recipe. But, rather than stacking the layers horizontally (as in the classic French pastry), you pack the Asian green leaves and thinly sliced pork belly vertically into the pot before pouring over the stock. Serve this to guests for an impressive winter dinner that looks and tastes incredible.
08
Shabu-shabu
Japanese-style hotpot
A version of nabe, shabu-shabu is another flavourful hotpot dish to gather around. Once you’ve prepared all the ingredients, the actual cooking takes hardly any time at all - and is all part of the fun. Everyone cooks their own ingredients at the table, dunking them into the soup then dipping them into a ponzu sauce. As more ingredients are dunked and cooked in the soup base, it will take on an increasingly rich and rounded flavour – perfect for slurping once the dunking is done.
Tip: Semi-freezing steaks makes them much easier to thinly slice, which helps them cook to perfection in seconds.
09
Ukrainian borscht
While borscht is enjoyed throughout Eastern Europe, it’s long been claimed by Ukraine as the country’s national dish. It’s the epitome of the best of winter comfort food for so many reasons: its deep red colour, its warm, earthy flavour, and – of course – the fact that it’s packed with delicious winter produce, especially beetroot. This version makes for a complete a meal in a bowl, with a dollop of sour cream on top and a side of cheesy toasted rye sourdough.
10
British minted pea soup with bacon croutons
This British classic has been given extra veggie goodness with the sneaky addition of spinach, and zhooshed up with crunchy bacon and sourdough croutons. This is a no-brainer midweek meal for the winter months. It’s affordable, quick to make, and great for freezing (just leave out the bacon croutons). Double the quantities and freeze the remainder for busy days. For a meat-free version, use vegetable stock instead of chicken and leave out the bacon – too easy!
11
Greek-style lemon & chicken soup
Based on the traditional avgolemono soup, this comforting dish melts in your mouth thanks to its rich, zesty broth. Whisking the egg yolks and lemon juice separately with some of the warm (not boiling) broth before gradually stirring it into the remainder allows the mixture to emulsify more easily. For best results and to prevent curdling, make sure your egg yolks are at room temperature and that the broth isn’t boiling when you stir the egg and lemon mixture back in.
12
Chinese-style chicken & corn soup
This family favourite is super-quick and super-easy — you can have it on the table in 20 minutes, so it’s just the ticket for a midweek dinner. This is a great Monday night soup to make if you’ve roasted a chicken over the weekend and have some leftovers, but store-bought rotisserie chicken meat works just as well. You can also replace the fresh corn cobs with drained canned corn kernels.
13
Mexican-style chicken and tortilla strip soup
This hearty soup is quick and easy to prepare, using lots of pantry ingredients. It’s more like a stew, packed with veggie goodness, and can be spiced up with some pickled jalapeños added on top. For extra indulgence, turn it into a soupy nachos by adding a dollop of sour cream to each bowl.
14
French onion soup with beef
This French classic – with its floating island of a gruyère-topped crouton – never fails to impress. Serve this as a starter for a dinner party or as an indulgent Sunday-night meal.
Give yourself plenty of time: you want to cook those onions low and slow so they caramelise and turn a deep golden-brown. That caramelisation is what gives the soup its intense, sweet flavour, so stir the onions frequently to prevent them from catching and burning in the pan.
15
Malaysian chicken laksa
For a soup that’s so satisfying and packed with layers of flavour, this spicy laksa is surprisingly simple and quick to make. You could easily turn this into a vegetarian laksa by swapping out the chicken stock for vegetable stock, and the chicken for cubes of tofu. (Add your tofu chunks to the soup just before serving.) Or jazz it up for a weekend feast with prawns or a marinara mix instead of chicken.
16
Slow-cooked Vietnamese beef pho
For the classic Vietnamese soup pho (pronounced “fur”), it’s all about the broth and using a slow cooker is the perfect (and easiest!) way to create that heady, flavour-packed liquid that forms the base of this nourishing meal.
Set it and forget it, then come home to wonderful aromas and tender, fall-apart meat. After that, it only takes a few minutes to finish off. I like to serve bean sprouts, fresh herbs and lemon wedges on a big plate in the middle of the table so everyone can help themselves.