Winter Warming Soups :: Food and Nutrition :: Recipes

Winter Warming Soups
by author Sally Errey, RNCP

Many commercial soups that are simply ready for reheating don’t even come close to the therapeutic, health boosting, vitamin- and mineral-rich soups made at home in your kitchen. Making soup at home allows you to double the recipe and freeze single servings for reheating at a later date, for a quick lunch, or weekend dinner.

The recipes featured this month have some special ingredients, such as ginger and cayenne, which have long been used for their warming effects on the body. Cayenne is helpful in the fight against sore throats and mouth sores, and the pigments in both cayenne and paprika are filled with disease-fighting antioxidants. Wild rice and wild mushrooms also make an appearance to help keep us grounded, add essential B vitamins, and supply much needed energy to stay warm. Wild rice is actually a long-grain marsh grass that grows wild in the Great Lakes area and is cultivated commercially in California and the Midwest. You’ll love this grain’s chewy texture and nutty flavour.

Soups are a perfect solution, whether you need a quick meal or have the time for some soup and solitude on a Sunday afternoon. Enjoy.

Spicy Moroccan Lentil Soup

Wild Rice and Mushroom Soup

Steamed Cauliflower Soup

Gingerly Carrot Soup

Beets Tahini Sauce

Sally Errey, RNCP, is an acclaimed speaker on optimum health and longevity through healthy nutrition and lifestyle choices. She is the nutritionist at the Centre for Integrated Healing in Vancouver, where her seminars, cooking classes, and consultations help transform peopleâ€™s lives. She is author of Staying Alive! Cookbook for Cancer Free Living (Belissimo Books). More information: 1-87-STY-ALIVE, stayingalivecookbook.com.

Source: alive #256, February 2004

Baked Butternut Bisque

Steaming Hot Soup
Men, women, young, old--everybody loves soup. Comfort food at its best, soup brings contentment to both mind and stomach, and promotes good health and humour in the tastiest way.

Veg Out for Summer
My mother was quite interested in the "back to raw food" movement sweeping through Germany when I was youn.

Live, Whole Foods
January is a perfect time to discover the cleansing and healing power of fresh, wholesome food full of live nutrients to support your digestion, lift your spirits and make you feel alive.

Valentine Soup

Recipes for Romance
Valentine's Day is a perfect time to show your loved one how much you care. This could be as simple as a special tea for two, as gourmet as a four-course meal, or as comfy as breakfast in bed.

Gifts From the Kitchen
Mother's Day is as much fun for the kids as for Mom. Giggling and whispering loudly, the darlings tiptoe to the kitchen to whip up traditional breakfast in bed.

Warming Winter Dishes
For many years I worked with Fred Edrissi, a European-trained professional chef, in the alive kitchen experimenting with different whole foods and developing unusual, but tasty recipes. We had a lot of fun together and always enjoyed the approval on the faces of the tasters as we passed out samples of our creations.

Take Time to Savour Slow Food
Rebellion against the fast-food industry has grown into the Slow-Food Movement, which encourages us to take pleasure in well-prepared, nourishing foods. These recipes incorporate a little slow-food style.

Cleansing Foods
After spending the cozy days of winter sipping hot chocolate and finishing the holiday cookies, our body systems can feel sluggis.

Cancer-Free Living
In order to make healthful choices we need to understand the latest disease-fighting foods. That's why I included the Top 40 cancer-fighting foods in my new book, Staying Alive! Cookbook for Cancer Free Living - so that you can incorporate them into delicious, satisfying meals.

Chilled Soups
Summer provides such a gorgeous bounty of health promoting foods, and what easier way to prepare them than to blend and serve them as a chilled soup? The tomatoes, peppers, onions, garlic, cucumbers, and herbs featured this month are all high in vi.

Zucchini-Potato Bisque
Adding aromatic lavender turns an ordinary dish into an exotic one. Besides perking up the palate, lavender flowers have antibacterial and antiseptic properties and are known to calm nerves, soothe colic and indigestion and relieve headaches, cramps and gas.

Bean Soup

Cucumber and Yogurt Cold Soup

Vegetable Soup

Spicy Cabbage Stew

Summer Gazpacho
Summer is a perfect time for this traditional soup inspired by the hot climate of the Mediterranean. Serves two to four.

Carrot Lentil Soup

Carrot Soup

Yellow Split Pea Soup with Prunes
Very healthy and very wealthy! This famous Eastern European soup was traditionally enjoyed by the wealthy people of the Balkan countries. Some make it with lentil, others use a variety of legumes. Serves two.

Herbed Carrot Soup

Vegetable Soup with Herb CrÃªpes
Why this soup? Because it's refreshing, evokes hot summer days and fully satisfies your hungry taste buds. Serves four.

Winter Garlic Dumplings
This is a great soup to have when you feel like staying in and watching a video. Invite a friend to share it with you - you'll be warm from head to toe!

Split Pea Soup
You can serve this soup with a hearty loaf of freshly-baked bread, but it's substantial enough that you can also serve it as a complete meal. Serves two.

Apple-Squash Soup with Cinnamon Croutons
This soup's unforgettable combination of flavours will comfort you, body and soul. Belle de Boskoop apples have a tangy refreshing taste and are well suited for cooking.

Yam Soup
Yams are full of antioxidants like beta carotene, which help prevent heart disease. Onions are thought to thin blood, lower LDL (the "bad" cholesterol) and raise HDL (the "good" cholesterol), discourage blood clots and fight atherosclerosis. Cayenne pepper contains antibacterial and antioxidant capabilities.

Cream of Broccoli Soup
In summer add a tablespoon of flax oil and serve this soup cold.

Corn-Barley Soup
Mom deserves the best. That's why I've cooked this wholesome and tasty soup for her enjoyment and health. Rapini (broccoli de rabe) comes in thin, stalk-like bunches with tiny broccoli florets. It's a member of the cabbage family and tastes a little like turnip greens. Serves four.

Five-Onion French Soup
The French never rush their onion soup. They take the time to enjoy every bite. The key is to simmer it slowly. The universal onion is said to increase body heat, improve kidney function, lower cholesterol and act as an antibacterial agent.

Roasted Butternut Squash Soup
Roasted and spiced butternut squash and yam combine in a bright, velvety soup that evokes the warmth of the hearth. It's also easy to digest and is loaded with complex carbohydrates and antioxidant carotenoids.

Wholesome Vegetable Stock

Beautiful Beet Soup
This delicious dish brightens any table.

Midwest Baby Corn Bisque

Tomato and Fennel Soup

Curried Pumpkin Soup

Quick Minestrone
Choose your own vegetables!

Butternut Squash Soup

Marvelous Mushroom Soup

Flax and Vegetable Soup
This quick and nourishing vegetable soup can be prepared in 15 minutes or less.

Mellow Miso Soup
Miso soup is the ultimate comfort food. Some people have even been able to wean themselves off coffee by drinking it regularly.

Speedy Tomato-Basil Soup
This quick soup is also perfect for busy moms after a day at the office. It needs minimal preparation and can cook while you get changed after work. The tomatoes provide an excellent source of lycopene, a cancer-preventive pigment, and the basil adds authentic Italian flavour as well as helps alleviate digestion and headaches. Serves six.

Fantastic Flaxseed
The first time I tasted flax seed oil, I was young and working for Siegfried in his bookstore. We were "going together and he invited me home to meet his family over breakfast.

Leek, Potato, and Herb Soup
To prepare leeks, remove the top, leaving about 1 inch of green. With a sharp knife, cut the leek in half lengthwise, and then cut each half lengthwise again.

Minestrone with Parmesan Croutons

Spicy Moroccan Lentil Soup

Wild Rice and Mushroom Soup

Gingerly Carrot Soup
Raw almond butter adds texture and depth of flavour to this tangy soup. You'll find essential oil of ginger at your health food store.

Mild Curried Ginger and Carrot Soup
Scientists have found that cooking and puréeing carrots increases the availability of their antioxidants more than three times. Keeping the outer skin on carrots (as with other fruits and vegetables) retains numerous extra cancer-fighting compounds.

Curried Zucchini Soup
Curry powder is made from a variety of spices, one of them being turmeric, which adds the rich yellow colour to the curry and a mild flavour; it also has powerful anti-inflammatory and anticancer properties. It is believed that regular use of curry contributes to India's reduced cancer rates.

Chilled Yogurt and Cucumber Soup

Gazpacho
I love this soup on a hot summer's day, for brunch, lunch, or as light evening meal served with crostini or pita bread. It's ideal for parties as it can be made and chilled in advance, and it's versatile enough to be served in glasses, a punch bowl, or in regular soup bowls.

Cold Avocado Soup

Oaxacan Tortilla Soup
Nora makes tortilla dough using only water and omitting the egg, but hers are much tougher than these tender tortillas. If you don't have the time to make your own tortillas, buy them at your health food store.

French Onion Soup
Miso comes in different "colours depending on the grain used. In this soup, use any kind of miso: blond, red, or dark. I like to use up whatever I have on hand.

Minestrone Soup
This recipe makes a meal complete with grains from the pasta, protein from the beans, and plenty of vitamins, minerals, and fibre from the veggies. Try adding a little sesame tahini to the finished dish to add calcium and a little more protein.

Traditional Italian Bean and Grain Soup

Alphabet Soup
School lunches can be both fun and easy when you buy a special soup Thermos for your child. Brightly coloured Thermoses are available at most supermarkets and drugstores and come in children's sizes.

Suppers for Savvy Seniors
This month's recipes are especially designed for seniors. Each one is easy to make and is just enough to serve one or two people. They provide lots of fundamental nutrition, which is important if these are the only meals a senior makes in a day.

Red Hot Tomato Soup
This soup is ready in 15 minutes and really packs a punch, providing 189 percent of your recommended daily dosage of vitamin C with each serving. It's also loaded with beta carotene from the peppers, tomatoes, and orange juice.

Sweet Spring Pea Soup with Mint
Green peas provide protein and minerals, and this recipe can be made with fresh or frozen peas. Their fabulous colour is both refreshing and inspiring when you're tired of mushroom soup.

Spinach and Basil Soup

Creamy White Bean Soup Seasoned with Green Chillies
This gourmet soup is perfect for company or as a warming soup on a winter day. A fresh herb garnish will highlight its pale green colour. You will find canned green chillies in the Mexican section of the supermarket. Be careful to look for mild or hot varieties, according to taste.

Italian White Bean Soup
This hearty bean soup offers winter warmth with a herbaceous hint of spring and a salty salute to the sea.

Soup of Sunchokes with Roasted Scallops
You might know sunchokes under their more official moniker, Jerusalem artichokes. Since they do not come from Jerusalem and are not artichokes, sunchoke is the more popular market term.

Heat and Eat
We often associate healthy, vegetarian cooking with mountains of prep work, chopping of veggies, and generally slaving over a hot stove for hours. It really doesn't have to be this way for you to serve up a well-balanced, sustaining, and nourishing meal.

Chilled Heirloom Tomato Soup with Dungeness Crab and Avocado
Fresh-tasting and forward-thinking, this is an ideal dish for tapping into the final seasonal crop of heirloom tomatoes.

Minestrone Soup
This soup is easy to make, tastes great for lunch or dinner, and freezes well. If you have arthritis and find it difficult to chop vegetables, use a food processor to slice them. This dramatically reduces preparation time and gives consistent results.

Cauliflower Soup with Black Winter Truffle Oil
Warm up with a smooth bowl redolent of cauliflower sweetness and the earthy essence of truffles.

Caldo Verde (Portuguese Kale Soup)
The secret to this thick green soup is to slice the kale into extremely thin strips.

Butternut Squash Soup with Roasted Garlic and Goat Feta Crostini
Rich, warm, and supremely satisfying, this soup greatly benefits from sourcing a healthy stock or making your own if time allows.

Veggie Broth
Use this broth as the base for a nourishing soup by adding a handful of grain (such as barley) and a can of your favourite beans.

Beautiful Borscht
Borscht is an incredibly powerful soup. Its rich colour signifies the presence of powerful plant pigments that have been shown to prevent the body from aging, environmental damage, and disease.

Cream of Organic Cauliflower with Honey Soup
Warm up with this creamy comfort food. Down-to-earth flavours of cauliflower blend smoothly with a hint of sweet honey. Rocky Mountain Flatbread keeps their daily soup pots full. This soup disappears from those pots as soon as their doors are opened.

Yummy garlic soup
This is a delicious and very healthy soup. It is great to bring to someone if they are sick or just to sit at home and eat alone.

Sorrel Soup
Sorrel is a hardy spring herb. It has a unique sour taste that is refreshing in a soup.

Glowbal Thinking...
While new restaurants continue to pop up on the West Coast, one restaurant has been attracting the stars, tourists, and locals alike with ever-changing medleys of luxury comfort food. In five short years, Glowbal Restaurant and Bar has become a Vancouver fixture.

Watermelon and Cucumber Soup with Seared Summer Sea Scallop
Chilled soup is perfect for those hot summer nights and this is a refreshing change of pace from more traditional gazpachos. The acidity and sweetness of the soup is beautifully balanced by the rich warmth of the scallop.

Squash Bisque
Squash the notion that this autumn vegetable is going to show up only in the proverbial pie with this richly flavoured and nutritionally rich soup.

Tuna with Capers on Crostini
A great first course bursting with flavours and easily adjusted for use with various types of fish. Salmon works well, as does the less costly albacore tuna. If you don't have garlic oil, simply crush a clove of garlic into a cup of canola oil and bring to heat before cooling-voila, garlic oil.

Tomato, Coriander, and Ginger Soup
If you are not a fan of ginger, make this soup with garlic instead. Choose either garlic or ginger, since using both will hide the flavour of the coriander seeds. Similarly, use curry leaves or cilantro, but do not use both.

Tasty Temptations for Your Ticker
The dietary elements for heart health are well known to many of us. However, we sometimes find them difficult to incorp-orate into our busy lives.

Golden Gazpacho
Few summer soups capture the freshness of the season with the clarity of gazpacho. This version takes a bit of time to let the many layered flavours combine, but can be adjusted to accommodate whatever texture or ingredients you choose. It's a wonderful starter or a summer lunch on its own.

Thai Hot and Sour Soup (Tom Yum Gai)
Heat broth in large soup pot; add garlic, lemon grass, galangal or ginger, soy sauce or tamari, fish sauce, chilli sauce, vinegar, brown sugar, and lime leaves. Bring to boil, then reduce to medium heat and allow to simmer while adding chicken (or tofu) and vegetables.

Garden Pea Soup with Steamed Whitefish
Use the freshest green peas to make this simple soup. The same philosophy applies to the whitefish, although you may opt to change the fish to your local availability and liking.

Favourite Fish With Fennel
Try this dish with fresh home-baked bread and a nice crisp, dry white wine. If fresh ling cod isn't available almost any fish-even shellfish-will make a reasonable substitute.

Wild Chanterelle Mushroom, Walnut, and Summer Savoury Soup with Nasturtium Flower Cream
Chanterelles provide a wonderful earthiness to the flavour of this soup, but feel free to experiment with other exotic varieties. The key is freshness.

Cream of Celery Soup with Salmon Tartar
This classic cream of celery is very aromatic. If you have a challenge finding celery root, you can use celery instead, but make sure to strain diligently to remove the threads.

Cinderella Pumpkin Soup
Cinderella pumpkins are a bright orange heirloom variety increasingly available at farmers' markets. If not at hand, substitute pie pumpkins or switch it up with a squash such as butternut.

Soul-Warming Soups
There's nothing like a steaming bowl of soup on a cold November evening. Soup not only warms up your body, but it soothes your soul as well.

French Onion Soup
In the 1970s every bride-to-be was almost guaranteed a set of French onion soup bowls as a shower gift. This lighter version of that popular soup is my idea of a comfort food.

Wild Mushroom Bisque
Mushrooms have long been touted as immune enhancers. This soup does more than warm your soul; it also supports your immune system for flu season.

Ginger Carrot Soup
Winter is the perfect time for a hot, healthful soup. Raw almond butter adds texture and depth of flavour to this tangy soup. You'll find essential oil of ginger at your health food store.

Mellow Lentil Sniffle Soup
In large pot on medium heat, add oil, onion, celery, carrots, garlic, salt, pepper, and spices, and stir through.

Squeeze some sunshine
Have you ever wondered why an apple turns brown after you cut it in half? But cut any citrus fruit in half and it remains virtually unchanged. The difference is the high level of ascorbic acid and other antioxidants in the citrus; they protect it from oxidation-like natural rustproofing.

Winter Greens Soup with Parmesan Garlic Croutons
Here’s a cold chaser rich in vitamins A and C plus essential iron.