Category: 90 Best Soup Recipes

Roasted Tomato Soup

The tomato soup to make if you have a good blender and a haul of tomatoes. Tomatoes, onions, garlic, and a red pepper are roasted, then seasoned with a touch of smoky paprika. Couldn’t be more simple or flavorful.

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This is a variation of the roasted tomato soup recipe I featured in Super Natural Cooking. I love it because it’s one of those recipes that is quite simple, but the results are absolutely chef’s kiss. You use just a handful of ingredients – tomatoes, garlic, red pepper, etc. – then slice and roast them to the point of browning and collapse. Puree, season with a kiss of smoked paprika, and enjoy. That’s it.
roasted tomato soup in a bowl with various toppings

Roasted Tomato Soup: Inspiration

The inspiration for this soup came years ago when I picked up a Mariquita Farm Mystery Box.  So heavy, I suspect it weighed in the thirty pound range. The bus was overflowing with a rainbow of produce – little gem lettuce, Hungarian spicy peppers, lacinato kale, Danish carrot beets, minicor carrots, tomatoes, sweet peppers, chard and scallions. Hidden beneath the rest of it, at the very bottom, so as not to crush her leafy neighbors, was a hefty rouge vif d’estampe pumpkin the color of a fiery sunset. Plenty to keep the kitchen lively in the coming week. But we started by reaching for the tomatoes – slicing them, dicing, and enjoying them raw. And there *still* were plenty that needed to be used up. I thought of the roasted tomato soup in Super Natural Cooking, fired up the oven, and started slicing.

Roasted Tomato Soup: Variations

  • Too Hot To Use The Oven: Use the grill to cook everything in place of the oven. Puree, load with toppings and enjoy!
  • Make it Chunky: Save a few of the roasted tomatoes from the blender. Chop those by hand and stir them back in after blending the rest.
  • Serve it Chilled: I tend to serve this soup heated, but you can serve it hot, cold – or whatever the weather calls for. And you can do it a day or two in advance if need be, it keeps well refrigerated.

roasted tomato soup in a bowl goat cheese and chives as toppings
What to Serve with This Soup

Serving a soup like this along with some freshly baked bread is the way to go. Some favorite options:

More Soup Recipes

If you enjoy making soups as much as I do, you’ll want to start making your own homemade bouillon powder. So easy, and nice to keep on hand!

More Tomato Recipes

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Zucchini Soup

A simple and delicious zucchini soup made with potatoes, sautéed onions, and bolstered with spinach. Add a bit of chopped chile for heat if you like. It’s light and healthful, and at the same time creamy textured and plenty tasty.

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This is a straight-forward zucchini soup with a couple twists and tricks to make it ever-so-slightly special and unique. You might not think that a soup with zucchini as the primary ingredient would be worth cooking, but this soup attempts to win you over!
zucchini soup in a bowl with a spoon and toppings

Zucchini Soup: The Inspiration

The inspiration for this soup is simple: peak summer paired with too much zucchini. One option is to use it in a soup. But pale, watery zucchini flesh is a bit sad, and not much to look at. No worries, we have a plan. The potatoes in this recipe provide a good amount of body. And to boost the color and visual appeal, fresh spinach is the secret weapon. By giving spinach a supporting role a vibrant cilantro-flecked zucchini soup in an eye-popping shade of green is created. With a nicely boosted nutritional profile as a bonus.
zucchini soup in a bowl with a spoon and toppings

Creamy without Cream

The goal here is a smooth, pureed soup. I wanted a creamy consistency without relying on copious amounts of heavy cream. I ended up using potato in the soup base which gives the soup a bit of heft and thickness, something people often mistake for a fully cream-based soup. You could finish this soup lwith a tiny splash of cream, or a dollop of creme fraiche, but quite honestly it’s not necessary. Delicious either way!

Week-night Friendly

This soup is great if you like to meal-prep. The bulk of the time commitment here is in the chopping. Beyond that the soup only takes about 15 minutes to make once the ingredients start hitting the pot. It’s a great make-ahead option and keeps well in a jar, refrigerated, for 4-5 days.

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Persian New Year Noodle Soup (Ash Reshteh)

An amazing Persian New Year Noodle Soup (Ash Reshteh) inspired by a version in Greg & Lucy Malouf’s beautiful book, Saraban. At its core, this is a celebratory bean and noodle soup featuring thin egg noodles swimming in a fragrant broth spiced with turmeric, cumin, chiles, and black pepper. Loaded with spinach and herbs, you serve it topped with walnuts, caramelized onions, and a dollop of something creamy. It’s amazing.

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I started cooking Persian New Year Noodle Soup (Ash Reshteh or Ash-e Reshteh) regularly sometime around 2010. Kate, a friend (and longtime reader of the site), told me the bookshop she works at (in Australia) hosted Greg & Lucy Malouf as they were promoting their book Saraban: A Chef’s Journey Through Persia. She told me to look for the book in the U.S. because she suspected I would enjoy it. Kate knows her cookbooks. I quickly tracked down the book and this, the Ash Reshteh (New Year Noodle Soup), was the first thing I cooked from it. Completely blown away, I was convinced it was the best thing to come out of my kitchen in years, and I’ve cooked it dozens of times since.

a bowl of persian new year noodle soup (Ash Reshteh) in a bowl

Ash Reshteh (Persian New Year Noodle Soup): The Details

Traditionally, this is a preparation associated with Persian New Year (Nowruz) but there is a long list of reasons I like to make it more often. In Persian culture, the new year is an opportune time to wrangle the “threads” in your life, and to set intentions and direction for the year ahead. That’s where the noodles come into play here. At its core this is a fortifying, nutrient-dense bean and noodle soup featuring thin egg noodles swimming in a fragrant broth spiced with turmeric, cumin, fresh chile, and black pepper. You use a medley of lentils, chickpeas, and cranberry beans to create a soup that is hearty and filling without being heavy. You add spinach, dill, and cilantro. You add lime juice for a bit of sour at the end. And then you prepare a number of toppings to add when you serve the soup – chopped walnuts, deeply caramelized onions, and sour cream (kashk). It’s a formidable ingredient list, but results in hearty bowls of, arguably, one of the world’s great soups.

The Ingredients:

A few notes related to shopping for ingredients.

  • Beans & Lentils: There are three types in this soup: borlotti (or cranberry beans), chickpeas, and lentils. They all have different cooking times which can be a bit of a pain. If I don’t have any beans pre-cooked in my freezer, I cook the cranberry beans from scratch, use canned chickpeas, and cook the lentils with the soup broth because they’re relatively quick to cook. I’m definitely a hard pass on canned lentils.
  • Stock/Broth: For this recipe I like to use water plus 2 tablespoons of this homemade bouillon powder to make my broth. Or you could do it with whatever bouillon you keep on hand. In general, stay clear of carton vegetable broths that have a lot of tomato or assertive vegetable flavors. You’re probably better off with water and can make adjustments from there if needed.
  • Noodles: I’ve played around with a range of noodles here over the years. I love to use thin-ish egg noodles, but the Persian grocer near me only stocks a generic sampling of spaghetti and vermicelli, so that’s where we landed the last time around. Andy Baraghani uses linguine in his wonderful version.

a bowl of persian new year noodle soup (Ash Reshteh) in a bowl to the side of a pot of soup on a sunny table

Persian New Year Noodle Soup: The Game Plan

Making Ash Reshteh can be relatively low lift if you do a bit of pre-planning. Making a couple of the components ahead of time, mostly passively, helps everything come together smoothly.

  • Make Ahead: Beans – The next time you cook borlotti or cranberry beans, make double and freeze them in sandwich-sized baggies. Same goes for chickpeas. Although, I tend to just grab a can of those off the shelf for this soup. The day you want to make this soup, you’re ready to go with fully cooked beans. Check.
  • Make Ahead: Caramelized Onions – Make the caramelized onions up to a few days prior. In fact, make triple the amount if you’re up for it. That way you have special onions to top the soup, AND pizza, pasta, or whatever sandwiches you might be throwing together. Keep the a jar in your refrigerator and bring up to room temperature before serving, so you’re not putting a cold topping on a hot soup.
  • Make Ahead Walnuts: Toast the walnuts up to a few days ahead of time.

Leftovers:

There are rarely leftover noodles, but usually there is enough broth, beans and lentils for great leftovers. I love to serve it over rice for lunch – loaded with toppings, of course!

a bowl of persian new year noodle soup (Ash Reshteh) in a bowl

Further Reading & Other Versions of Ash Reshteh:

Some of my favorite meals over the past few decade have been Persian or Persian-inspired. I love the abundant use of herbs, and color, and texture all rooted in traditional preparations. At one point I signed up, on a whim, for a brunch hosted by Komaaj in San Francisco, this was years ago. The food explored the ingredients and flavors of Northern Iran. It was regional Iranian, the menu happened to be vegetarian, and every bite was special. If you are interested in taking a deeper dive, or other versions of Ash Reshteh, here are a few suggestions.

More Noodle Soup Recipes

More Soup Recipes

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Creamy Wild Rice Soup

A hearty wild rice soup loaded with mushrooms, flecked with fresh thyme, and bolstered with Gruyere cheese and cream. The perfect winter warmer.

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Do yourself a favor and buy a couple bags of wild rice. Now cook up a big pot, be patient, wait for the rice to plump and split. Freeze some for future meals, and put the rest to use in whatever you’re cooking this week. I’m never sorry to have wild rice at the ready and this creamy wild rice soup is case in point. It’s a creamy winter warmer loaded with chewy, nutty wild rice and pan-fried mushrooms, fragrant with fresh thyme. So delicious!

A pot of soup on a marble table with chunks of sourdough bread and bowls.

Creamy Wild Rice Soup: the Ingredients

The ingredient list for this soup is relatively short. Once you have some cooked wild rice (which you can make a couple days ahead of time), the rest of the prep is primarily chopping mushrooms and grating a bit of cheese.

  • Mushrooms: You have a lot of flexibility here. You can use whatever mushrooms you typically purchase, or experiment with varietals you find at local farmers’ markets.  Brown button mushrooms from the grocery store work well. Or mix it up like I did for the version pictured here. Each mushroom has a unique flavor and texture. Floppy mushrooms I like to tear into pieces. And chopping firmer mushrooms into small pieces is the way to go.
    A sampler of different mushroom varietals
  • Wild Rice: My pro-tip related to wild rice is to avoid undercooking it. It definitely takes some time to cook, often an hour or more, but I like to let a lot of the grains split before draining off any additional water.
  • Cheese: I like to use a creamy, assertive cheese like Gruyere in this soup, but you can experiment. The key is strong flavor – give cheeses like mozzarella a pass here.
  • Cream: I use a heavy cream to give the broth in this soup body and richness. But on occasion I’ll substitute cashew cream – I tend to keep cashews on hand, but not always heavy cream. Instructions for both are included below.

A pot of creamy wild rice soup in a rustic pot.

How To Make Wild Rice Soup

To make this an easy weeknight meal you’ll want to cook the wild rice ahead of time. Just choose a window a day or two ahead of time so it’s ready to go when you want to make the soup. From there it’s quite straightforward.

  1. Saute the shallots and fresh thyme.
  2. Chopped mushrooms go in next, cook until browned.
  3. Add the water, broth, and/or bouillon.
  4. Stir in the wild rice.
  5. Grated cheese and cream are the grand finale.
  6. Season with salt and black pepper.

A bowl filled with creamy wild rice soup topped with fried shallots
Also, don’t sleep on the leftovers here. This is one of those soups that is even better the day after. It thickens a bit, the flavors deepen and meld in a wonderful way. 

Variations:

If you end up loving this soup, and making it part of your cooking repertoire, you can switch up a bit.

  • Make it spicy: I like to add a minced serrano pepper (or two) to introduce a bit of kick here. You could also use dried chile pepper flakes.
  • Not mad at celery: If you add a couple stalks worth of chopped celery along with the shallots, you really introduce that holiday stuffing flavor profile. People love it and the whole situation makes your house smell like a place everyone wants to be.
  • Roasted winter squash: Adding some roasted winter squash to this wild rice soup is an ideal paring. If you finish off each bowl with some roasted delicata squash, or simple, roasted butternut or honeynut squash you add a bit of visual flare as well. And toss in some toasted pumpkin seeds while you’re at it!

A pot of creamy wild rice soup in a rustic pot.

More Creamy Soup Recipes

More Soup Recipes

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