Homemade Soups for Winter Warmup

Had a half pound of ground meat I needed to use do made another soup. Perfect as we had a snow storm this week and soup warms the house and us! Browned the beef, added 1/4 red wine, one can of diced tomatoes, two cans of water and.....surprising 2 t. Au Jus powder. Yes, the dried stuff that you just add water to if making French Dips. I didnt have beef stock so I played Chopped with what I had in the pantry. Made small shell pasta in separate pot and added them to the soyp at the end. Final touch, 7 drops of Tabasco. It was delicious and so easy!

My favorites include Tomato, Orzo & Chicken soup, Loaded Baked Potato, Garlic Soup, Beef Stew & Sausage & Lentils. Tomorrow is soup making day for me.

'Monastery Lentils' from "Diet for a Small Planet." I cook the lentils with sautéed carrots and celery, a bay leaf and some cloves, and when they are soft, stir in a can of whole tomatoes cut up, and adjust the seasonings. Serve topped with shredded cheese and alongside cornbread. Yum!

Carrot soup with sweet onions, chicken broth, coconut milk, lemongrass and ginger.

Paul Bertolli's cauliflower soup. So simple and delicate flavors.

My hands down favorite is avegolemeno. It's a great way to use leftover rice and chicken. We always have home made chicken broth in the freezer and the only other ingredients are lemon and eggs.

Split pea is a classic but it does take time and finesse to make the smokey ham flavor meld evenly throughout, so I thought I'd add a fast one [well, fast if you have a pressure cooker...]

The best/most satisfying 30minute soup I've ever made is a curried squash soup. Toss pre-cut butternut squash with thai curry paste put in pressure cooker with diced onion and coconut milk (I get the "value size" aka 3-5 pounds of butternut squash and use 1 can of the coconut milk). I cook it for 15minutes after reaching pressure on my lower setting and slowly release pressure. The squash completely "melts" so no pureeing is needed unless you dislike the onion's texture finish with julienned herbs plus maybe a little melted butter/ghee if you're feeling decadent.

(You can do a similar thing without the pressure cooker with lots of coconut milk and stock, but I love the uber squash flavor of this version even more than the speed.)

Our "go to" is chicken noodle or rice soup made from leftover roast chicken (or even a store bought rotisserie chicken), onion, garlic, celery and carrots. Last night I added a bunch of escarole to it. When I make it with rice I like to add lemon and dill.