Souped Up Meals and Starters

While we’re sad to see National Soup Month winding on down, it’s provided some audacious ideas to use all year round. It’ll be a few more months before we can maximize our enjoyment with colder soup varieties, but in the meantime, let’s take a look at some awesome ways to introduce all these new recipes to your table.

Vegan Cream of Broccoli Soup by Tess Masters
Simple, creamy and inviting to the senses. Since it’s so straightforward, taste-wise, it pairs excellently with a wide range of heavier entreés. We like to play off the classic Broccoli & Cheddar Bakes (like mama used to make!) by whipping up a chef salad with fresh cheddar and gorgonzola, or taking it in a “heavier” direction via fingerling potatoes dusted with parmesan.

Or, try it with grilled marinated chicken and another fresh vegetable as a side. You could always double up and go for steamed and buttered broccoli! Too much is never enough.

Creamy Roasted Carrot Soup with Citrus and Dukkah by Beard + Bonnet
Where do we even start with this ingenious concoction? Meg van der Kruik produces her own dukkah blend, including hazelnuts, sesame seeds, coriander and cumin. Surprisingly, such a complex dish is also very kid-friendly — they will love the bright tasting orange and will stock up with lots of nutrients in the process.

Keeping along the same theme, a simple grilled cheese sandwich is ideal for dunking. Heck, we would even go so far as to let our french fries take a dip! Heavier mains such as a hearty meatloaf are also swell in our book. This is ripe for experimentation!

Cheeky 10-Minute Chickpea and Rosemary Soup by Tess Masters
Yes, for real, it only takes 10 minutes! Because of that, this truly hits the mark as a snack or appetizer, but there are still great pairing options if you want to brew a full pot. Perhaps the best way to enjoy every flavor is just to grab a stack of naan—a fluffy Indian flatbread—and soak up all the goodness!

Or, if you’d like to make the soup a little thicker, you could pour it over a plate of basmati rice or quinoa. There are plenty of vegetarian/vegan and gluten-free options for this dish.

Well… what are you waiting for? Soup is the ultimate jack-of-all-trades, and is an essential kitchen staple. Happy cooking!