Winter Soup Recipes
By Mary Carney
Wintertime is for cozy couches, warm drinks, and comfort foods. One of my favorites is soup.
Winter soup can really be made in a variety of ways with a similar broth or cream base all around. I like to experiment with different root vegetables and spices to come up with my favorite combinations.
The best part? These recipes can use up plenty of Nextdoorganics vegetables. Root vegetables and squash are often in our winter packages.
Below you can learn about two of my favorite winter soups, and hopefully you’ll taste test them yourself:
- Butternut Squash Curry
- Mushroom Leek Dijon
Butternut Squash Curry:
Ingredients:
1 large Butternut Squash (or any squash alternative)
1 Bottle Almond Milk
Butter
Olive Oil
1 Onion peeled and sliced
3 Apples
3 cloves Garlic
2 Tablespoons Cumin
Salt
Pepper
Bay Leaves
Instructions:
Begin by roasting your vegetables at 400 degrees. Prepare oven-safe pan or sheet lining with tin foil to save clean up time. Drizzle olive oil to cover bottom of pan and chop garlic placing in pan. Cut squash open and lay face down over garlic. Slice onions and apples, medium size pieces are fine. Add your onions and apples over your squash and garlic, drizzling more olive oil so pieces are coated. Roast for about 45 minutes or until squash skin bubbles, onions should look caramelized.
Once vegetables are roasted, remove from oven. Add onions, garlic, and apples to large pot for soup sauté on low with 2 tablespoons of butter. Remove squash and scoop out meat from skin. This should be fairly easy, if squash is still hard put back in oven for 10 more minutes.
Once squash is skinned, cut into smaller cubes for heating in pan. Add to pan and sauté for a few minutes before adding half a bottle of almond milk or covering vegetables to simmer. Use your eye to decide how much soup you are making, more almond milk, more soup. Once all the ingredients have been simmering for about 10 minutes you can add in your spices to taste. I like to add about 2 tablespoons cumin, 1 tablespoon of salt and pepper to taste. Now stir and let simmer on medium for at least 20 minutes.
When all ingredients are very soft and soaked in almond milk you can use your blender, food processor or wand to puree. Do this step carefully and safely as the hot liquid is going to expand in the blender. Puree in sections to be safe. Once all contents is blended add back to pan and bring to a low heat, adding the rest of almond milk contents. Now you can taste test adding your spices and whole bay leaves. Leave to simmer for about 15 more minutes so flavors can permeate. Now eat and enjoy!!
Mushroom Leek Dijon:
Ingredients:
3 leeks
1 1/2 cups of mushrooms
(any other vegetable you would like to use up, I also like to add kale or other greens)
1 box vegetable or chicken broth
3 tablespoons dijon mustard
hot sauce or sriracha (preference for hotness level)
1 onion
garlic
pepper
salt
garlic powder.
Start by preparing vegetable. Chopping leeks and onions into medium sizes or whatever is your preference. Slice mushrooms into halves, big pieces are fine. Finely chop any other green or kale your would like to add to the recipe.
Now on low, sautee your garlic onions and leeks bringing them to a golden coated state. Once they are here add in your broth, full can/cube/ or box. Follow by adding your spices and level of heat. I love giving this an extra kick, especially around cold season. It is great to heat up your chest and clear that sinus, plus it’s very healthy! I prefer to add 3 tablespoons of dijon. This will give the soup a tangy spice. Then complete with your salt, pepper, hot sauce/sriracha, and more garlic powder to taste.
Leave to sit on medium for 10 minutes, stirring pretty often. Taste and simmer on low for 15 more minutes to ensure all flavors have soaked into each other. Lastly enjoy with a nice slice of Scratchbread from our webstore or just on its own.
These soups make great leftovers or canned meals for later. They will hold in the fridge for about a week, if they last that long!
