Soup Recipes

My two favorite soup making essentials are homemade broth as the base and my immersion blender. I received my immersion blender as a wedding gift 20 years ago and the only thing I ever used it for was chocolate shakes a few times. I'm so glad it survived kitchen gadget decluttering over the years.
Here are some of my favorite soup recipes as I have continued my quest of Mastering the Art of Soup Making.

Butternut Squash Soup http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/recipes/1975 This was my first try at making soup other than Chicken Noodle and I was so encouraged by the result I kept getting more and more adventurous! I followed the recipe exactly and it was perfect.


Split Pea Soup http://allrecipes.com/recipe/split-pea-soup-with-rosemary/
I made this soup New Year's Eve and it was super yummy! I used the ham bone from Thanksgiving instead of the bacon. Instead of chopping the rosemary, I put in a large sprig for flavoring and then removed before blending smooth with the immersion blender.

Sweet Potato Lime Soup http://paleodietlifestyle.com/sweet-potato-lime-soup/
I LOVE this soup. It is so yummy. I didn't have the lime leaves, but I did have limes, so I put in about 2 inches of zest and I liked the flavor.

Carrot and Winter Squash Soup http://www.domenicacooks.com/2011/11/zuppa-di-zucca-gialla-winter-squash-soup/ I found a squat green squash that looked like a small pumpkin at the country market nearby and no one knew what it was when I got to the check out. They decided to ring it up as an acorn squash which it clearly wasn't, so I thought that was pretty funny. Turns out it was a Buttercup squash (not Butternut). A Buttercup squash is sweeter than Butternut and has a great flavor for this soup. I roasted carrots, whole garlic cloves and leeks (since I was all out of onions) and it smelled pretty wonderful. I accidentally used four garlic cloves and it was just a tad more garlicky than I like, but it was still delicious.


Chicken Little's Soup with Coconut milk, Quinoa and Cilantro: My awesome sister in law gave me the recipe for the original chicken soup out of a church cookbook and it is so good. I'm basically obsessed with coconut milk these days and love putting it into just about everything, so I started experimenting and it came out great. I used the coconut milk and cilantro more as a condiment and added it to taste after filling my bowl. I used the quinoa as a noodle replacement and it added great texture.