When the weather outside is frightful, let your dinner be delightful. Winter made itself known last week, with snow, rain and wind all across the country, and it seems like everyone is coming down with something. But there is nothing more successful at combating the cold than a bowl of hot and hearty soup. We’ve gathered an assortment of ChefsLine chefs’ soup recipes here that promise to warm your tummy and your heart this holiday season. And we’ve also put together a list of soup basics that will help you make the most out of your soup recipes. Stay warm, stay healthy, and have fun cooking!

The Classics:
Vichisoisse
A Parisian staple, the leeks and potatoes are certain to satisfy the palate as well as bolster your immune system.
Escarole and White Bean Soup
This is a soup born in the Tuscan tradition, featuring white cannellini beans that are packed with proteins and hardy greens loaded with vital vitamins and minerals.
The Ultimate Chicken Soup with Perfect Knaidlach
Nourishing chicken soup from scratch never tasted (or made you feel) so good as when you add much-loved matzoh balls to the mix.
Maryland Crab Vegetable Soup
Crabs are big in Maryland, and this recipe has such a loyal following you know it has to be good.

Use What’s In Season:
Buttercup Maple Squash Soup
Winter squash makes for great soup, and this recipe really represents the flavors of the holiday season.
Cauliflower Squash Bisque
Another elegant use of squash and other vegetables. Healthy eaters never had a better reason to rejoice.
Thai Pumpkin Soup with Chile and Lemongrass
This soup is a fusion of the flavors of winter with the powers of peppers, ginger and garlic to fight off colds that so many people simply swear by.
Winter Vegetable Soup with Barley
Loaded with all the good stuff, and if you like you can add a meat of your choice to make it even more hearty.

The Basics:
Instant Miso Soup
Miso is an effortless but nutritious treat. Add tofu for extra protein.
Chicken Stock
When you start from scratch, you’ll be happy to have this one in your repertoire.
Vegetable Stock
Of course, you don’t need meat to make great soup.

Tips:
1. Take your time with soups (and sauces), if you have it to spare. If you are at a high altitude (2000 feet above sea level or higher), you may want to take even more time to let the soup cook, since water boils at lower temperatures. In fact, you will actually get a better soup if you make it ahead of time (a day or two), since the flavors become richer. It’s also a great opportunity to remove fat from the soup, since once it’s refrigerated the fat coagulates, rises to the top, and is easy to scrape off.
2. Although great soups begin with homemade stock, it’s not always practical, and if we only had soup from scratch we wouldn’t have soup very often. Broth from a carton or can as well as bouillons are perfectly good options when planning soups. Sometimes fresh ingredients are unavailable or inconvenient, so keep in mind that canned and frozen veggies are still pretty high quality, namely peas, beans, corn, artichokes, etc.
3. Serving soups in warmed bowls will keep it hot while you sip it.
4. Wine and beer make good soup ingredients, but a little generally goes a long way.
5. Use caution when adding spices and salt, because you can always add more but it’s difficult to remove the flavor elements after they’re in there. Most of your intense flavor components can be added toward the end of the cooking time. If you do over-spice the soup, you can simmer raw potatoes in it to absorb some of the excess flavor.
6. When preparing stocks and consommes for clear soups, keep in mind that almost as important as richness in flavor is its transparency. Don’t stir the stock, and keep the heat low. To further clarify it for consomme the next day, you can make a clearmeat mixture of lean low-fat meat, egg whites and mirepoix (finely chopped carrots, celery and onions) and heat the cold stock back up gently with that. The clear meat mixture will float, and will act like a magnet for particles that cause a clear soup to become cloudy. Remove and discard the clear meat mixture.