Hot soup is wonderful in the winter. In the warmer months, we always have a big bowl of banana ice cream (frozen bananas blended with cocoa powder) with our standard lunch of a large green salad with tofu strips or beans, but when it gets cold out, soup is more appealing! Soup is an easy way to prep food in bulk and in advance that is also nutrient dense and infinitely variable depending on what you have on hand. At this point you should be convinced: you need soup in your life. Here are some that we enjoy:

Red Lentil or Red Lentil-Vegetable Soup

Our go-to soup for years has been red lentil dal prepared in double or triple batches. Sometimes I make it with the curry powder listed in the recipe, and sometimes I make a lentil-vegetable version with diced carrots and broccoli added at the start of cooking – and no additional seasoning but some salt when I want something simple. We always have this with a baked sweet potato.

Potato Corn Chowder

Super easy – I don’t even measure or use a recipe so I’ll be giving you approximate portions of ingredients here! What’s great about soup is that you can start with a vegetable bouillon and water base or a vegetable broth base, and add whatever is on hand to end up with something delicious. This soup is just potatoes, corn, and other vegetables. This “recipe” makes enough for two people for two lunches or one person for four lunches.

Ingredients:

• 4-6 medium red or yellow potatoes, diced (you don’t need to skin, but remember to buy organic to avoid nasty fungicides)
• About 1 cup frozen yellow corn
• 1 cube vegetable bouillon (I use Rapunzel brand), vegetable base, and 4 cups water or 4 cups vegetable broth
• 1/2 chopped onion
• 1-2 stalks celery, chopped, if you have it

In a stockpot, heat a couple of tablespoons of water or broth and water-saute onion and celery until soft – probably about 5 minutes. You may need to add a smidge more water.

Add water and bouillon or base or the vegetable broth and turn the heat up to high. Add potatoes. Once boiling, turn down to medium and cover.

Simmer 20 minutes.

Add corn. Simmer 5 additional minutes. Serve.

Potato Broccoli Chowder with Cashew Cream and Smoky Maple Tempeh

This is also open to interpretation. You can leave out the cashews if you don’t have them or want the soup to be lighter, and you can omit the tempeh but it really adds a lot to the flavor! This also makes enough for 2-4 days.

Ingredients

• 4-6 medium red or yellow potatoes, diced (you don’t need to skin, but remember to buy organic to avoid nasty fungicides)
• About 2 cups broccoli florets, small diced
• 1 cube vegetable bouillon (I use Rapunzel brand), vegetable base, and 4 cups water or 4 cups vegetable broth
• 1/2 chopped onion
• 1-2 cloves garlic, if you have it
• 1/2 cup cashews soaked in boiling water for 30 minutes or cold water overnight if you don’t have a high-speed blender
• smoky maple tempeh, also sold as “Fakin Bacon”

In a stockpot, heat a couple of tablespoons of water or broth and water-saute onion and garlic until soft – probably about 5 minutes. You may need to add a smidge more water.

Add water and bouillon or base or the vegetable broth and turn the heat up to high. Add potatoes. Once boiling, turn down to medium and cover. Simmer 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, put the cashews in a food processor or blender with just enough water to cover and blend until no longer grainy. It should be a heavy cream consistency.

Add broccoli to soup and simmer 10 more minutes.

Meanwhile, cut the tempeh into little pieces and pan-fry on dry pan or with a tiny bit of cooking spray if you must, til browned.

Stir cashew cream into soup. Serve and top with tempeh bits.

Other Soups

Pasta Fagioli or Minestrone are also excellent options that are easily made plant-based and oil free. Tunisian Sweet Potato stew, a recipe in The Starch Solution by Dr. McDougall is AWESOME – it has sweet potatoes, chickpeas, green beans, and PEANUT BUTTER, how can you lose with that combination?! Come to think of it, there are a lot of great soup recipes in that book.

Give these, and the other soup recipes here a try (click the “Soup” category from the index at right). Freeze them, pack them in containers for work, travel with them, cook them in Crockpots, eat them with salad…enjoy !