Sometimes winter is chilly, and sometimes it’s downright cold. But a hot soup is good for the cold. While we’re no strangers to the canned variety, these recipes for healthy winter soups take it up a nutritional notch with everything from cauliflower to fresh kale to roasted red pepper.
Check out these 25 healthy winter soup recipes to thaw your chilled bones and keep you satisfied during a long winter’s night.
Best healthy winter soups
- Slow cooker Italian chicken, quinoa, and vegetable soup
- Turmeric tomato soup
- Mediterranean kale, cannellini, and farro stew
- Tomato and vegetable white bean soup
- Lentil vegetable soup
- Cauliflower roasted red pepper soup
- Nine vegetable hot and sour soup
- Butternut squash apple soup with sage Parmesan croutons
- Vegan split pea soup
- Chicken tortilla soup
- Dairy-free broccoli soup
- Moroccan-inspired chickpea stew
- Pizza soup
- Easy slow cooker white chicken chili
- Curried pumpkin soup with maple-ginger caramelized onions
- Pressure cooker wild rice mushroom soup
- Creamy roasted vegetable soup
- Stuffed pepper soup
- Seafood chowder
- Slow cooker black bean and kielbasa soup
- Chard and white bean stew
- West African-inspired peanut stew with chicken
- Potato leek soup
- Red lentil dahl soup
- Chicken noodle soup
Load up your slow cooker the night before, hit start in the morning, and thank yourself at dinnertime. Chicken, veggies, and a few red pepper flakes to give this one a kick.
Three of our favorites come together in one bowl: turmeric, apple cider vinegar, and coconut oil. It’s a nutrient-dense bowl to reach for when the going gets tough and the tough get sniffly.
Living that Pop-Tart breakfast, vending machine lunch lifestyle? You need this one-pot wonder in your life. It covers all your nutritional bases with kale, cannellini beans, farro, carrots, and celery.
Vegan and gluten-free, this soup is a cornucopia of veggies with protein on top. Add a baguette if you want to know true joy.
This recipe has about zero steps (OK, two), but it takes 2 hours to make, so save it for slow Sundays. You’ll actually feel productive and can enjoy leftovers throughout the week.
Ever look at a cauliflower and think, “I wish this was a soup”? You will now and forevermore. In addition to enjoying the combo of this cruciferous veggie’s milder taste with red pepper’s spicier flavor, you’ll load up on cauliflower and red bell peppers’ mutual high vitamin C content.
This simple soup uses chicken broth, but for a vegan option, you can use veggie broth.
This is a recipe for those admirable “this year I’m going to nourish myself better” goals. Nine veggies, half an hour on the stove, and enough goodness for a change of pace after all those heavier holiday meals.
Fruits and veggies in a single soup? You’re welcome. This creamy puree combines tender butternut squash cubes with sweet-tart apples for a nutritional one-two punch. Optional sage Parmesan croutons on top are the garnish you never knew you needed.
We get it if split pea soup sounds like something you reluctantly ate in a grade-school cafeteria. But before you turn up your nose at the entire split pea category, check out this intensely flavorful, super-filling soup.
Hearty, high fiber split peas meld seamlessly with warming spices like paprika, oregano, and thyme for a finished product that’s irresistible (and totally not like school lunch).
Whether it’s Taco Tuesday or just a random Thursday, there’s no bad time to enjoy Mexican-inspired flavors. How about putting ’em in a soup for a liquid fiesta of spice? With chicken, black beans, and veggies, this soup is a one-dish meal that needs no accoutrements — except maybe tortilla chips on top.
If you’re living a dairy-free lifestyle, you may have said a fond farewell to broccoli cheese soup. But great news: A rich, savory, cheese-like version of this classic is possible without cow’s milk. This recipe re-creates the creaminess you crave with soaked cashews, almond milk, and nutritional yeast.
We’d never throw shade at hummus, but chickpeas aren’t just a base for creamy dips. They’re also a fiber-packed, iron-rich choice for the centerpiece of a stew, as in this Moroccan-inspired main dish.
Served over quinoa, it’s a vegetarian meal loaded with complete protein (the kind that includes all the essential amino acids, which your body can’t make on its own and has to get from food).
Hold up — pizza as a soup? Call off the search for the perfect comfort food. This gluten-free, keto-friendly soup combines some of the world’s greatest food inventions.
A hefty helping of veggies like mushrooms and peppers rounds things out with fiber and potassium while low sodium beef broth helps keep the salt content in check.
Having soup for dinner can sometimes leave you hungry an hour later. Not so with this healthy slow cooker white chicken chili! The ample protein from chicken, beans, and quinoa will stick to your ribs.
When days shorten and leaves begin to fall, it’s time for pumpkin everything, including soup! There’s a good reason for crushing on the fall gourds — they’re full of fiber and vitamin A. This recipe takes the pumpkin soup genre to new heights with unique maple-ginger caramelized onions.
Ah, the Instant Pot: friend to time-crunched cooks everywhere. Its speedy magic makes quick work of cooking a wild rice-mushroom blend in this easy vegan recipe. Dairy-free cream cheese ups the ante on creamy texture.
Show your leftovers some love with this innovative take on veggie soup. Using roasted veggies you didn’t finish the previous night, you can create an entire second meal — a velvety, satisfying meal, at that! Did we mention it takes just 15 minutes to throw together?
Stuffed peppers are a dreamy dinner, but let’s face it — they’re a slog to make. Shortcut your way to their piquant flavor with this savory soup.
With fresh bell peppers, lean ground beef, and long-grain rice, it features all the signature stuffed pepper ingredients but takes far less time and effort. Plus, it’s low in calories and high in protein. Make it a day or so in advance to let the flavors deepen even more.
Allow us to introduce you to this lighter-than-usual chowder (or should we say “lightah chowdah”?).
A mixture of cod and shrimp provides ample omega-3 fatty acids — the kind that could reduce the risk of heart disease, among other benefits. Wanna scale back the calories and fat even more? Try half-and-half in place of the heavy whipping cream.
One nutrient that you might not think much about — but that’s responsible for all sorts of important functions, like lowering blood pressure and preventing kidney stones — is potassium.
It can be tough to reach your daily target (3,400 milligrams for men and 2,600 milligrams for women), but this black bean and kielbasa soup delivers more than 1,200 milligrams per serving.
With precooked sausage, jarred salsa, and a few diced veggies tossed in the slow cooker, this one’s the definition of “fix and forget.” If you don’t have time to soak dried black beans overnight, never fear: You can use canned ones.
What to do with a whole pound of chard? Make a soup, of course! This chard and white bean stew practically busts out of the pot with antioxidant-rich veggies, including greens, carrots, celery, and tomatoes. An optional poached egg on top adds more than flair — each eggy addition comes with 6 extra grams of protein.
Believe it or not, this West African-inspired stew comes together with common pantry staples. Chicken thighs, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, peanut butter, and familiar spices combine forces to make a classic right in your home kitchen. To keep it vegetarian, you can replace the chicken with chickpeas.
A bowl of warming potato leek soup is the perfect antidote to the brrr of chilly evenings. Greek yogurt dials back the calorie and fat content (and boosts the protein) in this lighter version of the well-loved soup.
Red lentil dahl makes a hearty vegetarian curry — and an unforgettable soup. Turn the traditional Indian dish into something more sippable with this nourishing plant-based recipe. Don’t skip the whole mustard and cumin seeds! They’re key to amping up flavor.
You knew we couldn’t finish a list of winter soups without including a chicken noodle soup recipe. But this is much more than your run-of-the-mill canned variety. Complete with fresh ginger and garlic, which are known for their anti-inflammatory potential, this nourishing soup could help keep colds and the flu at bay.
Soup is a cozy way to take off the chill when it’s nippy out… but is it healthy for you? With the right ingredients, heck yeah! One 2014 study even found that people who ate more soup had better diet quality and were more likely to eat fewer calories.
Soup is hydrating
Soup’s liquid base contributes to your daily hydration — and that’s almost always a good thing. Getting dehydrated can lead to a bunch of unpleasant issues, including chapped lips, constipation, fatigue, dizziness, and headaches. Since a bowl of soup can help ward off these symptoms, we say slurp away.
Soup is an easy way to eat nutrients
By choosing nutrient-dense ingredients, you can ensure that soup is more than just hydrating. In fact, it’s a perfect canvas for foods high in fiber, protein, healthy fats, and critical micronutrients.
Beans and lentils, lean meats, whole grains, olive oil, and veggies easily slip into soup, making it a hearty, nutrient-rich meal. Meanwhile, ingredients you can’t easily put into the pot, you can usually use as a topping! Think: avocado, Greek yogurt, nuts, and seeds.
What to eat in moderation
Depending on your dietary needs and goals, you might want to keep tabs on a couple of nutrients in soup: sodium and fat. Most commercially prepared broths come with high amounts of sodium. And creamy soups, which usually include butter and heavy cream, are notorious for their higher-than-usual saturated fat content.
As you cook soup at home, keep an eye on the nutrition labels of ingredients you toss in your pot to make sure you’re crafting a bowl of nourishment. And always feel free to make modifications like:
- opting for lower-sodium versions of broth, canned beans, and canned tomatoes
- trying Greek yogurt or cottage cheese in place of heavy cream or sour cream
- using lean proteins such as grilled chicken, ground turkey, and baked tofu
- replacing fried toppings like tortilla chips with crunchy pumpkin or sunflower seeds
While you could lap up favorite soups and stews in 100-degree weather, winter is definitely the time most of us crave a steaming bowl of comfort. Consider these 25 options your springboard for souping it up (in a healthy way!) all winter long.
