17 Fresh Soups to Make for Spring

By Bridget Hallinan and Food & Wine
Updated March 11, 2020
© Con Poulos
While winter soups are warming and hearty, as soon as spring starts, we seek out recipes that are lighter and packed with seasonal ingredients. Our favorites include English pea soup flavored with herbs, Meyer lemon, crème fraîche, and Dungeness crab; Carla Hall’s creamy asparagus soup, and a refreshing chilled watercress soup. Keep reading for more essential spring soup recipes.
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Fresh Pea Soup with Ham

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This play on split pea soup gets its vibrant flavor from fresh peas and fennel. The garnish, ham with baby greens and chives, adds a bit of elegance.

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Curried Carrot Soup with Tarragon Oil

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To make this healthy soup especially tasty, Naomi Pomeroy cooks the carrots with Madras curry powder, ginger and garlic. Before serving, she adds a little bit of Tabasco sauce and a drizzle of tarragon-infused oil.

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Asparagus Vichyssoise

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This creamy soup is best the next day, after the flavors have blended; season it generously before serving.

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Garden Pea Soup with Morel Cream

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Chef Daniel Humm serves his wonderful sweet pea soup “cappuccino-style,” with a topping of morel cream that’s been frothed with an immersion blender. The recipe here simply calls for swirling the cream into the soup. Indeed, the cream is so intensely mushroomy, you may be tempted to eat it on its own.

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Creamy Spring Onion Soup

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This fresh-tasting soup can be prepared with scallions or green garlic (which is harvested before the cloves have matured and has a subtle garlic flavor). A swirl of buttermilk mixed with fresh goat cheese at the end adds a nice tang.

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Chilled Spring Pea Soup

Quentin Bacon
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Daniel Boulud puts this deliciously light and clean-tasting soup—a mix of sweet peas, favas, pea shoots, snap peas and snow peas—on the menu each spring. To make the dish even easier, skip the labor-intensive fresh favas, as well as the snow peas and pea shoots. Instead, just use sugar snaps and frozen baby peas.

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Spring Vegetable Soup with Tarragon

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This light soup is laden with nutrient-dense root vegetables like potatoes (vitamin C), carrots (beta-carotene) and onions (chromium, which helps maintain blood sugar levels). In the summer, Stéphane Vivier purees the soup and serves it chilled with the freshest herbs he can find.

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Zucchini-and-Watercress Soup

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Sophie Dahl likes eating peppery watercress in the spring and has figured out a way to highlight its bright flavor in this silky soup. A single tablespoon of cream gives the vivid green soup a touch of richness.

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Spicy Avocado-Cucumber Soup

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This tangy, luscious soup is an excellent make-ahead dish: Simply puree everything except the garnish, then chill. For a milder version, scale back on the serrano.

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Vegetable Soup with Fennel, Herbs and Parmesan Broth

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Antioxidant-rich fennel is one of several good-for-you ingredients in this wonderful soup. Viana La Place simmers Parmigiano-Reggiano rinds in the broth to give it a rich, cheesy flavor.

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Chilled English Pea Soup with Crab and Meyer Lemon

Eric Wolfinger
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This refreshing, verdant English pea and watercress soup is the perfect base for a zesty crab salad. Chef Sarah Heller folds sweet Dungeness crab with Meyer lemon, crème fraîche, and a host of delicate spring herbs before mounding atop each serving of the soup.

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Lemony Roasted Asparagus Soup

© Con Poulos
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Chef Cassie Piuma prepares her version of the lemony Greek soup avgolemono with a broth made from asparagus trimmings. Her other unconventional additions include roasted asparagus and oyster mushrooms.

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Chilled Watercress Soup with Crème Fraîche and Za’atar

© Con Poulos
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Jenn Louis’ refreshing chilled soup is the perfect way to welcome warmer weather. A topping of crème fraîche and za’atar adds an extra punch of flavor.

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Asparagus Soup with Parmesan Shortbread Coins

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"I adore savory cheese cookies with creamy asparagus soup," says Carla Hall. "Both are dead simple to make."

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Chicken-Orzo Soup with 10 Vegetables

© John Kernick
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Any combination of vegetables will work in this nutritious soup from chef Hugh Acheson. If including 10 vegetables isn’t a priority, you can also cut some and double up on others.

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Mint and Pea Soup

© Andrew Montgomery
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Mint gives Aaron Bertelsen’s soup a wonderfully fresh taste, and it makes a perfect lunch with some bread and cheese on the side.

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Creamy Spinach Soup with Dill

© John Kernick
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This soup, adapted from The Nordic Cookbook, has the rich flavor of creamed spinach but a much lighter texture.

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