Warming Soups

This elegant soup from chef Naomi Pomeroy gets a surprising amount of flavor from sautéed celery. It has great garnishes, too: bacon croutons and a drizzle of lemon oil. Be sure to buy extra-virgin olive oil infused with pure lemon extract.

This creamy fire-roasted tomato bisque soup calls for store-bought chicken broth and canned tomatoes but the aromatic vegetables give it homemade taste.

This creamy soup from chef April Bloomfield is simmered with a layer of prosciutto on top, which adds fantastic flavor.

David Chang flavors this fabulous broth with dried shiitakes; fresh shiitakes intensify the flavor. The highlight: simple noodles thrown in at the end. “They’re based on the udon I learned to make in Tokyo,” Chang says.

“I haven't met a bean or pea that I didn’t love,” says Steven Satterfield. Here he soaks split peas for an hour before simmering them in the soup, so they’re more tender and the soup is smoother.

For the best texture in this vibrant tomato soup, puree half of the soup until smooth, then stir it into the chunky base.

This classic chicken noodle soup gets its deeply flavorful broth from a whole chicken.

Dean Fearing loves the holiday feel of butternut squash, especially when it’s combined with ginger, as it is for his smooth, gently sweet soup. He tops it with whipped cream flecked with chopped pecans: “I think everything should have a little bit of crunch to it. Plus, this is Texas, and pecans are Texas.”

Colorful vegetables brighten our satisfying brothy soup. If Jerusalem artichokes (also called sunchokes) aren’t available in your area, substitute another flavorful, slightly scratchy vegetable such as parsnips or turnips, or simple increase the quantities of the other vegetables in the soup.

The rice vermicelli soup pho is a staple all over Vietnam and this spicy beef version is the specialty of Hanoi. At home in Connecticut, Marcia Kiesel often eats it for breakfast, as the Vietnamese do. “It’s a perfect meal and an invigorating way to start the day,” she says.

When Jonathon Erdeljac opened his restaurant, Jonathon’s Oak Cliff, in Dallas, he knew he wanted to serve this rich soup. It’s a favorite of his, especially with jalapeños and smoky bacon stirred in.

Meaty portobellos are especially good for adding substance and flavor to this soup, but shiitakes or other mushrooms will work well, too. You can also add a ham hock to the pot while the split peas cook, if you like.

Influenced by his Turkish-American wife, Meltem, Scott Conantspices up his silky potato soup with Turkish red-pepper paste (biber salcasi), made from sweet and hot peppers. Look for the paste at Middle Eastern groceries, or use harissa instead.

Chef Susur Lee is renowned for his creative, complex, Asian-inflected dishes at his restaurants in Toronto, Manhattan and Singapore. But one of his favorite cold-weather comfort recipes is this remarkably simple squash soup, which he sweetens with a little honey and garnishes with roasted pumpkin seeds.

Cook the broccoli rabe in a separate pan, not in the soup pot. That way, any excess bitterness from the vegetable goes down the drain with the cooking water rather than into the soup. You’ll find, though, that a bit of bite enlivens the lentils.

Trina Hahnemann calls the root vegetables in this simple vegetarian soup the “gold of Nordic soil” because they’re high in nutrients and grow well in cold climates.

Hugue Dufour makes a pork broth for his French onion soup using bacon for smokiness and a pig’s foot for richness. Omit the pig’s foot for a lighter broth.

A light broth loaded with chunky Great Northern beans and topped with a sprinkling of bacon, this soup was inspired by the caldo gallego (a Spanish white-bean soup) Jose Garces serves at Amada.

Rocco DiSpirito likes to heat shirataki noodles (a low-calorie noodle made from tofu or a kind of sweet potato) in store-bought chicken broth seasoned with lime juice.

The idea for this hearty, risotto-style soup came to Frédéric Morin while he was sitting on a combine in his uncle’s barley field. He could smell the peat from the neighboring farm, which reminded him of Scotch whisky.

Top Chef winner Harold Dieterle’s feel-good Thai coconut soup is flavored with chiles, ginger and lemongrass, and garnished with plenty of shrimp.

SoupCycle in Portland, Oregon, offers soups with wacky names ranging from Flemish Farm (a vegan take on French onion soup) to Who Framed Ginger Rabbit (carrot soup with ginger). Owners Jed Lazar and Shauna Lambert call this lentil soup Pot of For Goodness Sake! because the ingredients are so healthy.

At his restaurant, John Besh simmers the broth for his bisque with the crushed shells of whole blue crabs. Chopped shrimp boiled in their shells flavor the broth for a home version of Besh’s tapioca-studded bisque.

Benjamin Leroux’s terrific soup is an unexpected mix of beets, tomatoes and tomato paste; it has the flavor of a light borscht.

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

With its all-American ingredients, this New England-style chowder is a comfort-food classic. The soup needs only bread, or traditional oyster crackers, as an accompaniment. You can use any relatively firm, mild fish that won’t disintegrate in the soup, such as pollack, orange roughy, or ocean perch.

Full of hearty winter vegetables, this comforting soup is filling without being heavy. Dried beans are the key to the satisfying richness of the broth; if you want to use canned beans to save time, stir them in at the end of cooking.

A riff on a classic Italian dish, this garlicky lentil soup skews pan-European, with French lentils, Manchego cheese and any really good garlic sausage.

Chickpeas are rich in both types of dietary fiber, which are important for maintaining heart health and for stabilizing blood sugar levels. Pam Anderson uses them as the base for this Indian-flavored creamy (though cream-free) soup, which she prepares by first pureeing it, then simmering it, to save time. “Pureed beans give you richness without having to enrich the soup,” she says.

Brothy and brimming with beets, parsnips, turnip, celery root, and slices of kielbasa, this earthy beet soup gets a finishing touch of sour cream and fresh dill. Serve it in big bowls with plenty of crusty bread for an appetizing cold-weather dinner.

Instead of sprinkling his soup with the customary bits of chopped fresh dill, Adam Perry Lang makes a vibrant horseradish and dill pistou (typically a condiment of fresh basil, garlic and olive oil). A swirl of the flavorful pistou brightens up the soup enormously.