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This is the weather that chills to the bone. When your fingers are in a constant state of semi-numb and you have long since lost feeling at the tips of the toes, the last thing you want to be doing is running out to get ingredients for dinner. You need to have a pantry-stocked action plan to assemble a bowl of goodness that will warm both the kitchen and chilly appendages at a moment's notice. What you need is a plan for a winter's worth of simple soup recipes filling enough to be a meal.
To prepare soup as a meal all itself, start by thinking about what you normally look for in a plated dinner. If, for instance, you are anchoring a plate with a pork chop, salmon, or steak, you can usually expect to also be serving some starch or grain (e.g., potatoes, rice, polenta) and at least one vegetable alongside.
This same concept applies to soup-as-dinner. For a filling and nutritional bowl, all you need to do is pick out a protein, starch, and vegetable that work together in some harmony, season these ingredients with herbs and spices, and simmer in a flavorful broth.
Every meal needs protein, so that is a good place to start when building your bowl. Vegetarians will probably look to beans. Small white beans, black beans, garbanzo, or kidney beans all work in broth based soups (as opposed to denser legume soups, like lentil or split pea). Shredded chicken and pork are easy to repurpose. And never count out a good sausage as being a quick solution to the protein problem.
The grain or starch element comes with an equally wide range of options. Rice works well in its many forms, from slender black wild rice to chewy brown. Small pasta, starchy Idaho potatoes, even day-old bread provides carbohydrates and a little thickening when simmered in the liquid.
Vegetables are one area where you should exercise caution. Broccoli, for instance, goes well with a steak but can turn a pot of soup to a murky mess. Likewise, delicate summer vegetables like zucchini and eggplant quickly turn to mush when submitted to a long simmer. This time of year I would stick with hardier greens like kale and chard, winter squash, and root vegetables.
To complete the dish you need little more than good quality broth or stock and a little seasoning from the spice cabinet. If you are doing tortilla soup, think cumin and coriander. Veering Italian? Try basil and oregano. When in doubt, a bay leaf and some parsley will almost always work in a pinch.
More classic soups adhere to this formula of protein, starch, and veggies than you might realize. Beans plus pasta plus vegetables is the Italian favorite pasta e fagioli. Sausage or beef plus potatoes and cabbage form a soup adaptation of the British leftovers favorite, Bubble and Squeak. And who hasn’t slurped a rendition of chicken soup with wild rice and vegetables, almost as common now as its brother Chicken Noodle.
To survive this winter you need only a few things: a pantry full of stock, some pasta, rice or other starch, and a few winter vegetables. With your soup arsenal at the ready, dinner and a defrost are never more than a pot away.
©2026 CDKitchen, Inc. No reproduction or distribution of any portion of this article is allowed without express permission from CDKitchen, Inc.
To share this article with others, you may link to this page:
https://www.cdkitchen.com/cooking-experts/amy-powell/1325-soup-dinner/
One Pot Dinner and Defrost
This is the weather that chills to the bone. When your fingers are in a constant state of semi-numb and you have long since lost feeling at the tips of the toes, the last thing you want to be doing is running out to get ingredients for dinner. You need to have a pantry-stocked action plan to assemble a bowl of goodness that will warm both the kitchen and chilly appendages at a moment's notice. What you need is a plan for a winter's worth of simple soup recipes filling enough to be a meal.
To prepare soup as a meal all itself, start by thinking about what you normally look for in a plated dinner. If, for instance, you are anchoring a plate with a pork chop, salmon, or steak, you can usually expect to also be serving some starch or grain (e.g., potatoes, rice, polenta) and at least one vegetable alongside.
This same concept applies to soup-as-dinner. For a filling and nutritional bowl, all you need to do is pick out a protein, starch, and vegetable that work together in some harmony, season these ingredients with herbs and spices, and simmer in a flavorful broth.
Every meal needs protein, so that is a good place to start when building your bowl. Vegetarians will probably look to beans. Small white beans, black beans, garbanzo, or kidney beans all work in broth based soups (as opposed to denser legume soups, like lentil or split pea). Shredded chicken and pork are easy to repurpose. And never count out a good sausage as being a quick solution to the protein problem.
The grain or starch element comes with an equally wide range of options. Rice works well in its many forms, from slender black wild rice to chewy brown. Small pasta, starchy Idaho potatoes, even day-old bread provides carbohydrates and a little thickening when simmered in the liquid.
Vegetables are one area where you should exercise caution. Broccoli, for instance, goes well with a steak but can turn a pot of soup to a murky mess. Likewise, delicate summer vegetables like zucchini and eggplant quickly turn to mush when submitted to a long simmer. This time of year I would stick with hardier greens like kale and chard, winter squash, and root vegetables.
To complete the dish you need little more than good quality broth or stock and a little seasoning from the spice cabinet. If you are doing tortilla soup, think cumin and coriander. Veering Italian? Try basil and oregano. When in doubt, a bay leaf and some parsley will almost always work in a pinch.
More classic soups adhere to this formula of protein, starch, and veggies than you might realize. Beans plus pasta plus vegetables is the Italian favorite pasta e fagioli. Sausage or beef plus potatoes and cabbage form a soup adaptation of the British leftovers favorite, Bubble and Squeak. And who hasn’t slurped a rendition of chicken soup with wild rice and vegetables, almost as common now as its brother Chicken Noodle.
To survive this winter you need only a few things: a pantry full of stock, some pasta, rice or other starch, and a few winter vegetables. With your soup arsenal at the ready, dinner and a defrost are never more than a pot away.
Sausage and Kale Noodle Soup
Made with parmesan cheese, salt and black pepper, pasta, olive oil, pork or chicken sausage, onion, garlic, kale, chicken broth, thyme
Made with parmesan cheese, salt and black pepper, pasta, olive oil, pork or chicken sausage, onion, garlic, kale, chicken broth, thyme
Serves/Makes: 4
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 pound fresh pork or chicken sausage
- 1/4 large onion
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1/2 bunch curly kale
- 8 cups chicken broth
- 2 sprigs thyme
- 1 cup small pasta, like tubetti
- salt and black pepper
- parmesan cheese (optional)
Heat oil over medium high heat in a large heavy pot. Remove sausage from casing. Add sausage to the hot oil. Break up with a wooden spoon. Saute for 5-10 minutes until meat is browned.
While sausage is cooking, finely mince onion and crush garlic. Remove stems from kale leaves and finely shred to equal about 3 cups.
Pour off and discard all but two tablespoons of fat from the sausage. Add onion and garlic to the sausage. Saute for another three minutes until soft. Add kale. Saute for another few minutes until lightly wilted.
Once kale is wilted, add chicken broth and thyme. Bring to a boil. Add a bit of salt and pepper. Stir in pasta. Reduce heat to medium. Simmer for 10 minutes until pasta is tender.
Ladle soup into bowls and top with optional parmesan cheese.
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©2026 CDKitchen, Inc. No reproduction or distribution of any portion of this article is allowed without express permission from CDKitchen, Inc.
To share this article with others, you may link to this page:
https://www.cdkitchen.com/cooking-experts/amy-powell/1325-soup-dinner/