The 3 Soups I Make All Winter Long—And Why They’re Fighting for First Place
Soup is my favorite thing to cook.
Not one of my favorite things, my favorite thing.
It’s the category of food I return to again and again, across seasons, moods, and years. If I had to cook one type of dish for the rest of my life, soup would win without hesitation.
Which is why narrowing things down to a single favorite soup feels impossible.
But if I had to choose just three, the ones that are basically cage-matching inside my heart and soul for the top spot, these are them.
🥣 Soup #1: Vegetarian Lentil Soup (aka the Best Lentil Soup Ever)
The One My Vegetarian Friend Makes on Repeat
Mother Nature may think she’s in charge, but honestly, I’m pretty sure she checks my kitchen before she decides what season it is. The moment I start making this lentil soup, which happens right about now, she seems to say, “Ah yes, I should do the solstice. Katie has spoken.”
It’s that time of year when daylight lasts roughly eleven minutes, and I’d love nothing more than to curl into a cozy ball and wait for spring. It’s too cold to want to go for a walk (and I absolutely wouldn’t… if my dog would let me). The wind whips across the fields, the house goes quiet except for the wood stove clicking to life, and this soup becomes my yearly winter survival strategy.
It gets me through these dark weeks.
And honestly, it’s the spice profile that does it. There’s something sublime about the layers of turmeric, oregano, cumin, coriander, and smoked paprika, warm, fragrant, a little mysterious. Then you have the thick, hearty texture built on onion and garlic, with tender chunks of carrot, tomato, and parsnip. The kale softens just enough in the last few minutes, keeping its color and snap. And once it comes off the heat, the cilantro and lemon jump in like the bright, zippy pep talk you didn’t know you needed.
It’s grounding, comforting, and gently electrifying all at once.
I knew I was onto something when I first developed this recipe. I sent a draft to my friend Janet, a lifelong vegetarian who makes lentil soup ardently, several times a month, and now this is her soup. A few weeks ago she texted me a photo of a pot of it bubbling away on her stove, and that’s when it hit me: Mother Nature doesn’t just listen to me anymore.
She has a whole chorus of us signaling what time of year it is.
→ Vegetarian Lentil Soup recipe
🥣 Soup #2: Ribollita Soup
The One With the Most Soul
I first discovered ribollita when I was studying in Florence in college, a sentence that makes me feel both impossibly lucky and impossibly old. Every now and then I make this soup just to trick myself into feeling like I’m 20 again, wandering cobblestone streets without an ergonomic shoe in sight.
Ribollita was the first dish that taught me something shocking: the best part of it is that it’s overcooked.
As someone trained in the crisp-tender, nouvelle-cuisine school of “vegetables should still have opinions,” this felt downright rebellious.
But ribollita throws all of that straight out the window. By definition it’s re-boiled, a leftover soup cooked down until the vegetables slump into the broth and the bread melts into a thick, cozy, spoon-standing texture. There is absolutely nothing remotely crisp-tender about it.
And that’s the magic.
The heady, fruity olive oil does double duty, first generously softening the vegetables, then drizzled over the top for a final, fragrant flourish. It’s rustic, soulful, and deeply comforting… like taking a quick trip to Tuscany without the jet lag (or the reminder that you no longer bounce back from late nights like you did in college).
🥣 Soup #3: Harvest Vegetable Soup
The One That Feels Like a Season
Every fall, a very specific kind of seasonal mania takes hold of me, the soup fever. It starts innocently enough, maybe with a grocery trip or a farm stand haul… and by mid-December, I’m in such a cooking frenzy that I may or may not have woken up this morning cuddling my Dutch oven. (I wish I were exaggerating.)
This soup is the purest expression of that energy. It’s what I make when the produce drawer is overflowing and everything is in season at once, a joyful, vegetable-forward catch-all that somehow tastes intentional, even when your shopping was not.
The magic of this soup is in the balance:
- The natural sweetness of winter squash,
- The gentle acidity from tomatoes,
- Most importantly, the whole sprig of rosemary that simmers away until it practically dissolves into the broth, leaving behind its woodsy, aromatic imprint.
It’s vibrant, cozy, and absolutely built for peak soup season, comforting without ever feeling heavy. The kind of soup that reliably warms you up when the days are short, the air is rude, and you’ve started wearing the same fleece every day without apology.
→ Harvest Vegetable Soup recipe
So, Which Soup Wins The Battle?
In the end, declaring a single winner feels impossible. Each of these soups brings something different to the fight:
- The lentil vegetable soup has emotional endurance and a devoted fan base.
- The ribollita shows up with pure soul and the confidence of someone who’s been overcooked on purpose.
- And the harvest vegetable soup has seasonal swagger and rosemary dissolving like a secret weapon.
It’s ridiculous, of course—talking about soups battling each other as if they have personalities, egos, and entrance music. But honestly, that probably tells you everything you need to know about how fervently I love soup. If something is going to duke it out inside my heart, I’m glad it’s these three.
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