Y’all, It’s Soup Season

I’ve always loved fall — it’s my favorite time of the year, and I know you Summer People are miserable as soon as the temps drop below 70 degrees, but for someone like me who hates to be hot and sweaty, this is the most wonderful season of all. I love crisp cool mornings, watching the leaves turn red and gold on my hillside, seeing my breath in the air, pulling out my hoodie/boots/jeans collection, and the smell of woodsmoke wafting through my forest as bonfires light up. But one of my favorites parts of fall is that it’s soup season. There’s something so magical about soup, and it doesn’t matter what kind I’m eating — if it’s cool out, there’s a good chance I’ve got a pot of it brewing on my stovetop, in my crockpot, or in Ye Olde Instant Pot. It’s comforting, not just physically, but emotionally. Soup is happy. Soup is safe.

In his book The Magick of Food, Gwion Raven points out that chicken soup “is filled with magick, attention, and intention.” It’s true — there’s a reason we eat chicken soup when we’re sick. Sure, it’s full of proteins and veggies and all kinds of ingredients that help us heal… but there’s something more. There’s a magic to be found in the act of creation, a love that’s poured in as a cook stirs broth and meat and onions and herbs together, all for the purpose of fixing you something delicious to eat when you’re feeling yuck. I’ve always maintained that food is my love language – if I prepare you something to eat, you know it means I care – and soup is a special dialect all its own.

That said, I’m going to share with you a few of my favorite homemade soup recipes. Keep in mind that I’m a cook who rarely uses recipes; I learned from my great-grandmother that when it tastes right, it’s done. So, feel free to tweak and adjust the measurements to meet your own taste buds; what follows is what works best for me.

Bean and Sausage Soup

This is what’s cookin’ right now for me. You can use any kind of bean you like, and any sort of sausage. It’s a simple, hearty soup that goes nicely dumped over rice, or with a big chunk of crusty homemade bread.

• 1 lb dried beans
• 2 quarts water
• Half an onion, chopped
• Two cooked sausage links, chopped (or a hamhock, if you’ve got one on hand)
• Fresh spinach
• Salt

Put the beans, water, onion, and sausage in a pot on your stovetop and bring it to a boil. Once it’s boiling, reduce the heat, and let it simmer for about an hour and a half — this way you don’t have to pre-soak your beans. Add the spinach and salt, and let it simmer another half hour. Once the spinach is good and wilted, give it a taste. Add more salt if you need to — most beans are pretty forgiving with the salt, and I tend to use about a teaspoon or more for this recipe. When you like the taste? DONE. Eat it.

Honey Onion Soup

Hear me out. Honey and onion soup happens when anyone in my house is sick, and I’m tellin’ ya, it’ll clear out a stuffy head like nobody’s business. Plus, I eat it on the regular during cold and flu season, and I swear it keeps me healthy (this is not medical advice I am literally not a doctor so don’t @ me on this). I like doing this one in the crockpot, but you can certainly do it on your stovetop as well.

• 1/2 C butter
• Minced garlic (more is better!)
• 4-5 large chopped onions (I like to use a blend of Vidalia, reds, yellows, and a handful of shallots)
• 1 C local honey
• 1 gallon vegetable broth
• Salt and pepper

Sauté the butter until it’s melted, and then add the garlic and onions. Stir them around until they’re nice and soft. Dump the whole mixture into your crockpot, add the honey and vegetable broth. Leave it alone for about four hours on low heat in your crockpot, and then add the salt and pepper to taste. If you’re feeling really fancy, pour in a bottle of your favorite dark ale, let it get really bubbly, and simmer it for about 1 minutes, then dig in. I’ve also added chunky cooked bacon to this (if you do, you may want to hold off on the salt) for a rich, porky flavor.

Tomato Orange Soup

This is one of my family’s favorites, and I always keep canned tomatoes on hand so I can whip this up in a jiffy for dinner. I know the orange juice part sounds weird, but trust me, it gives the soup a delicious tart undertone that I love.

There you go. Make some kitchen magic. SOUP’S ON, YOU GUYS.