Winter Soups with Vegetables and Legumes
Winter has arrived, and with the cold comes the desire for warmth and comforting dishes. It’s the perfect time to spend a few hours preparing creamy soups, soups, and hearty broths with seasonal vegetables, to refresh the spirit and load up on vitamins and minerals. Naturally, everything is seasoned with extra virgin olive oil to enhance flavors and aromas while boosting its health benefits.
Creating tasty soups, creamy soups, and hot broths is easy, and the health benefits, combined with low calorie content, are guaranteed. We combine valuable winter vegetables with whole grains, which provide a good source of slow-digesting complex carbohydrates and minerals, helping to positively regulate mood and counteract fatigue and loss of energy. And legumes, rich in protein, B vitamins (the “vitamins of mood and energy”) and vitamin E (antioxidant), trace elements, and minerals such as calcium, magnesium, iron, and potassium, which make them an incredible source of nutrients.
Don’t forget to season your soups with extra virgin olive oil, rich in polyphenols and vitamins, for a complete, tasty, and 100% healthy meal. For those who don’t know, the polyphenols in extra virgin olive oil are powerful natural antioxidants with amazing benefits for the body. We discussed this in an article, explaining what polyphenols are and their properties.
What Are Winter Vegetables?
Winter brings a variety of vegetables to the table, packed with health benefits. Starting from late autumn with pumpkin, which stores well for months, moving to mid-winter with the crucifer family (cabbage, black cabbage, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, broccoli), as well as spinach, radicchio, fennel, artichokes, and root vegetables such as potatoes, carrots, turnips, and radishes, among others.
7 Winter Soup and Broth Recipes
- Millet Soup with Broccoli
After washing and draining the millet, toast it in a pot without any seasoning, stirring continuously until golden. Once removed from heat and slightly cooled, pour in just under a liter of vegetable broth, keeping a little aside. Stir and return the pot to the heat. Bring to a boil and cook for about 20 minutes. Trim and chop the broccoli into small pieces; after adding them to the millet, cover and cook for another 20 minutes, adding the reserved broth gradually. Finally, stir, season with salt, and serve with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.
- Millet and Potato Soup
Use the same method as the previous recipe, simply adding the cooked millet to a base of chopped onion, celery, and carrots, peeled tomatoes, and cubed potatoes, cooking everything with vegetable broth.
- Pumpkin Cream Soup
The most famous winter creamy soup, to be seasoned with freshly grated ginger, cheeses such as gorgonzola or fresh goat cheese, pumpkin seeds, or simply a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil. For 4 servings, wash a pumpkin of about 1 kg, remove the peel, seeds, and fibers, and cut the flesh into pieces. Peel and slice two shallots and sauté them in 3 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil. Add the pumpkin flesh, stir well, season with salt, and gradually add about 1 liter of hot vegetable broth while stirring with a wooden spoon. Cover and cook for about 20 minutes. Then remove from heat and blend until smooth. Reheat for up to 10 minutes, add your desired toppings, and serve with oven-baked croutons and a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.
- Spinach and Parmesan Cream Soup
Clean and wash about 500 g of spinach, pat dry, then peel and cube three potatoes. Chop half a shallot and brown it in a pot with two tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil. Add the potatoes, stir, and pour in half a liter of hot broth. Cook for about 15 minutes, then add the spinach and more broth if needed. Cook until the vegetables are soft and the broth has reduced. Season with salt, drizzle with raw extra virgin olive oil, and blend with an immersion blender. Add two tablespoons of Parmesan cheese and serve immediately.
- Barley and Savoy Cabbage Soup
Cut half a Savoy cabbage into strips and wash it. Clean a pumpkin of about 1 kg, removing seeds and fibers. Wash 250 grams of pearled barley and keep everything ready. Chop a white onion and sauté over medium heat in a pot with three tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil. Add the cabbage strips and cubed pumpkin. Pour in a little vegetable broth (about 1.5 liters in total) and add the barley, toasting it while gradually adding the remaining broth. Cook for about 40 minutes, season with salt and pepper, and serve with a drizzle of raw extra virgin olive oil. For presentation, you can serve the soup in the pumpkin itself: clean the shell, remove the top, scoop out the flesh carefully, grease the interior with butter or oil, and bake at 180°C for 40 minutes. Place on a large serving plate and fill with soup.
- Ribollita
The famous winter soup, made by reheating leftover cooked vegetables from previous days with bread and olive oil—perfect if you don’t know how to use leftover vegetables. For about six servings, you need: 300 g stale bread (preferably homemade, wood-fired), 400 g cannellini beans, one curly black cabbage, a bunch of chard, two potatoes, two carrots, celery, a clove of garlic, two onions, three tablespoons tomato puree, extra virgin olive oil, black pepper, salt, and enough vegetable broth. Ribollita recipe: boil the beans, mash half through a sieve, diluting the puree with the cooking water. Prepare a sauté with onion and garlic in plenty of oil (use a tall pot), and when the vegetables are golden, cover with a little tomato puree. Add black cabbage, potatoes, celery, carrots, chard, all washed and roughly chopped, and simmer gently with a bit of broth. Cover and simmer for at least an hour. Add the cooked beans, whole and mashed, to thicken the soup. Towards the end, season with black pepper, salt, and tomato puree. Finish by layering slices of bread and ladles of soup in a soup tureen to absorb the bread. Let rest for a day. To serve, reheat or gently re-boil, and drizzle with extra virgin olive oil.
- Mushroom and Curry Soup
Tired of the classics? Try a flavorful oriental-inspired soup. We asked @enzaruggiero, a food enthusiast, for the recipe: a fragrant mushroom and curry soup (pictured). Ingredients: 200 g potatoes, 150 g porcini mushrooms, 1.5 liters vegetable broth, one shallot, three sprigs thyme, 20 g butter, 2 slices rustic bread, and finally extra virgin olive oil (she used Cima di Mola monocultivar oil), 1 tablespoon curry, and a pinch of salt. Peel and thinly slice the potatoes, clean the mushrooms, and trim the stems. Chop the shallot and sweat in a pan with butter and a tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil. Add the potatoes, sauté while stirring. Slice the porcini, add to the potatoes, cook for 3 minutes, cover with boiling broth, and add a teaspoon of curry. Cook over medium heat for about 2 minutes, then blend, leaving some mushrooms aside for plating. Flavor with thyme and adjust salt. Cut the bread into cubes, toast in the oven or pan, and serve with a drizzle of raw extra virgin olive oil, crunchy croutons, and a few mushrooms. For a stronger oriental touch, replace the broth with coconut milk!
