by Henry Gould – Nov 5th, 2019

Some people insist on only eating soup in the Fall / Winter. Personally, I will gut my way through an uncomfortably hot bowl of ramen in July, purely for the love of the game. Soup as a food is comforting, restorative, delicious, easy to make, easy to eat, and versatile. If you have a pot, water, and 3 ingredients you can probably make a soup.

With any soup, never to be neglected are the little toppings and extras you can put on to personalize your bowl and elevate the eating experience. What would Phở be without the Thai basil, bean sprouts and chilis? Ramen without a boiled egg? Lentil soup with a squeeze of lime and fried pita chips?

Below are a bunch of recipes from around the web, including one of my own for a black bean soup with chorizo.

Get out those soup pots!

–> Bon Appetit’s Best Matzo Ball Soup

–> Pozole, Mexico’s Best Party Food

–> Italian Wild Mushroom Soup

–> Matty Matheson’s Oxtail Pho (Video)

Black Bean Soup w/ Chorizo

• 1 Cup dried black beans, soaked overnight, or 1 large can
• 1 onion, chopped roughly
• 3 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 japaleno, chopped
• 2 Spanish chorizo sausage, chopped roughly
• 1 tbsp cumin seeds
• Worcestershire Sauce
• Extra virgin olive oil
• 500 ml chicken stock or water
• Sea salt
• Optional garnishes
  • Sour cream
  • Chopped green onions
  • Cilantro
  • Pickled jalapenos
  • Chopped raw onion
  • Crumbled queso fresco or feta cheese
  • Tortilla chips
  • Lime Wedges
  • Dried oregano
  • Chili flakes

Get a large pot on medium heat, add some olive oil then begin frying the chorizo. Cook for 5 minutes until browned but not too dark. Take the chorizo out and set aside, leaving all the oil in the pot.

Add your onions, garlic and jalapeno and cook for 5 – 10 minutes until browned. Once brown, add the cumin seeds and fry in the oil for a second. Add your soaked or canned beans, a few shakes of Worcestershire sauce, the chicken stock and then more water to fully cover the beans in the pot. Season with salt, cover with a lid, lower the heat, and simmer for 1 hour. Stir occasionally.

After an hour the beans should start to break down. If you want to make the soup smoother, take out and blend in a blender, or use an immersion stick blender. If you’re putting in a blender like a Vitamix, be careful as the hot soup will spray out the top (use a towel over the opening).

Adjust the consistency of the soup with more water as needed. Season with more salt if needed. Garnish with any of the above, + your cooked chorizo sausage.