Five Favorite Soups For When You Are Under the Weather for Souper (Soup, Salad, & Sammie) Sundays

I did not make a big pot of soup this week. In truth, this week got the best of me between work projects and an asthma flare up and I spent most of this weekend sleeping. I have been switching between heating up soup from the freezer and shuffling to the kitchen to heat broth and stir in miso, but I have no new recipe to share this week. Not to fear, there are more than 400 soup recipes on this blog and it's also the eighth anniversary of Souper Sundays this month, so this week I bring you a recap of my favorite restorative soups from over the years. These are the soups that I want when I feel blah, or sick, or sad, or tired. A couple are from my meat/poultry-eating days, the rest are vegan or vegetarian, and they are all perfect for whatever ails you and delicious enough to eat when you are feeling fine. 

Today would have been my mom's 85th Birthday and I miss her very much. When I think of comfort food her Chicken Barley Soup, February 2009, always comes to mind.
It's chock full of veggies, potatoes, chicken and lots of barley and it was always made with love.

Elephants' Cure Chicken Soup by Scott Weaver, executive chef, Elephants Delicatessen, January 2010. This soup from a popular Portland, Oregon deli says that it contains, "a rich and spicy broth that's loaded with ginger, garlic, lemon grass and serrano chiles, a potent blend of ingredients that have known curative powers." I will attest to it clearing out my sinuses when I made it. ;-)

Ginger-Lemongrass Miso Soup from The Candle Cafe Cookbook by Joy Pierson & Bart Potenza, March 2010. There is a simplicity of ingredients in this soup but the ginger and lemongrass add a flavor punch and a bowl leaves you feeling refreshed and renewed.

Garlic Soup with Chickpeas and Harissa, from Plenty by Yotam Ottolenghi, July 2013. A delicious and immune-boosting soup full of alliums like shallots and garlic, with some ginger and spicy pepper paste, to clear out those sinus passages, and it's satisfying to boot.

Ginger Tofu Soup from Moosewood Restaurant: Cooking for Health, October 2012. This takes the place of chicken soup when you want a veg-friendly, no-meat restorative cure-all for a stuffed up head. There is enough powerful ginger and garlic to clear the sinuses and the rice and tofu add substance. It's also incredibly quick and easy to make, good for when the last thing you feel like doing is spending time cooking.

 
There you have it--five favorites from over the years. Any of these soups should have you feeling better soon. What's your favorite restorative soup to make or eat?
 
We have some good friends in the Souper Sundays kitchen who shared some delicious dishes last week--let's have a look!

Melynda of Our Sunday Cafe shares two dishes this week. First is her Pan Roasted Butternut Squash Collard Greens and Potato Chowder. She says, "I had not cooked with collard greens before, and their peppery flavor is a pleasant surprise. But using greens in a soup like this is such an easy way to get more vegetables on the table and into your family. Which is always a good thing! This is not a sweet butternut squash soup, as most are. Instead, it is savory, warming and very good for you."

 
Next Melynda shared this Red Beet Salad with Cranberry Maple Vinaigrette and said, "With autumn here and the holidays looming (in a good way!) this salad was a natural to put together, and the taste, let me tell you it is wonderful. Maple, beet, and feta might seem like a mismatched trio, but in truth, they play very well together."

Judee from Gluten free A-Z Blog made her Grandmother's Healthy Green Sorrel Soup and said, "Sorrel is a leafy green that looks similar to spinach but has a powerful lemony flavor. It can be cooked and eaten like spinach or made into a soup. Either way, sorrel is tangy and delicious. This recipe for homemade sorrel soup, or "Schav" as my Russian grandmother called it, is a simple family recipe that my grandmother made in the old country." 

Join me in Welcoming Ali of Fix Me a Little Lunch to the Souper Sundays kitchen. She joins us this week with "Magic" Chicken Orzo Soup inspired by a J.D. Robb book, saying "Peabody and Dallas stop for soup in between interviews of murder suspects and Dallas calls the soup “magic” – it’s just how good it is. ... Since soup is one of my favorite foods, I’ve been thinking a lot lately about what my “magic” soup is and decided it would be chicken noodle soup of some sort. ... I decided I was going to poach some chicken breasts, with both skin and bone still on and in, and magic up some stock. Combined with a lot of garlic, a little bit of green chili, and orzo, I think this soup could make even Eve Dallas come back for seconds."

Debbie of The Friday Friends shared Paella Soup and says, "It had all the ingredients of Paella, but in soup form. I have to be honest---I did not buy saffron.  I've spent a lot of money on ingredients that I only need a tsp of,  and had no qualms about doing so ...  but I just couldn't do it for the saffron.  So, I Googled it and found out there is really no substitute spice for saffron.  I did find one mixture that comes close: turmeric and paprika. ... This soup is filled with chicken and sausage and shrimp. A really good main dish soup!"

Mahalo to everyone who joined in this week! 

Souper Sundays is back with a new format of a picture link each week where anyone interested can post their soups, salads, or sandwiches any time during the week and I post a recap of the entries the following week.)

(If you aren't familiar with Souper Sundays, you can read about of the origins of it here. 

If you would like to join in Souper (Soup, Salad, and Sammie) Sundays, I would love to have you! Here's how...

To join in this week's linkup with your soup, salad or sandwich:

• Link up your soup (stew, chili, soupy curries, etc. are fine), salad, or sandwich dish, (preferably one from the current week or month--but we'll take older posts too) on the picture link below and leave a comment on this post so I am sure not to miss you.

On your entry post (on your blog):

• please mention Souper (Soup, Salad & Sammies) Sundays at Kahakai Kitchen and link back to this post.
• you are welcome to add the wonderful Souper Sundays logo (created by Ivy at Kopiaste) to your post and/or blog (optional).

An InLinkz Link-up

 Have a happy, healthy week!