12 simple and warming soups for winter
Quick, easy and warming soups
Hot soup is one of life’s greatest comforts, particularly if you’ve been out in the cold and wet. We’ve hand-picked a selection of nourishing and tasty soup recipes that are packed full of veg and quick to whip up after a day in the saddle. They’re also friendly on the wallet too!
We’ve partnered with Olive magazine (also published by Immediate Media) to bring you the very best recipes for cyclists. All the recipes are easy to follow and take you through step-by-step how to create everything from homemade nutrition products to tasty, hearty post-ride meals.
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1. Sweet potato, carrot and ginger soup — vegan
Creamy, comforting and with a fiery kick from the ginger, this soup packs in the filling, nutritious veg. It’s quick to make and it’s vegan too.
If you want to up the creaminess, you can add coconut milk, or up the spiciness with a little chilli. Either way, when it comes to the kind of food you’ll want after a cold, wet ride, this is hard to beat.
2. Vietnamese green soup — vegan
This fragrant dish packs in a huge amount of nutrient rich green vegetables, from broccoli and peas to spinach.
It’s deceptively quick to make, and is a great way of using up leftover vegetables — waste not want not, after all!
The fragrant herbs and spices make for a heady, exotic, flavoursome bowlful, with the heat of ginger and chilli combining with the freshness of basil, lime and mint.
3. Chorizo and red lentil soup
This has got to be one of our favourite mid-week suppers for days when we want something quick and simple but with a punchy flavour.
You can whip this up with store cupboard ingredients, and although the chorizo gives it a rich, smoky flavour, it’s still relatively healthy. You can make it in 45 minutes, most of this time is simmering, so you can set it cooking, jump in the shower, and it’ll be ready when you are.
4. Fish soup
It might look impressive, but this creamy soup is actually very simple to make and the lean protein of the fish is perfect for refuelling after a cold wet bike ride.
You can experiment with Greek yoghurt or crème fraîche instead of cream if you want to drop the calorie content.
5. Pea and ham soup cups with Parma skewers
Okay, so this is actually a bit of a cheat. If you can’t face cooking at all, but you want a dish that makes it look like you’ve spent hours slaving in the kitchen, then this is the one for you.
Basically, you’re glamming up shop-bought pea and ham soup with crunchy little morsels of tastiness in the form of Parma ham skewers and olive-oil crisped bruschetta, with a swirl of cream or crème fraîche and a sprinkling of black pepper.
6. Bacon and sweetcorn chowder
It’s quick, simple, easy, very tasty and will satisfy those hunger pangs and bacon cravings in no time. Whip up a batch of this surprisingly low-calorie soup in 20 minutes, then sit back and relax.
7. Celeriac and cheddar soup with thyme croutons — vegetarian
Olive Magazine describes this as a ‘meal in a bowl’ and who are we to disagree!
We love the cheesy kick that the cheddar supplies, which complements perfectly the fresh flavour of the celeriac and is cut through with the crunch and flavour of croutons roasted with fragrant thyme.
8. Prawn laksa (spicy noodle soup)
Managing to combine spicy, creamy and fresh flavours into one filling and veg-packed dish, this spicy noodle soup from Malaysia is just right when you’ve had a hard day and need a nutritious pick-me-up.
Prawns provide lots of lean protein and the fresh cucumber and coriander cut through the creaminess of coconut milk. Yum!