Do You Have a Favorite Soup Cookbook?

While I'm not usually a fan of single subject cookbooks, I make an exception for the soup cookbook. I guess it's because soup can be so incredibly versatile: hot or cold, hearty or light, meat-filled or vegan, creamy or chunky. Soup can be served for breakfast, lunch, dinner or dessert and is an important part of nearly every cuisine around the world.

What's your favorite soup cookbook? Read on for my top three recommendations and add your own the list in the comments.

Vegetable Soups by Deborah Madison
This book gets top marks all around for it's lovely presentation and fool-proof, delicious recipes. Deborah Madison has an innovative palate and high standards in recipe development. The result is a cookbook you can always count on to be accurate and inspiring. Favorite recipes for winter soups: Rutabaga and Leek Chowder with Crispy Smoky Croutons, Roasted Butternut Squash Soup with Seared Radicchio and Pumpkin Seed Oil, and White Bean Soup with Salsa Verde.
• $12.36 from Amazon.

Splendid Soups by James Patterson
James Peterson's Soup book is considered by many to the the bible of soup making. At over 600 pages, this lovely volume sure lives up to its reputation. Nearly every kind of soup from around the world is represented here with clear instructions and delicious results. Beginning with clear broths and consommes, Peterson explores all manner of vegetable based soups before diving heavily into fish and meat and ending with sweet dessert soups. The international focus here is also a plus. Try Oxtail Soup, Senegalese Peanut Soup or Shrimp Balls in Hot and Sour Thai Broth
• $29.70 at Amazon.

Soup and Bread Cookbook by Crescent Dragonwagon
Whenever I talk to my Wisconsin-living Mum in the wintertime, she is invariably in the kitchen making soup based on a recipe from this cookbook, which is one of her favorites. I love it, too, for its tips and techniques, recipes, and lively prose. As the winter days continue to send chilly rains my way I find myself turning to Wintery Chicken and Pasta Soup, Carrot-Orange Soup with Toasted Cashew Garnish, and Scotch Broth.

• Sadly, the Soup and Bread Cookbook is out of print but it can be found for a good price at several online used book dealers.

Please share your favorites in the comments!

Comments (23)

Also not really a soup cookbooks, but Williams-Sonoma's Appetizers cookbook has about 60 soup recipes in it. I've only tried a few, but they've all been winners. Their recipe for Borscht was fantastic.

I just bought Love Soup this weekend and can't wait to try some of the recipes:

http://www.amazon.com/Love-Soup-All-New-Vegetarian-Recipes/dp/0393332578

I don't yet have a favorite soup book, but will be trying the one above. Thank you for the suggestion.

My sister got me A Beautiful Bowl of Soup by Paulette Mitchell and it's awesome! Great photos, delicious vegetarian recipes.

http://www.amazon.com/Beautiful-Bowl-Soup-Vegetarian-Recipes/dp/0811835286

The Love Soup cookbook is fantastic, esp the roasted poblano and sweet potatoe soup in it!

I love Crescent Dragonwagon's books! Her single subject book on cornbread (http://www.amazon.com/Cornbread-Gospels-Crescent-Dragonwagon/dp/0761119167/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1294248241&sr=8-1) is really so much more, and it includes quite a few great soups! I might have to seek out the one above.

I have a great soup cookbook called In the Night Kitchen that I found used some time ago. Every recipe that I have tried in there has been very good.

...I think I might just have to crack it open and make soup for dinner.

Sunday Soup: http://www.amazon.com/Sunday-Soup-Mouth-Watering-Easy-Make/dp/0811860329

And although not techinically a soup, my favorite recipe in here is the Pork Chili with Cumin Polenta. So good on a warm day and an easy crowd favorite when I entertain big groups.

Lee Bailey's Soup Meals. It was published in 1989 so the photo quality is terrible and the styling is dated, but the recipes are great.

"12 Months of Monastery Soups" by Bro. Victor-Antoine D'Avila-Latourette. An odd favorite for a hardened atheist such as myself....

I love Barbara Kafka's Soup: A Way To Live

Seconding Deborah Madison's book. I have not encountered a bad recipe in there. It was a gift from a friend, and it has become one of my most favorites since moving here to the PNW, where we eat soup year-round...

if you eat meat, "skinny soups" is a win. it's not so good if you're a vegetarian, though.

http://www.amazon.com/Skinny-Soups-Ruth-Glick/dp/1572840048

I've had the James Patterson and Anna Thomas soup books (Love Soup) sitting in my amazon cart for over a year...

Anna Thomas' soup recipes in The Vegetarian Epicure (forget which volume) were amazing and I still make them today -- green pea soup with butter dumplings, and fresh tomato soup with couscous dumplings are particularly outstanding. (I'm not a vegetarian, but would buy her soup book without hesitation)

Another soup recipe that lingers is from the Silver Palate Good Times Cookbook: Chestnut Soup with Brandy. It's amazing...

I found "The New Covent Garden Book of Soups" for 2 pounds in a second-hand store about 4 years ago and since, I cook from it every week. I think the book is Australian so some ingredients are not easily available here in Quebec but for 85% of the soups, it is easy stuff to find.

I also love Soupesoup by Caroline Dumas. It is in French but the soups (sandwiches and salads too) are awesome and quick to do.

Another vote for the monastery soup book; fantastic. I've also made some really good soup from some old cookbooks, "Laurel's Kitchen" and the original "Moosewood Cookbook".

Another vote for Anna Thomas; it's not a soup book but New Vegetarian Epicure has great soups...the broccoli, tomatillo, leek and potato, etc are all great. The broccoli is my favorite!

Vegetable Soups was one of the first cookbooks I ever got and I made the soups all through college. Really, really tasty recipes and a great variety--I love the roasted carrot soup.

I don't cook with cookbooks - instead I just have a series of conversations with my mom, brother, and aunt about how they cook what and then I improvise on their advice.

Moosewood Restaurant Daily Special: More Than 275 Recipes for Soups, Stews, Salads and Extras. This is by far THE BEST soup cookbook I have ever seen!!! Honestly, I have absolutely LOVED every recipe I have ever made from this book. Although, what is there to not like about soup?? :-)
(http://www.amazon.com/Moosewood-Restaurant-Daily-Special-Recipes/dp/0609802429/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1294346850&sr=8-1)

I am surprised no one has mentioned The Daily Soup Cookbook. Every recipe from that book has been absolutely amazing.
Also, Twelve Months of Monastery Soups and The Moosewood Restaurant Daily Special have a lot of great recipes.

I also really like Moosewood Restaurant Daily Special. I love the zingy Tunisian pumpkin soup they write about, and also cream of spinach soup, as it contains things I always have laying around. All their recipes are delicious and I've never had a failure.

Soups of Italy by Norma Wasserman Miller - gorgeous, authentic home Italian cooking. It's out of print but worth seeking out.