Soups & Stews

"The whole tail will just loosen and come right out!" she said in the video.

You'll always have meals ready to go with these tips.

A member of the kelp family, kombu is a seaweed that makes for a versatile pantry ingredient, providing dishes with umami flavor, nutrients, and minerals. While most kombu comes from Hokkaidō, Japan, it is also cultivated in Korea, where it is known as dashima, and China, where it is known as haidai. (Maine kelp is similar and can be substituted for kombu.) Dried kombu can be used to make Japanese dashi (a savory broth), added to beans to make them more digestible, and eaten in salads.

February is Soup Month at The Kitchn, so I thought that I would look at some great soup and wine combinations. Traditionally, soup has been considered a difficult course to pair with wine. The reason for this is texture. Pairing liquid with liquid simply did not seem like an appealing combination. Well, as we all know, there is soup and there is soup.So don’t let incumbent ideas about food pairing stop you from enjoying a glass of wine with your next soup dish.

Rich, long-simmered stews are as satisfying to eat as they are to make. It’s all about building layers of flavor and then stepping away from the stove to let the low heat gently do its magic. You don’t need a recipe – just a few basic guidelines will help create the perfect stew!Note for Vegetarians – Sure, you can make stew, too! Instead of meat, try adding about a pound of mushrooms and a pound of potatoes.

This trick for making soup toppers is so unbelievably easy!

So similar, yet so very different.

Warm up with a bowl tonight.

It's 100% worth the extra work.

It's pantry-friendly, too.

Stock is one of the kitchen's greatest magic tricks. Here are the five rules to this magic.

All you need is a slotted spoon.

The rich, golden-hued liquid will upgrade your soups, risottos, sauces, and more.

This gets the beef extra tender without letting the veggies fall apart.

Nope, it's not cocoa powder.

It's perfect for adding flavor and keeping proteins from drying out.

This "secret" ingredient is actually centuries old.

Even if you've made beef stew in your Dutch oven or slow cooker, you're gonna want to read this.

Skip the canned soup routine.

Do you drink V8? We like it in savory smoothies, the occasional bloody mary, and lately, soup! Thanks to a tip in a recent issue of Cook’s Illustrated, we’ve started substituting a cup or two of this all-vegetable juice to the broth in our soups, stews, and braises this winter.Unsatisfied with the weak tomato flavor they were getting from supermarket tomatoes this time of year, the cooks of Cook’s Illustrated thought to add a dose of V8 to their recipe for Hearty Minestrone.

Inferior though it may be to homemade stock, the truth is that we depend on store-bought broth to help us with a lot of our quick weeknight dinners. Here are a few easy ways to amp up the flavor in those cans to give us some truly tasty meals.If you have time, let the broth simmer on its own with some of the add-ins below for at least fifteen minutes before using it. We often do this while we’re prepping the rest of the ingredients for the dish.

Our family had a very low key, perfect New Year’s Eve. The five of us headed to Edisto Island, with my mother in law joining us for one night, for a gloriously reclusive New Year. We picked up a bushel of oysters and steamed them in the oven, toasting 2014 hours before midnight, when only two of us remained awake. The next morning, we had leftover oysters. Even in a minimalist vacation rental kitchen, oyster stew is easy.

This week I’ve been sharing the story of the soup swap party I threw with my friend Tricia. I shared the party plan, and then some details on what you need to host a soup swap yourself (honestly, it’s the easiest sort of party!). Today I’m sharing our own soup swap and how it went. Here’s who we invited, what we served, and the soups the swappers brought! Tricia and I put our heads together on this party and decided to keep it simple.

Warm, hearty pots of homemade soup are essential for making it through the winter in one piece — especially so on snow-filled weekends. This is the kind of meal that’s simple yet totally satisfying, and warms you from the inside out. Keep your soup game going strong throughout winter and beyond with these smart tips for making an even tastier pot of soup. Your tea infuser is good for a lot more than just making tea.

During my stint as a vegetarian, bean-laden, meat-free chili was one of the dishes I turned to most. While I loved it because it was hearty and comforting, I’ll be the first to admit that it never tasted as good as traditional chili, no matter how hard I tried to get it there. The meat in traditional chili lends flavor that’s hard to find in beans and veggies.

This chicken soup had the most payoff for the time and effort involved.

We've teamed up with chefs, cookbook authors, and our own Kitchn crew to share a globe-trotting adventure highlighting soups from across the globe.

Whether you celebrate Soup-tember or Crock-tober, fall is always officially soup season. And while we love slow cooker soups, stews, and saucy braises of all kinds, the slow cooker brings its own set of challenges when it comes to getting that creamy, comforting soup texture just right. Slow cookers that heat as low and slow, as their name implies, rely on heat that’s captured by their lid being in place. That means there is no evaporation happening, like with stovetop soups.

The thing I love most about chili (aside from each bite!) is how versatile it is to make. Anything goes with chili, and the best version doesn’t come from one prized recipe, but from building it just the way you like it. In fact, I don’t think you always need a recipe — just a basic template that guides you along to make a pot of chili just the way you like it. Here’s how to make any kind of chili without a recipe.

There is no such thing as the best chili. It is a myth. Chili is such a deeply personal food, swimming with versatility and made for customization. Instead of searching for the one best chili, you’re better off learning how to make a pot the way you like it. From the flavors and ingredients you favor to the diet you follow, you get to decide what your best chili looks like, and we’ll help you get there with these tips and recipes.

All the tools you need to ensure you chili tastes just right.

Gather your friends for a little DIY dinner party fun.

There’s good chili and then there’s even better chili. The tips in this list are what we consider best practices for even better chili. While chili is about as personal and subjective as it gets, everyone can benefit from the wisdom of these tips. So know them, learn them, and may a better pot of chili be yours. Those packets of pre-mixed chili seasoning sure are convenient, but when it comes to the robust, full flavor your chili deserves, they leave a lot to be desired.

Stock, broth, and bone broth are the savory liquids that are the building blocks for so many recipes, including soups, sauces, and braises. But are these really just three different names for the same thing? Not exactly. Although they are very similar (and even talked about and used interchangeably), there are some differences among them. Here’s what you need to know.

You sip it, cook with it, and turn it into soup. Here's what the experts have to say on whether it's good for you or not.

Many of us are accustomed to throwing a few inexpensive packets of dried ramen soup into our grocery cart to save our weary weeknight cooking in a pinch. But making the best restaurant-quality ramen at home begins at the Asian market. Most of the ingredients are long-lasting pantry ingredients that make keeping a ramen-ready kitchen almost as easy as cooking up a cup of noodles.

Martha Stewart is the queen of beautifully executed entertaining. When one pictures her holiday dinners, it brings to mind visions of spiral hams and glossy golden-brown turkeys with little paper crowns on the drumsticks. One might expect cranberries, or even figgy pudding.

There are many compelling reasons to decide to volunteer at a soup kitchen, but the bottom line is simple and sincere: You want to help. But what does it mean to be helpful in these circumstance? Sometimes that’s a complicated question with an equally complicated set of answers. Here are six things to keep in mind when volunteering at a soup kitchen.

Soup night is one of my favorites. About once a week in cooler months, I rummage through my freezer for little nuggets of gold that I can quickly turn into soup. Soup is so forgiving and can be made with the smallest bits of different things. Paired with a loaded bread basket, soup night is a winner. Here are 10 foods to stash in your freezer for quick and easy soup suppers. A good stock or broth is key to a great soup.

There are times when only a steaming bowl of slow-simmered soup will do, and then there are more realistic times when a meal needs to come together right this minute. This soup has been my saving grace when my stomach is rumbling, I want something healthy, and I don’t have much kicking around in the fridge. With this formula, a quick, nourishing soup is mine for the slurping in just about 10 minutes. Why do I love this soup so much?

The world is changing. This isn’t just an understatement about politics. It’s a truism about the equinox, that sliver of time when one season becomes another, when we exhale the old life and breathe in the new. Some of us free our houses from every last crumb for Passover. Some fill it with Peeps for Easter. Plenty use spring to make a fresh start, and for others still it’s a whole new (Persian) year. I am cleaning the winter out of my freezer. I have bones to pick.

Keep a bag of frozen tortellini tucked away in your freezer and you can rest easy knowing that a quick meal is always at the ready. This series on fast tortellini dinners will show you how to transform frozen tortellini into dinner using pantry staples and a few surprising techniques. Pasta sauce is just the beginning! Dinner tonight should most definitely be this almost-instant pasta soup.

January, with all its resolutions and lose-10-pounds promises, has a way of tricking us into thinking our need for warm, filling foods have come and gone. But for most regions, this is the time of year when the bitter bite of the season is at its worst, and we need foods to warm us up more than ever. However, comfort-food stews can fall prey to becoming stodgy and predictable.

Your stew has been bubbling and simmering on the stovetop for hours. By all accounts it seems like it’s done and ready to hit the table, but not so fast — there are three more tiny things your pot of stew needs before it’s really done. Have you ever tasted a stew where the flavor was dull or flat? Like, the potential was there, but the stew just needed that one extra thing you couldn’t quite pinpoint?

Sometimes (often!) the technique behind a recipe is more important than the precise ingredients. Stews fall squarely into this category, meaning you can take a few key principles and make a hearty meal without cracking a book or fussing with your phone. Just learn one important ratio by heart and meaty stew will be yours.

Stews are the perfect comfort food for January. They’re loaded with creamy vegetables and fork-tender meat that can only come from a long, slow cook. Most stew recipes begin and end on the stovetop, but a simple change of cooking location can make a better stew. Instead of letting a stew cook away on the stovetop for hours, try this: When your stew is ready for its slow simmer, cover it, then move it to the oven for a long, slow cook. Oven-cooked stews are better for two reasons.

Hearty stews and pots of chili are key for getting through the bitter, cold days of winter. Beginning with sautéed vegetables and everyday spices is a good start, but sometimes it’s worth looking beyond the recipe ingredients to bring even more flavor to your meal. Here are 10 ways to really boost the flavor of chili and stew. This goes for all cooking, but I find it especially important with longer-cooking stews and chilis.

Time to bring your winter stew into weeknight territory with a few freezer shortcuts. Start off by spending a little time in the freezer aisle of your grocery store and you’ll find a multitude of smart shortcuts that make for hearty stews with minimal prep. These little gems bulk up the vegetable content of a stew while adding rich, aromatic flavor — plus, they fancy it up without even trying.

Soup in a mug! Is there anything cozier? Nope! Especially not soup in a bowl. It’s the season of soup and I find myself making (and eating) a lot of it at home. When it comes time to serve it, I almost always reach for a mug instead of a bowl. Why would I do such a silly thing? Well, I have three good reasons. My husband and I eat most of this soup in front of a fire — on the couch. If our soup is in a mug, we can sit back (way deep in the couch cushions) and bring our soups with us.

My friends, I am not a lover of the turkey, that mascot of a picture-perfect Thanksgiving. Like Norman Rockwell, I appreciate the propaganda effect of a gleaming bird on a platter; the trophy of the cook who has, by god, laid to rest Thanksgiving, her mother-in-law (and ghosts of grandmothers past) in one highly effective display of crackling burnished skin. But it’s all for show, like a military rally of puffer fish.

Whether it’s homemade or from a box or can, sometimes soup needs just a little something extra to help spice it up. That’s when we reach for the heavy-hitting flavors from the side door of the refrigerator. Think of condiments as soup’s finishing touch. Go beyond that squirt of Sriracha and try one of these instead. The beauty of fish sauce is its versatility beyond the Asian canon of flavors often found in noodle dishes or curries.

I love a big bowl of soup for dinner, but often I find that I need a salad and some crusty bread to really call it a meal. Thicken that soup up a bit and make it creamy and suddenly it feels like it can hold its own on the dinner table. Here are five quick and easy ways to thicken any soup and make it a meal in a bowl.

Wanna know a little secret? I often put ice in my soup. Gasp! Yes, you read that correctly. Hear me out. I have three very good reasons and I’ll bet my favorite knife that you’ll be able to relate. Now that I’m an adult, I can have whatever I want for dinner (wine and cheese, at times). I also don’t want to revert to my 7-year-old self and have to blow on my soup for what seems like an eternity. I just want to eat it!

To me, soup is just a vehicle to get more pasta in my life. And shapes like elbows and orzo are really just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the best choice for your pot of soup. Here are five new boxes to seek out the next time you’re at the store. Resembling wagon wheels, you may remember this pasta from the good ol’ days of making dry pasta necklaces. It’s on the larger size for a soup pasta, but it’s a nice replacement for your usual choice in chicken noodle.

Sometimes you've got to make really good store-bought broth into really great homemade soup.

While soup falls under the category of comfort food, it usually doesn’t have the same indulgence factor that, say, macaroni and cheese or warm brownies have. That’s not to say that it can’t feel a bit decadent, though — all it needs is the right finishing touch. Here are five ingredients that are guaranteed to make your bowl a little more special.

Miso soup is divine in its simplicity, as it requires just a few ingredients — most of which you can find at your local grocery store. The base ingredients for making miso soup’s base (dashi) keep well in the pantry, while the miso itself has a long refrigerator shelf life. Once you stock your kitchen with three essentials, you’ll only need to pick up a few accompaniments when the craving for miso soup strikes. Kombu is dried kelp which has been cut into sheets.

Think of dashi as a delicate vegetable broth. Japanese cooking uses this cornerstone ingredient in much of the cuisine — so much so, that Japanese cooks make dashi daily or rely on dashi powder or packets to prepare the broth. Dashi can not be replaced or replicated with any other stock or broth, making it a powerful tool for cooking and eating. Dashi, sometimes called sea stock, is an all-purpose vegetable broth.

A rotisserie chicken just may be the best grocery store shortcut on the planet. Pick one up and you’re looking at multiple stress-free dinners and lunches. When it comes to making a quick pot of soup, it’s a no brainer — having the meat already cooked means that you can have a slow-simmered taste in no time. Here are five tips to utilize rotisserie chicken in your weeknight soup routine.

Rich tomato soup is a classic recipe rivaled only by maybe chicken noodle or matzo ball in nostalgia. While you might have a go-to recipe, there are always things you can do to soup to boost the flavor. For tomato soup in particular, here are a few things you can do to make it better every time. This probably isn’t a surprise, as basil and tomatoes are a delicious duo.