With some days too cold to face the outdoors, winter is the perfect time to stay home and prepare a hearty bowl of soup — or have it delivered to your door by a local favorite. Here’s how to make soup a part of your winter routine.

If you’re feeling too under the weather to cook and need a cup of hot soup as soon as possible, there are plenty of restaurants in Syracuse that can deliver this ultimate comfort food. On weekdays, Market Diner offers a soup of the day, including a turkey spinach pastina and hamburger macaroni on Wednesdays, as well as a NYC (red) chowder on Fridays.  

Recess Coffee can also satisfy your daily soup serving with a bean and bacon soup. Broadway Cafe and Arctic Island serves a roasted red pepper soup for soup-loving vegetarians on Sundays, as well.

If you’re in the mood for Japanese cuisine, Oishi Sushi offers four kinds of soups: miso soup, vegetable tofu soup, rice miso soup and a tasty seafood soup. Many of their dishes also come with a side choice of soup or salad, like the beef teriyaki paired with miso soup — a hot treat after a cold day of classes.

Now, if you’re feeling more creative — or can’t afford delivery because we’re all broke college students — there are a variety of soups that are easy to make in either your dorm room or messy, cramped apartment.

This delicious black bean soup has a total prep time of 25 minutes and ingredients including one medium onion, two cans of black beans, two cups of chicken or vegetable broth, ground cumin and an optional quarter cup of cilantro. This healthy, hearty dish will leave you satisfied and energized throughout the day. Some of its health benefits include helping with digestion and fighting infections.

For the most part, it’s just a little sautéing and tossing ingredients into a pan. For a black bean soup, nothing pairs better than a crisp quesadilla with oozing cheese and maybe some rice and chicken stuffed inside. An easy dinner turned delicious.

Here’s another reason to bust out your slow cooker: there’s more than a few soups and stews that you can easily make in it. If you’re trying to step up your chef game, a chicken cheese tortellini soup can do the job. Some necessary ingredients are plenty of vegetables, like carrots and celery, a chicken breast, lots of spices, 12 ounces of cheese tortellini and crackers for dipping.

The slow cooker will need roughly four to six hours on high to cook, but once again, besides the prepping and chopping, all you have to do is toss in the ingredients and wait for the magic to happen.

Susie Teuscher | Digital Design Editor

While these recipes and restaurant suggestions are for soup lovers, there are also soups that can be the perfect side addition to your favorite go-to dinners. In general, the rule of thumb is that if you want a hearty bowl of soup, it’s best to go with a lighter side dish and vice versa.

If you love grilled cheese, it never hurts to buy a can of tomato soup when you get the sandwich and warm it up for dipping. If you’re in the mood for a nice vegetable sandwich, pair it with a chicken noodle or butternut squash soup. Adding soups to your favorite dishes can be a fun experiment to play around with to see what you end up liking.

While delivery is always an option, it’s worth a shot to try to make your own soup  — even if it’s just to impress your friends and family. But regardless, there’s still nothing quite like a steaming-hot bowl of soup in the Syracuse winter.

Published on February 18, 2019 at 10:34 pm