This is your public service announcement to NEVER throw away your rotisserie chicken carcasses – you can make an absolutely delicious, rich, homemade chicken bone broth out of them that GELS! When homemade chicken stock gels up (yes, exactly like jello) that means it’s a nutrient-dense bone broth, which is very high in collagen. The stock has a rich, unctuous, and viscous texture. Not to mention it’s high in protein, and the collagen is beneficial for your joints, skin, and overall well-being. And it’s essentially free since we use scraps that would otherwise be thrown away!

I don’t know about you, but I use rotisserie chickens all the time. Why go through the hassle of cooking a chicken when you can get one fully cooked and super flavorful for like $7 at the store? I use shredded rotisserie chicken meat for all kinds of things. Like chicken salad, chicken and dumplings, and healthy chicken mushroom stroganoff.

When you’re done collecting all the meat from the rotisserie chicken, you’re left with the carcass, mostly consisting of the bones and skin.

...GET THE RECIPE for Rotisserie Chicken Bone Broth (it gels!)!

This Spring Lentil Vegetable Soup features all your favorite in-season vibrant green produce, like leeks, asparagus, and peas. An fresh spring herb pistou (a sauce similar to pesto) is spooned on top of each bowl, adding zingy, fresh, garlicky flavor. This soup is incredibly healthy and green vegetable-forward, yet hearty and filling with the added lentils. My honest description here is that it tastes like a salad, but it’s a soup! Perfect for that chilly early spring weather.

In New England, spring is fickle. It will be warm, the birds will start chirping, the bulbs will start shooting up from the ground. And within a few days, you’re faced with chilly, rainy weather again. This spring lentil vegetable soup is perfect for those kinds of days. When fresh green plants and food are on your mind, but your body still needs something warm.

My favorite thing about this soup is how fresh it tastes. The quick cooking veggies – asparagus and peas – are stirred in at the end of cooking for only a few minutes until they’re crisp-tender. Very often, soups include veggies that are cooked to smithereens or pureed. But sometimes you don’t want your veggies to be mushy, you know?

...GET THE RECIPE for Spring Lentil Vegetable Soup with Fresh Herb Pistou!

There’s a reason why I named this recipe Turmeric Soup with Chickpeas and not the other way around! Turmeric really is the star of the show, here. This Turmeric Soup with Chickpeas, Orzo, and Spinach truly highlights one of the most delicious (and healthy!) spices out there. With a gorgeous, sunshiny, bright yellow broth and an earthy, peppery flavor – complimented by adding fresh lemon (or lime) juice – this protein-packed, anti-inflammatory, plant-based soup will keep you warm, cozy, and healthy all winter long.

I love the chickpea, orzo, and spinach combination because it’s so easy with barely any prep (and it’s easy to make vegan/plant-based, if that’s your thing!). And orzo always makes me happy in a way I can’t describe!

But the other thing I love about this Turmeric soup? Because the most important part is the flavorful, Persian-esque, turmeric-based lemony broth, it’s easy to make this your own with a protein of your choice or other grains (like rice, for a gluten-free version), and veggies. Have fun with it and make it your own – you really can’t go wrong here!

Ingredients and Substitutions

• Turmeric – the star of the show!

...GET THE RECIPE for Turmeric Soup with Chickpeas, Orzo, and Spinach!

Hello, lentil and barley soup! This recipe is such a great start to soup season now that it’s September (already?!). It’s cozy, hearty, and filling, and adding fresh cilantro (or parsley) and lime juice maintains a fresh, bright, light flavor. This is a super healthy and well-rounded soup – packed with nutrients, fiber, plant-based protein, and tons of veggies (including baby spinach, stirred in to wilt at the end of cooking). Pearl barley and lentils take the same amount of time to cook, making them an easy pairing for this soup. Use rice or quinoa for a gluten-free version, and use your stovetop, pressure cooker, or slow cooker for this lentil barley soup recipe.

It’s soup season, y’all!! If you’ve been with Bowl of Delicious for a while you know I’m all about the soups (this is BOWL of Delicious, after all). If there is another category of food that is so easy to make incredibly tasty, healthy, hearty, in bulk to freeze, in one pot with very few dishes, and that feeds both your body and soul, I don’t know about it.

...GET THE RECIPE for Lentil and Barley Soup!

This Turkey Chili is such a easy, healthy, and delicious recipe, cooked in the slow cooker, on the stovetop, or in your Instant Pot! It’s super flavorful and nutritious (chock full of veggies – zucchini, corn, tomatoes, and peppers, black beans, and lean ground turkey). It’s a cheap recipe to make, especially because the whole batch uses only one pound of ground turkey.

This turkey chili is a lighter version of chili – with no beef and stuffed with veggies. It’s packed full of flavor with onions, garlic, and spices – smoked paprika, chili powder. The cocoa powder is my secret chili ingredient that gives it a velvety smooth texture and mole-like flavor!

It couldn’t be easier to make. And like most chili recipes, the longer it cooks, the more flavor it develops. If you’re making it on the stovetop, you can get away with a 30 minute simmering time, but when I made this I let it simmer away for four hours on the back burner and the flavor was just *chef’s kiss*.

This low and slow cooking method makes this turkey chili a great candidate for a slow cooker or pressure cooker as well – and I’ll provide instructions below for all three cooking methods.

...GET THE RECIPE for Turkey Chili with Veggies and Black Beans (Crockpot, Stovetop, + Instant Pot)!

Have you ever heard of Rhode Island Clam Chowder? This clear broth clam chowder has no cream or milk, and is a lighter clam chowder than other versions. It’s so simple and easy to make in only 30 minutes, especially because this version uses canned clams (but feel free to use fresh if you want!).

You’ve heard of New England clam chowder, and maybe you’ve heard of Manhattan clam chowder (which has tomatoes in it), but have you ever heard of clear broth clam chowder from Rhode Island (and Connecticut)? It’s simple, delicious, easy to make, and lighter than its creamy counterpart. Plus, because it has no cream or milk in it, it’s easy to make it dairy-free (though I love adding a little butter for flavor and richness).

Rhode Island has so many unique cuisines specific to the area. From bakery pizza (which honestly I just don’t get) to stuffies to clamcakes and coffee milk, it’s amazing how much is unique to the tiny state! And this clear broth Rhode Island clam chowder is a staple in the area.

...GET THE RECIPE for Rhode Island Clam Chowder (Clear Broth Chowder)!

Creamy Chicken and Rice Soup is the ultimate comfort food – creamy, simple, and easy to make with only a few ingredients. Using rotisserie chicken is an easy shortcut that guarantees flavorful chicken (and you don’t have to fuss with raw chicken!). Enriched rice, which has less starch in it than other kinds, helps guarantee the creamy chicken rice soup leftovers will be great without the rice getting mushy. You’ll love this easy comforting soup recipe!

This creamy chicken and rice soup recipe is roughly based on my Chicken and Dumplings recipe, which is one of Bowl of Delicious’s most popular recipes. That recipe adds fresh thyme to the dumplings, and this chicken and rice soup uses fresh thyme in the soup itself. But no fussing with dumplings here! You get a lot of the same flavor with less work.

And because we’re using enriched rice here (also known as converted or parboiled rice), the leftovers hold up really well. This kind of rice is less starchy than others, which prevents it from getting too mushy in the soup. This means you can make a big pot of this soup and enjoy it all week, or freeze some for later!

...GET THE RECIPE for Creamy Chicken and Rice Soup!

Portuguese Kale Soup is so much more than just greens or kale! Traditionally, Portuguese smoked sausages, such as chouriço or linguiça, are used as the meaty base, with beans added as well as potatoes, making for an incredibly hearty and nourishing soup. If you can’t get your hands on Portuguese sausages, you can easily use a Spanish chorizo, Kielbasa, or another smoked sausage of your choice. You’ll love the little bit of apple cider vinegar added at the end!

I’m all about a dinner soup! You know, a soup that has everything you need for it to be a complete meal? Protein, starch, and veggies all in one. It’s a soul-warming one-pot meal that will leave you satisfied. (Though I wouldn’t say no to a side of crusty buttered no knead bread here, either).

You’ll love Portuguese Kale Soup, a staple in Portuguese cuisine. Living in Rhode Island, it was easy for me to get my hands on some linguiça and chouriço for this recipe, both common Portuguese sausages. But you can use any smoked sausage you have available to make it – kielbasa, Spanish chorizo, etc.

...GET THE RECIPE for Portuguese Kale Soup!

Irish Lamb Stew is a hearty, cozy, nourishing meal to make when it’s cold outside, and it’s the perfect way to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day! This version uses Guinness beer, or another dark Irish beer, along with beef broth as the base of the stew (but you can use all broth if you want to omit the beer). A non-traditional addition here is sweet potatoes, which add a subtle sweetness to the stew. And the thick, luxurious broth base? It’s thickened with a puree of the vegetables – no flour needed. As a bonus, you can use the stovetop, slow cooker, or pressure cooker for this Irish lamb stew recipe!

With surprisingly few ingredients for the depth of flavor achieved in this Irish Lamb Stew, you’ll want to keep your kitchen stocked to make this all winter long. It takes a bit of time to cook, as do all stews with a tougher cut of meat, but it’s incredibly hands-off and easy to make.

Irish lamb stew is the perfect thing to keep simmering on your stovetop in a Dutch oven if you’re home on a snow day or working from home on a cold, dreary day.

...GET THE RECIPE for Irish Lamb Stew!

Stuffed Cabbage Roll Soup is perfect if you love stuffed cabbage but don’t love to assemble it. Look no further than this easy one pot recipe! Packed with ground beef, rice, and roughly chopped cabbage, with spices and other veggies, it’s everything you love about stuffed cabbage in convenient soup form. Plus, it’s freezable, makes a TON, is CHEAP, and a super nourishing complete meal-in-a-bowl.

I realize that I may have a soup problem – it seems I’ve been posting soup recipes non-stop this winter! But you know what? Soup is my absolute favorite thing to make and eat. Why? Because it’s usually made in one pot, it’s usually freezable, it’s often cheap, and it’s easy to pack it full of everything you need for a meal – protein, healthy carbs, and tons of veggies. Fitting for “Bowl” of Delicious!

This stuffed cabbage roll soup is no exception. Inspired by my Stuffed Pepper Soup, It’s packed with healthy veggies including lots of cabbage, rounded out with lean ground beef and rice. All incredibly cheap and nutritious ingredients, and since this recipe makes a huge amount, you can easily stash half (or more!) in your freezer for a meal in the future.

...GET THE RECIPE for Stuffed Cabbage Roll Soup!

Making homemade Egg Drop Soup is one of the easiest ways to get a nourishing dinner on the table FAST! This recipe takes 15 minutes – start to finish(!) – and doesn’t require any sautéing anything. The only thing you’ll need to slice up are some green onions. And it’s colored yellow naturally with the addition of turmeric – no yellow food dye here!

This version of egg drop soup is incredibly simple, and has corn added to it for some high-fiber carbs, hearty bulk, and bright yellow color to complement the eggs.

Speaking of the bright yellow color! I love using turmeric to color this egg drop soup naturally. Some restaurants use yellow food dye to make this happen – I prefer coloring foods naturally when I can (plus, the turmeric adds a nice subtle peppery note to the soup).

The other thing I love about this recipe? You skip the step of sautéing ANYTHING. Just heat up some spices and ingredients directly in the broth, stir in the remaining ingredients, and enjoy!

And it’s easy to adapt this egg drop soup to be vegetarian, or omit some of the ingredients if you don’t have them on hand.

...GET THE RECIPE for Homemade Egg Drop Soup (15 Minutes!)!

This Chickpea Potato Curry Soup is such a delicious, nutritious, frugal meal in a bowl! Filled with plant-based goodness, this soup just so happens to be vegan, if that’s your thing. It’s packed with warming spices like curry powder, cinnamon, and cumin, and finished with fresh lime juice. You’ll love this curry soup for an easy one-pot cozy weeknight meal!

You may have made my recipe for chickpea curry before – it’s a staple in our household. The other night I made it and added potatoes and thought, “this would make a great soup!” So here we are, with the latest Bowl of Delicious… curry soup with chickpeas and potatoes!

This soup has a wonderful spice blend of curry powder, cinnamon, and cumin (though you can get by with just curry powder if you want). The base is broth (chicken, vegetable, your pick) and coconut milk. With potatoes and chickpeas for bulk and protein, and carrots for some color and sweetness.

Just like with the chickpea curry recipe, this soup is finished off with fresh lime juice. Don’t skip this step! It adds a ton of flavor.

Ingredients and Substitutions

• Chickpeas – you could also use something like red lentils or another legume.

...GET THE RECIPE for Curry Soup with Chickpeas and Potatoes!

This Red Lentil Soup is packed with vegetables and fresh herbs! Healthy, cheap, and nutritious, this soup has tons of flavor from spices like cumin, garlic, and chili powder, with natural sweetness from sweet potatoes and carrots. The broth is INCREDIBLE, especially after stirring in some fresh lemon juice and herbs at the end! It’s a fast, easy, one-pot, high-protein plant-based meal, and it just so happens to be vegan and gluten-free, if that’s your thing.

Red lentils are a miracle of the dried legume family. Why? They only take 20 minutes to fully cook, with NO SOAKING NEEDED! But they’re just as cheap and nutritious – high in protein, fiber, vitamins, and minerals – as any of their more needy cousins.

Buy any other dried legume and you’re looking at hours of soaking and a lengthy cooking time. Which is easy if you plan ahead, or use a slow cooker or pressure cooker, but if you want dinner in a half hour? Reach for those red lentils, friend.

Now this soup is not your average lentil soup. This is PACKED with flavor, inspired by Turkish red lentil soup (Mercimek Corbasi).

...GET THE RECIPE for Red Lentil Soup with Vegetables and Herbs!

Stuffed Pepper Soup is everything you LOVE about stuffed peppers without the hassle! You only need one pot for this easy, freezable meal. The trick here is sautéing the onions and bell peppers for a long time so they get very soft and browned, so their flavor and texture doesn’t overpower. Ground beef and rice add substance to the soup for a complete, absolutely delicious meal (that also happens to be gluten free and dairy free)!

This stuffed pepper soup uses almost the exact same ingredients as Greek Stuffed Peppers (Gemista). It has almost the exact same flavor profile but it’s a million times easier because it’s all done in one pot. I also love that you don’t have to heat up the oven for this!

Stuffed pepper soup is the perfect recipe for the transition from summer to fall, when bell peppers are still in season (and cheap!) but it’s starting to be chilly enough for soup.

So grab a big ol’ pot and let’s get to it! Be sure to watch the video tutorial in the recipe card below, too.

Ingredients in Stuffed Pepper Soup

• Bell peppers – any color will do, I like to use a mix!

...GET THE RECIPE for Stuffed Pepper Soup with Ground Beef and Rice!

This quick and easy Zucchini Soup recipe comes together so quickly, in only about 20 minutes, and it’s healthy too! Made creamy with Greek yogurt with pumped up bright flavors from green onions, dill, and lemon, you’ll love this easy, quick zucchini recipe. It’s a great recipe for really big zucchini or a surplus from the garden. It’s super fast because you don’t have to prep the ingredients as much since it will be blended, and the green onions and zucchini are both super fast to cook.

I went away for the weekend and came back to a MONSTER ZUCCHINI from the garden. Three pounds, almost as big as my arm. Large zucchinis can be a little tough – more fibrous, thicker skin, and larger seeds – so a blended soup that pureed the cooked zucchini to smithereens was the perfect way to use it.

Of course, you can make this recipe with any size zucchini, store-bought or home-grown, and even throw some yellow summer squash into the mix if you like.

What makes this recipe special is all the tangy, bright flavors added to it that makes it perfect for warmer weather.

...GET THE RECIPE for Zucchini Soup with Yogurt, Lemon, and Dill!

Avgolemono Soup (Greek Chicken Soup with Lemon and Egg) is, for sure, without question, the best soup in the world. Avgolemono sauce is stirred into a basic chicken and rice soup, which is a luxurious sauce made of emulsified eggs, lemon juice, and hot broth. The result gives the soup a rich and creamy texture without any added dairy, plus it’s packed with nutrients like protein and vitamin C!

Avgolemono is everything you’d ever want out of a soup. It’s simple and light, yet hearty and satisfying. It has a luxurious creamy texture, but there’s no milk or cream anywhere. That’s just the Avgolemono sauce- eggs mixed with lemon juice and thoroughly emulsified and tempered with hot broth, then added into the soup. It also adds a really interesting foamy texture to the top of the soup – look closely at the photo above. See the tiny bubbles? Think gin fizz. Absolutely delightful.

What is Avgolemono Sauce?

Roughly translated, Avgolemono means “The nectar of the gods.” Just kidding. It means egg-lemon sauce (avgo=egg; lemono=lemon). In this case, it’s stirred into chicken and rice soup.

...GET THE RECIPE for Avgolemono Soup (Greek chicken soup with lemon and egg)!

This Fish Chowder is my Dad’s recipe, and the real deal creamy New England version, made simply with cod (or another whitefish), potatoes, and onions, and a base of clam juice, milk, and cream. The key to perfect fish chowder is poaching the fish gently so it perfectly flakes apart. This recipe enhances the flavor by scalding the milk with onion, to infuse the onion flavor throughout, with a wonderful blend of herbs and spices. You’re going to love this easy fish soup recipe!

My dad came to visit last week, and lucky for me, he made his famous fish chowder! I was able to snap some photos and work with him to document his secrets, which I’m sharing with you in this post.

This New England Fish Chowder is the REAL DEAL. Creamy, rich, and quite simple. At its base are just fish, potatoes, and onions. But this fish chowder is made extra delicious with a few secrets:

1. The addition of choice herbs and spices (bay leaves, thyme, nutmeg, and chives)
2. Using onion-infused scalded milk (way easier to make than it sounds, I promise)
3. A simple technique of gently poaching the fish so the flakes stay intact and meaty, meltingly tender, and not overcooked.

...GET THE RECIPE for Dad’s New England Fish Chowder!

This Easy Pumpkin Soup recipe comes together in a mere 15 minutes, thanks to using canned pumpkin puree and only a few other ingredients! It’s lusciously creamy, flavored by fresh (or dried) sage and warming pumpkin pie spice, and is a perfect savory pumpkin recipe for the fall (though you can add some maple syrup to the soup if sweet’s your thing).

I hope you’ll forgive my diving face-first into fall recipes here at the beginning of August. There is a chill to the air in New England already, and if the past year and a half has taught me anything, it’s to embrace what I love when I want to embrace it. So I won’t be waiting until September to partake in fall recipes – my favorite season in which to cook and eat! Feel free to avert your eyes and make a Caprese pasta salad if you’re still in summer eating mode.

There are a lot of pumpkin soup recipes out there – many involve roasting a fresh pumpkin, some use a lot of different kinds of ingredients to flavor. I wanted to develop an easy, minimalist, creamy pumpkin soup recipe that doesn’t skimp on flavor.

...GET THE RECIPE for Easy, Creamy Pumpkin Sage Soup!

This easy recipe for Coconut Chicken Curry takes only 25 minutes to make and features thinly sliced chicken breast meat, carrots, and broccoli stems (yes, the stems!) that cook directly in a creamy (but dairy free) and flavorful coconut milk sauce. You can use other veggies if you like – this is a versatile, healthy curry recipe that’s packed full of flavor and is so easy to make in one skillet!

It all started one day during a major snowstorm…

Seriously though. I made this recipe completely by accident during the crazy winter storm in Texas in February that left millions of people without electricity or means to get groceries. With super limited food in my fridge and pantry, I played around with what I had and this coconut chicken curry was born!

I don’t think I ever would have used a broccoli stalk like this otherwise, but y’all… they are DELICIOUS. They have a mild and sweet taste – not bitter like the florets. They’re crunchy and the perfect addition to this curry recipe. They kind of remind me of water chestnuts.

...GET THE RECIPE for Coconut Chicken Curry!

This Smoked Chicken Tortilla Soup is a delicious way to use up leftover smoked chicken or turkey! It’s packed with healthy ingredients like black beans, tomatoes, corn, and peppers, this tortilla soup packs a smoky punch from smoked chicken and smoked paprika, thickened with a masa slurry that adds a toasty corn flavor to the whole thing. Top with crispy tortilla strips, avocado, cilantro, and other fixings for the ultimate comfort in a bowl!

Do you have leftover smoked turkey from Thanksgiving? Here’s what to do with it! Make this delicious tortilla soup that’s easy to make in one pot, with 20 minutes of prep, and is freezable.

I like to make a batch and freeze half of it – come those cold January winter nights, it’s a welcome item to run into in your freezer for a quick and easy, warm and cozy dinner.

This batch was made with a leftover half smoked chicken from my favorite BBQ food truck, Crimson Creek BBQ, in Austin. I got a little extra and even made smoked chicken stock from the carcass (and some leftover rib bones) for the base of the soup.

...GET THE RECIPE for Smoked Chicken Tortilla Soup!

This healthy chicken and wild rice soup has no cream or milk, and only a handful of ingredients made in one pot! It’s easy to make, freezer friendly, and great for meal prep. At only 212 calories per serving it’s a low-calorie, comforting soup to make for cold days.

Is there ever a bad occasion for chicken soup? It’s great when you’re sick, when you’re healthy, when you’re cold, when you’re a kid, and when you’re an adult. I don’t think there is another meal as soul-satisfying, easy to make, and simple as chicken soup.

This version of chicken soup with wild rice is simple and tasty. It has all the classic tastes of traditional chicken soup with a bit of an earthy, nutty flavor and deliciously chewy texture from the addition of wild rice.

Most chicken wild rice soups have a thick, creamy base, but this version has no cream. It’s healthier and lighter than other recipes, and easily adaptable to be 100% dairy free.

Ingredients and Substitutions

• Butter – use olive oil or ghee for a dairy-free option.

...GET THE RECIPE for Chicken and Wild Rice Soup!

You can make this easy Chicken and Gnocchi Soup recipe at home in only 20 minutes – no need to go to the Olive Garden! It’s creamy and luscious and the ultimate comfort food, loaded with veggies including spinach, with herbs, shredded chicken, and pillowy potato gnocchi. Stirring parmesan cheese in at the end makes the soup extra thick and flavorful and packed with Italian flavor!

If you’re looking for a comforting soup for a cold night, look no further. This chicken gnocchi soup has all the flavors of chicken pot pie, with an Italian twist, but it’s SO much easier to make.

This soup is quite similar to my chicken and dumplings (you all LOVE that recipe with over 100 five-star ratings!), but this one is even faster and easier because you use prepared gnocchi instead of making dumplings from scratch!

You’re going to love the flavor of thyme and oregano, the creamy and luscious thick texture, and the rich flavor of this chicken gnocchi soup. Not to mention how QUICKLY it comes together when you use store-bought gnocchi (which cooks in three minutes) and pre-cooked shredded chicken!

...GET THE RECIPE for Chicken Gnocchi Soup!

This Instant Pot Potato Soup has all the comforting taste of a loaded baked potato made in only 30 minutes in your pressure cooker! Butter, sour cream, and cheese are melted in to every bite of this deliciously simple recipe. I love topping it with chopped bacon and green onions.

I love a good classic baked potato with crispy skin, but they take a heck of a long time to cook. Enter: loaded baked potato soup!

A pressure cooker makes quick work of this potato soup recipe- you can have dinner on the table in only 30 minutes. But if you don’t own one, don’t worry- you can make this in your slow cooker or on your stovetop, too.

I love how simple this recipe is. At its core is onions sautéed in butter, with diced potatoes that cook in chicken broth with plenty of salt and pepper. This mixture is pureed, then sour cream and grated cheese is stirred into the soup, which melt into every creamy, decadent bite.

And the best part? Topping each bowl with more sour cream and cheese, chopped bacon, and green onions.

...GET THE RECIPE for Instant Pot Loaded Baked Potato Soup!

This Vegetarian (and vegan!) Split Pea Soup recipe is so easy to make on your stovetop, instant pot OR slow cooker! With diced potatoes for heartiness and lemon juice and dill for bright, fresh flavor, you’re going to love this healthy recipe.

This split pea soup is easy, CHEAP, and super healthy. It’s chock full o’ veggies.

This super popular Instant Pot split pea soup is made traditionally with a ham bone and chicken broth and has been made in thousands of kitchens across the world. So here’s something just as delicious for all you plant-based people!

I love the fresh flavor from the lemon juice and dill in this recipe. It’s a warm, hearty, and comforting soup, but the bright flavors are perfect for when you’re craving warmer spring weather.

This split pea soup with potatoes and dill recipe takes about 2 hours to cook on the stovetop, but the hands on time is only about 10 minutes. And it makes a ton, so you can freeze half of it.

And if you want to save time, you can use your pressure cooker, or let it simmer all day in your slow cooker while you’re out and about!

...GET THE RECIPE for Vegetarian Split Pea Soup!