It’s a simple, age-old formula: winter plus wellness equals soup. A steaming bowl of chowder or broth with noodles can melt away the chill, and it’s the perfect vehicle for vegetables, legumes, and lean proteins that nourish both body and soul. “There’s nothing better than soup and dunking some bread in it,” says Leah Laviazar, sous chef and lead soup cook at the Natural Grocer in Newburyport. “I make soup every day here at work, and then I go home and make it.”
As winter lingers for a few more weeks, we spoke with cooks from three shops specializing in natural foods, wholesome ingredients, and scratch cooking to learn what they’re simmering—and to gather tips for crafting your own restorative pot.
Natural Grocer
NEWBURYPORT
When Laviazar prepares her weekly batch of chicken broth infused with ginger and onion, she hands out cups of the steaming liquid to cashiers stationed near the front doors to help keep them warm as cold air blows in. That fragrant broth becomes the base for one of the shop’s most popular soups: an Asian inspired blend of rice noodles, poached chicken breast, tamari, and snow peas. “Making a stock just makes the soup better than something out of a box or can,” she says. “It’s that little extra love.”
Laviazar rotates through roughly 75 scratch-made recipes, all crafted with allergy sensitivities in mind. Her tomato soup is enriched with coconut milk, and the rice noodles in her ginger-chicken broth are celiac-friendly. For her, flavor is everything. “Load it up with garlic and onions and spices,” she says. One of her favorites to make—and eat—is chicken verde, a purée of roasted tomatillos, onions, and poblanos blended with chicken stock, shredded poached chicken, herbs, and spices. “It’s something warm on a cold day,” she says.
Natural Grocer’s Ginger Chicken & Rice Noodle Soup
INGREDIENTS
8 cups homemade chicken stock
1½ pounds chicken breast
1 large onion, chopped
2–3 inches fresh ginger root, sliced
½ cup wheat-free tamari
8-ounce package vermicelli rice noodles
1 cup snow peas, julienned
1 bunch scallions, thinly sliced on the bias
½ bunch cilantro, chopped
DIRECTIONS
1. Bring a pot of water to a boil. Add the chicken, then reduce heat to low. Keep the water just below a simmer. Cook until the chicken reaches an internal temperature of 160 degrees. Remove and set aside.
2. In a separate pot, sauté the onion and ginger. Add the chicken stock and simmer, covered, for at least one hour. While the broth simmers, shred the cooked chicken and prepare the vegetables.
3. Strain the stock and return it to the pot. Add tamari and salt to taste.
4. In another pot, bring 8 quarts of water to a boil. Add the rice noodles, turn off the heat, and stir occasionally. Let sit about 4 minutes, then drain and rinse.
5. To serve, place noodles, chicken, and vegetables in a bowl and ladle the hot broth over the top.
Common Crow Natural Market
GLOUCESTER
Common Crow takes its soup seriously. Two full-time soup chefs, assisted by part-time prep cooks, produce four varieties daily and stock refrigerated quarts of customer favorites. Co-owner Kate Noonan estimates about 100 hours per week go into crafting the store’s signature soups. Each day, the café offers a chicken soup, a second meat option, a vegetarian selection, and a vegan choice. The lineup might include Italian lentil soup, beef or bean chili, roasted corn chowder, Cuban pork stew, and many more.
No matter the recipe, the philosophy remains the same: natural ingredients sourced as locally as possible. Beef and pork are grass-fed and pasture-raised, and everything used in the soups can be purchased in the store. For home cooks, Noonan stresses the importance of homemade stock. Save vegetable scraps and meat bones from other meals to deepen the flavor of broths, she advises. “It’s the best way to eat for your health and the health of the planet,” says Noonan, who enjoys soup for breakfast whenever she works at the store. “And just for pure enjoyment.”
Appleton Farms
IPSWICH
Located on an organic farm, the Appleton Farms kitchen has access to high-quality vegetables year-round. That bounty shines in the soups prepared and frozen for sale in the Ipswich farm store, which remains open through winter. “It’s kind of like a cook’s dream to be here,” says Kami Turgeon, the farm’s culinary program operations manager. Most of Turgeon’s soups are vegan to accommodate a range of dietary needs. When meat is included, it’s typically grass-fed beef from the farm’s livestock or free-range turkey from Vermont’s Misty Knoll Farm.
Winter favorites include potato leek, carrot ginger, and white bean and spinach. Turgeon’s personal favorite is turkey and root vegetable soup, featuring sweet potatoes, carrots, celeriac, and other winter-stored produce. “Whatever is at its absolute best, that’s what I’m using,” she says. Her advice for deeply flavored homemade soup? Time. Let stock simmer — never boil — for hours to allow flavors to fully develop. Don’t hesitate to add salt early. And embrace the ritual. “I like it because I feel like a witch when I’m making soup,” Turgeon says with a laugh. “Sometimes when I go to use those turkey bones, I swear there’s something magical happening.”