Winter Warming Foods – Soups and Stews

By Theresa Harding (updated 1/24/21)

My Experience with Soups and Stews

During this time of year, I enjoy hanging out in the kitchen often, cooking up wholesome dishes like comforting winter soups and stews made from my homemade bone stocks and other winter warming foods. Homemade bone stocks are made from the bones of beef or poultry.

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The bones from these meats are simmered for up to 24 hours to produce a healing and flavorful, rich broth. This healing and warming broth can then be used to make soups and stews, and other foods requiring water to cook.  I like to add collagen powder to my broth to increase the health benefits.

Hearty Soups and stews can be easily started in the morning hours in a slow cooker and enjoyed by dinner time. These are great winter meals for the family. My family enjoys these slow-cooking dishes with a side of salad or steamed vegetables — at least once-a-week.

Here are some family-fun meals that can be enjoyed during the winter months. Hanging out in the kitchen for these dishes is no chore:

Winter Beef Stew

Beef Stew is best known as the “medicine” for the winter cold, this is a healthy winter soup that’s the best food for chilly weather, as stews are loaded with wholesome vegetables! Knowing that you’ll have plenty of anti-oxidant protection needed to keep your immunity up.

It is good to note that a winter beef stew can aid in common colds and flu viruses. They’re not a lot of work to prepare either. Simply add the ingredients to a slow cooker first thing in the morning and dinner is served by 5:00 pm!

Oxtail Stew for Winter Cooking

Oxtail Stew

Oxtail is also known as the cow’s tail. The fat, cartilage, and bone marrow give an abundance of flavor to oxtail stew. When cooked for a long period of time, the meat becomes very tender and can be enjoyed during the cold winter months.

This is my most favorite of the stews to prepare during winter. My family enjoys the flavor of the tender meat so much that I have to make a large batch of this stew to be enjoyed DAYS after it’s cooked.  I have my top ten winter foods for the winter if you want to know more foods to eat during the winter.

Not only are these foods great to eat during the winter, but oxtail stew for winter cooking is a hearty soup that also supports your immunity.  We need immune support when we move into the winter months, as the sun isn’t available to us a lot to keep us healthy.  It’s important to eat according to the seasons to keep your immunity strong.

I explain more in this blog post on how to keep your body virus-free during the winter months.  In this article, I share with you 9 ways to strengthen and support your immune system.  These are things I do for myself and my family every winter to keep us healthy and strong.

Chicken & Noodle Soup

I grew up eating chicken & noodle soup. This healthy winter soup was always the soup of choice when things were feeling dull. Chicken & noodle soup is a nourishing soup of nostalgia is a great dish to eat when fighting a cold during the cold/flu season.

It’s loaded with nutrients and vegetables to keep you feeling warm while aiding with the healing process. So the next time you’re feeling “under-the-weather”, have a bowl of chicken & noodle soup!

If you want to learn how to make a nutrient-dense, healing chicken broth, read the book “Nourishing Broth” by Sally Fallon”.  In this book, you will find many healthy, healing recipes and instructions on how to make a healthy bone stock for your chicken & noodle soups.

Winter Lentil Soup

Lentils are loaded with nutrition and my favorite lentils are the red ones, as I love the color in my soups.  I always keep these lentils on hand for my soups and salads.  They’re high in fiber, lean protein, and iron. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that eating plenty of nutrient-dense foods like lentils can lessen your risk of many serious medical problems.

Winter Lentil soup is very easy to prepare and doesn’t require a long soaking time like other beans. Rich in folate and iron, they’re a great choice of beans that require less cooking time.

Lentil soup is also used as a detox soup with added detox spices to aid the detox process.  It’s also known to help with healing the body overall.

Winter Spices 

Winter Herbs & Spices

Let’s not forget to add those winter spices to these delicious soups to top them off.  I like to add my favorite ginger, garlic, onion, turmeric, onion powder, and seamoss powder to add minerals, flavor, and heat to my winter soups and stews.  These spices add antioxidants, heat, and minerals to the soups to boost them with dense nutrition.   

I personally add the sea moss for the 92 minerals that it contains, along with the thickness it adds to my soups.  There’s no need to add a flour mix to my soups when I add the sea moss, so it’s become a staple in my home.  We also add sea moss to our smoothies and other dishes.

We all know about the onions and their many uses for healing topically, for hair rinses, and for adding to winter soups and other dishes.  As Tasty explains, it does matter what kind of onions you use in your cooking, especially for these winter warming soups and stews.  I like to use yellow onions for my soups, but you may use what you prefer for your family, whether it be red, white or yellow onions.  You could also use the onion powder if the fresh onions are not favored.

Winter Herbs

When you’re fighting a cold or flu virus, you need these healing spices to help bring your body back into balance quickly and healthfully.  The fresh ginger root is known to have thermogenic properties that heat you up and can increase your metabolism and increase blood flow.  It’s been recommended to use to help with circulation.  Ginger root should be grated freshly for that added heat or if you prefer, there’s the ginger root powder that is not as strong but has some benefits too.

Garlic freshly diced or minced is an herb known to work in the body as a natural antibiotic and is recommended to help with healing from a cold or flu virus.  An article published by Healthline describes in detail how garlic aids with cold and flu.   You could also use garlic powder if you don’t like the strong flavor of fresh garlic.

It adds the natural healing properties to the soup while giving your body a boost in healing and warmth.  You will find these soups to not only be hot but heated with these herbs and spices.

Turmeric has a peppery taste and can be paired with ginger when added to soups, as this is the perfect combination for warming, healing winter soups.  You can find many recipes online that include turmeric as an added spice.  Grate fresh turmeric or use it grounded, as this spice is known for its anti-inflammatory and healing properties.  This spice is used in smoothies (my main use), soups, medicinal concoctions, etc. 

Summary

I hope you will try these healthy winter soups and stews as warming foods. These nutrient-dense soups will help support your immunity while providing many health benefits to keep you strong in the harshest season.  Be sure to add them to your seasonal menu to help you with the frigid frights of winter!  You could also read more from Sally Fallon’s book, “Nourishing Broth“, where she teaches all about making bone broths the traditional way.  I use this book as a reference to make my own soups, stews, and broths.

However, if you find that you don’t have time, you can purchase bone broth online if that’s easier for you.  I like this brand when I purchase it myself.

These soups and stews will get you well on your way to making hearty soups this winter season, and more to come.  The winter season is the time to make adjustments to your diet to align with the cold season.  It’s always a good idea to eat foods that are in season so that your body will adjust to climate change. 

Eating foods out of season can deprive your body of the nutrient-rich foods that nature provides for us at the proper time.  Foods in-season are mineral-rich and nutrient-dense.  Focus on nature and the abundance it provides for us.

What’s your favorite warming winter food?

Resources & References

https://tasty.co/article/christinebyrne/onions-are-not-created-equal

http://www.cdc.gov/

http://www.allrecipes.com/

http://www.health.com/

https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/garlic-fights-colds-and-flu