Chilis, Chowders and Other Hearty Soups

There’s a reason January’s been named National Soup Month: hearty, warming and flavorful, a good soup is the perfect comfort food, welcome in the chilly winter months for its unparalleled power to soothe and satisfy. Small wonder that everyone loves soup, from noodle-slurping kids to sophisticated bisque-sipping adults. Or that the soup category overall grew 5.4% in the six months ended June 2009 vs. year-earlier figures among the Top 500 restaurant chains, according to MenuMonitor data, and 9.4% in the bellwether emerging chains and top independents.

It all plays up the tremendous versatility of soup on the menu, especially in these tight-money times. Because in addition to being almost universally popular with consumers, soup also has a very favorable image of value, with an appeal that speaks to wholesome, nutritious goodness any time of year. And as anyone who has ever worked in a foodservice kitchen knows, soup is also great for operations. You simply can’t lose with soup.

The winter months are the ideal time to experiment with heartier examples of soups and even stews, including chili, chowder, gumbo, goulash and other filling bowlfuls, which can do double- and triple duty as meal preludes, sandwich/salad accompaniments, or entrees at both lunch and dinner.

Thanks to its associations with the increasingly popular regional American food trend, chili has shown itself to be a growing menu favorite, from the iconic Texas “bowl of red” (chili con carne, made with cubed beef and plenty of spices but nary a bean in sight) to healthy bean-heavy versions that might include ground beef, venison, bison, turkey or chicken (sometimes called white chili) or even vegetarian. In addition to including all kinds of chile peppers, from fresh New Mexican green hatch chiles to smoky chipotles, chili can take all kinds of forms and flavors, and it can also be used as a topping for nachos, burgers, hot dogs and other foods, making it an all-around workhorse in the kitchen.

Chowder is another hearty specialty that does yeoman’s duty on the menu, in terms of both popularity and variety. Clam chowder is the obvious favorite, but even then the possibilities vary from traditional cream- or milk-based New England versions to brothy Rhode Island chowder and tomato-ey Manhattan. Other popular chowder varieties include fish chowder and corn chowder, but given that the name comes from the French chaudière, or cauldron, chowder can be anything you’d like it to be, from old-fashioned creamy parsnip chowder to sophisticated wine-scented mussel chowder.

Did You Know? Soup has been around for more than 9,000 years, with the invention of waterproof containers—made of formed clay or even animal skins—in which food could be boiled. The original soups were broths of bones and other leftovers, poured over bread to “sop” up the thin liquid (the Latin word for bread soaked in broth is suppa, giving rise to the French word soupe). Even more tellingly, the term restaurant derives from soup: restaurer, French for “to restore” refers to the rich, highly flavored broths sold by street vendors to restore the vigor of exhausted workers in France in the 16th century. In 1765, an enterprising Parisian merchant named Boulanger opened a shop to peddle his soups.

Speaking of soups made with seafood, the lexicon brims with hearty fish and shellfish-based specialties, including Provençal bouillabaisse, San Francisco cioppino, Belgian waterzooi, Charleston she-crab soup, and Spanish sopa de pescado—many of which are substantial enough to be considered stews. Oyster, shrimp and lobster stews are classic American seafood soups that are also worthy of wintertime menus.

To this appealing list, you might as well add gumbo, the Louisiana-style soup/stew that often includes shrimp, oysters and/or crabmeat with okra or file powder over rice, but might also be made with sausage, chicken or even duck. And speaking of regional American soup favorites, there’s Brunswick stew (a specialty of the South traditionally made with chicken, tomatoes, corn and lima beans), Kentucky burgoo (with chicken, lamb, beef and vegetables), and Milwaukee beer cheese soup (flavored with bacon, mustard and onions).

Bean soups like lentil, split pea and black bean are classic wintertime favorites, along with seasonal vegetable soups like minestrone, broccoli-cheddar, cabbage, and butternut squash—made without meat or meat stock, these are particularly well-suited to vegetarian diners.

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