13 Easy Homemade Soup Recipes

The best thing about the weather getting colder is that our kitchens can get warmer. It’s time for SOUP!

I’ve rounded up 13 of my favorite homemade recipes to help warm up your belly. We’ve got soups, chowders, chili, stew, and even a couple of homemade broths thrown in for good measure.

You will find links to all the printable recipes below. And if you’d rather watch me make them (and probably ramble some nonsense along the way), check out my Crocktober Soup Series on YouTube!

1. Tomato Soup From Scratch

Fresh tomatoes, onions, garlic, herbs, and a few other simple ingredients come together to make a seriously good homemade tomato soup. (Yes, we are gonna blend up what is pictured below and it will look much closer to what you’re used to.) And if you’re the kind of person who thinks heavy whipping cream makes pretty much everything better (HI, IT’S ME) go ahead and dump some in. You will not regret it.

2. Baked Bean Bacon Chowder

Bacon, onions, milk, flour, and… baked beans? YES. I know it sounds like a weird combination, but trust me on this one. I ate this chowder approximately a bazillion times growing up, and there’s a reason I still make it. It’s the kind of soup that has people going back for seconds. And maybe thirds.

3. Homemade Squash Soup

Five ingredients. JUST FIVE. That’s all it takes to make this creamy squash soup. I usually use butternut squash, but pretty much any winter squash will work, including pumpkin. Roast your squash, add some chicken broth, heavy whipping cream, sour cream, and garlic salt, and you’ve got yourself a bowl full of awesome. Who said homemade soup has to be complicated? (Not me!)

4. Pizza Soup

It’s pizza. In a bowl. And bonus: if you throw in a bunch of noodles, you can turn your pizza soup into pizza hotdish. Both are great options when you like the idea of pizza but don’t have time to make a pizza crust from scratch.

5. Cheesy Wild Rice Soup with Bacon

This cheesy bacon wild rice soup is a recipe from my childhood, but I decided to mess with it a little. The original called for Velveeta type cheese, and I wondered if shredded cheddar and cream cheese could maybe do the job instead. SPOILER ALERT: They absolutely can. And now we’ve got a big ol’ pot of cheesy bacon-y goodness.

6. Super Basic Chili

My husband doesn’t like spicy food, so this chili recipe is pretty mild. Rest assured, though, you can pump up the heat if you’d like! This is a very basic and easy chili recipe for the slow cooker or right on the stove. Feel free to doctor it up!

7. Venison Slow Cooker Stew

FAIR WARNING: Don’t count on leftovers with this one. This hearty slow cooker stew works with venison, bear, beef, or whatever you’ve got hanging out in your freezer. Throw in some vegetables and seasonings, let the slow cooker do its thing, and you’ve got supper handled. Which is quite nice on days when you have approximately 47 other things to do.

8. Hamburger Vegetable Soup

Hamburger Vegetable Soup is less of a recipe and more of a “hey, let’s see what we’ve got in the fridge and pantry” type situation. Got some ground beef? Random vegetables? A few things that need to be used up before they become a science experiment? PERFECT. Throw it all together and somehow you end up with a big ol’ pot of yum. No fancy ingredients, no complicated instructions, just making supper with what you’ve got. Which is what farmish folk like to do.

9. Bacon Cheeseburger Soup

You know what’s really good? Bacon cheeseburgers. You know what else is really good? Soup. So of course somebody decided to combine the two and I’m not going to argue with that level of genius. This bacon cheeseburger soup is hearty, filling, and basically comfort food in a bowl. What’s not to love?

10. Slow Cooker Potato Soup

Some days you want homemade soup but you also have approximately a million other things to do. ENTER Slow Cooker Potato Soup. Throw everything in, go about your business, and let the slow cooker handle supper. Because as much as I love cooking from scratch, sometimes I have other things to do than babysit our supper.

11. Easy Corn Chowder

When your sweet corn decides to go completely nuts and suddenly you’re dealing with CORNPOCALYPSE in your little field, what’s a homesteader to do? Make corn chowder, obviously. Loaded with corn, bacon, potatoes, and other deliciousness, this is one of those soups that almost makes you grateful that your garden got a little carried away. Almost.

12. Homemade Vegetable Broth

You know all those vegetable scraps you’ve been tossing in the compost or giving to the chickens? Turns out, some of them could be making you homemade vegetable broth instead. Seriously, making your own broth is ridiculously easy. A few ingredients, a little time, and BOOM. You’ve got broth. No fancy equipment, no complicated process, and no reason to be intimidated. If you’re new to making things from scratch, this is a most excellent place to start.

13. Homemade Chicken Broth

Got a chicken carcass left over after supper? Do NOT throw that thing away. Toss it in a pot with some vegetables, seasonings, and enough water to cover everything, and let it do its thing. Homemade chicken broth is just as easy as vegetable broth, and it’s a great way to get one more useful thing out of a chicken before you’re officially done with it.

And there you have it! Thirteen ways to get something homemade and delicious into a bowl. Some of these recipes are old family favorites, others are just what happens when you look around your kitchen and figure out what you’ve got to work with.

That’s one of my favorite things about cooking from scratch. You don’t have to make it complicated, you don’t have to do it exactly like someone else does, and you certainly don’t need a kitchen full of fancy equipment.

Now go make some soup. Or chili. Or stew. Or broth. Just do it!