Paleo Soup Recipes

Whirl grilled bell peppers, zucchini and onion in a food processor with some vine-ripened tomatoes in this smoky gazpacho-like soup. Make it a meal: Serve with Pan Bagna for a delightful warm-weather Mediterranean meal.

If you've ever wondered why soups and sauces taste so good at restaurants, homemade stock may be the answer. This homemade stock recipe starts with two leftover roasted chicken carcasses. If you don't have two ready at once, freeze one and save it until you roast another chicken. Simmering the bones with herbs and veggies makes a virtually sodium- and calorie-free broth that has a deep, delicious flavor.

Roasting tomatoes gives them an intense, sweet flavor and also makes them very easy to peel. The soup is then chilled, making a refreshing first course on a hot summer night.

Dried kelp and bonito flakes, briefly simmered, create a delicate amber broth called “first” or “primary” dashi, the basis for most clear soups in Japan. For “second” dashi, the kelp and bonito are added to a new pot of water (like a used tea bag), making a weaker stock to be used in boldly seasoned dishes like miso soup. Although instant dashi granules and bottles of concentrated dashi are timesaving substitutes, the taste is less subtle and refined than dashi made from scratch.

Once you have stripped off any leftover turkey meat for sandwiches and casseroles, turn the carcass into a broth for soup, such as Turkey-Barley Soup.

Making and freezing vegetable broth is well worth the minimal effort. While there are some commercial broths we like, nothing beats the fresh, clean flavor of homemade.

This rustic dish typifies Mediterranean home cooking at its best: a full-flavored vegetable stew is topped with eggs to become a main dish. Any hot sauce you have on hand will add a nice jolt of heat, but for a complex, authentic flavor, try harissa, a chile paste from North Africa.

Making your own chicken stock isn't as difficult as you may think. This recipe can be used right away, chilled for up to 3 days, or frozen for up to 6 months. Make a double batch to ensure you'll always have some homemade stock on hand.

Veal bones make a particularly rich, gelatinous beef stock. If you don't have them, substitute an equal amount of beef bones. The step of roasting the bones, which imparts fuller flavor, may be omitted if time is short.

What bouillabaisse is to Provence, cioppino is to San Francisco. The principle behind both fish stews is much the same: simmer the catch of the day in a rich broth, grab a soup spoon and enjoy. Like many classic cioppino recipes, this calls for red wine in the broth, but feel free to substitute white. The assortment of seafood can vary as well: little clams instead of mussels, scallops in place of shrimp. Serve with sourdough bread.

It is difficult to find a commercial fish stock, although some fish markets may offer a frozen stock. Seek out heads and bones at the fish counter of your grocery store.

This easy turkey stock adds great flavor to the gravy, but you can use chicken broth instead with good results.

Use the leftovers of a roasted chicken dinner (after removing the meat) to make this easy chicken broth.