Healthy Winter Soup & Stew Recipes

These recipes include lots of your favorite winter veggies, like kale, potatoes, cabbage and onion, and only require 20 minutes of active cooking or less.

This healthy basic beef chili recipe is well worth doubling so you can throw a batch in the freezer. Serve topped with diced red onion, sliced scallions, shredded cheese and your favorite hot sauce.

This vegetable-packed minestrone soup recipe is inspired by a popular Weight Watchers vegetable soup recipe. It makes a big pot of soup, so keep some in the refrigerator for up to 5 days and freeze the rest in single-serve portions. That way you always have an easy, delicious vegetable soup to start your meal or to eat for lunch. Think of this vegetable minestrone recipe as a starting point for other healthy soup variations, too: toss in leftover chopped cooked chicken or whole-wheat pasta or brown rice to make it more satisfying.

This easy soup recipe is inspired by cocido, the hearty stew of assorted meats, chickpeas and vegetables considered a national dish of Spain. Each region, family and restaurant has its own variation, but this slow-cooker soup has enough meat to satisfy the carnivores and enough vegetables to make it healthy. Ask for a 4-ounce slab of Serrano ham or prosciutto at your deli counter instead of buying slices. If you don't have a 6-quart (or larger) slow cooker, opt for the stovetop variation instead.

Tons of spice, corn and bell pepper give this healthy one-pot chicken chili recipe Southwestern flair. Serve with your favorite hot sauce, tortilla chips and a cold beer.

Fresh or frozen ravioli cook in minutes and turn this light vegetable soup into a main course. Look for whole-wheat or whole-grain ravioli in the refrigerated or frozen section of the supermarket. Tortellini can be used instead of ravioli as well. Recipe by Nancy Baggett for EatingWell.

Hearty, thick, rich--this is just how a winter soup should be. The meat and carrots become tender yet retain their texture, and the kale offers freshness. Garnish each serving of this slow-cooker beef and barley soup with additional pesto and fresh basil and oregano sprigs, if desired.

A bowl of this healthy white chicken chili packs a whopping 22 grams of protein in each serving and is appropriate for a diabetes-friendly diet. Consider topping this white chili with Greek yogurt instead of sour cream to reduce calorie and fat content while still getting a creamy texture.

A splash of vinegar is a long-standing chef's trick for soups. Added just before you serve the soup, vinegar brightens the taste considerably. Use your favorite style of chicken sausage to add variety to this dish.

This version of the Italian classic vegetable and bean soup is made in the slow cooker and mixes in flavorful sausage and squash. Use any variety of winter squash.

In this healthy fish chowder recipe, heavy cream is replaced with milk and flour-thickened fish (or seafood) broth and we keep sodium amounts reasonable with lower-sodium broth. By making your own homemade fish chowder, you'll save up to 300 calories, 20 grams of saturated fat and 500 milligrams of sodium per serving compared to many store-bought or restaurant chowders.

This Fisherman's stew recipe is loaded with cod, shrimp, and mussels and will warm you right up on cold winter days. The crostini served alongside are made with homemade roasted garlic, and perfect for soaking up every last morsel of the stew.

In this recipe, the humble turnip is transformed into a rich turnip soup made creamy with just 1 tablespoon of butter. Serve it as a starter or side soup. The mini salad on top is optional, but we love the bit of texture from the greens and pop of flavor from the vinaigrette.

Chicken thighs get perfectly tender in just a few hours in the slow cooker. Plus, cooking everything together low and slow infuses all the flavors together for complexity in every bite.

Ditch the seasoning packet! Homemade ramen may take more time but it's worth it for the deep, impressive flavor. This healthy ramen recipe features tons of vegetables and soy eggs, which are hard not to eat just on their own.

This tomato soup recipe is full of flavor and perfect to warm you up on a cold day. Pair it with Grilled Cheese Croutons and be reminded of your childhood lunches!

Brazil's cuisine often features smoky, grilled meats, but this healthy vegetarian bean soup recipe is completely meat-free. Instead, blackened jalapeños, fire-roasted tomatoes and smoked paprika provide the Brazilian flair. A little molasses adds a sweet-toasty note, and the kale, while not traditional, bumps up your daily veggie count.

This Italian Wedding Soup recipe is Italian comfort food at its best, and this easy soup recipe lends itself to countless variations. Substitute spinach, chicory, chard or any other leafy green for the escarole or kale, and any leftover cooked (or canned) beans for the white beans in this healthy Italian wedding soup recipe.

This healthy white turkey chili recipe is gorgeous, with flecks of green from zucchini, oregano and green chiles. To keep the saturated fat low, we use one pound of ground turkey and add whole-grain bulgur to boost the volume and fiber in this chili recipe. After all the ingredients are added to the pot, we like to slowly simmer our chili for close to an hour to develop the best flavor, but if you're in a hurry, reduce the liquid by half and simmer for 20 to 25 minutes.

This simple tomato soup is perfect paired with your favorite grilled cheese sandwich. Make a double batch and freeze the extra for rainy-day emergencies.

The trick to making this healthy lobster chowder recipe have tons of rich flavor is to start with great fish stock. (The best is often in the freezer case at the supermarket.) Then cook the lobsters in the stock to intensify its flavor. There is no flour added in this healthy soup, so it's lighter than a typical creamy chowder--plus it's gluten-free.

This wonderful winter vegetable chowder recipe is rich, filling and great for a winter supper. It's full of potatoes, rutabaga and carrot, but other vegetables could be added, such as sautéed mushrooms or fennel, chopped tomatoes or cubes of roasted winter squash.

There's no reason to only use cucumbers raw--they are wonderful sautéed then pureed with avocado for a silken-textured soup that's good warm or cold.

This is a zippy Southwestern-flavored black bean soup. We make it with canned beans so it comes together in minutes. If you have leftovers, pack them up in individual serving containers for lunch the next day.