Soup/Stew

For a beautiful, almost bone-white soup, don't let the leeks and onion take on any color as they soften.

Achieve the deep, comforting flavors of slow-cooked pho in an hour with a few clever shortcuts.

Homemade stock made from a whole bird has two upsides: You get a rich, balanced liquid for the gumbo, and plenty of tender poached chicken meat.

Nigella seeds can be hard to find; look for them in Indian or Middle Eastern markets, or find them easily online at www.worldspice.com.

To give this velvety vegan soup a tiny bit of crunch and extra visual appeal, chia seeds are stirred in after the soup is pureed.

This cowboy-style "bowl of red" is all about tender chunks of beef chuck and a five-chile-pepper purée.

You can use any firm fish and fresh shellfish you like for this brothy stew. (A little crabmeat is a luxurious addition, as well.) Make the base a day in advance for a low-stress Christmas dinner.

A super-juicy watermelon is key; it should feel heavy for its size and sound hollow when tapped.

If you love dipping bread into tomato soup, you’ll love this rustic Italian dish, known as pappa al pomodoro.

Serve up the Polish pair as a hearty soup.

Adding the veggies in phases, from longest cooking first to fastest last, guarantees the ideal texture for each.

Perfecting this recipe required a mother-daughter collaboration. My mom started it off by cutting the kernels off the cobs, simmering the corncobs in the stock, and then scraping the cobs to capture every ounce of delicious corn flavor. Her friend Darryle Pollack taught her the trick of including potatoes and blending part of the soup to thicken it. I added warming spices like paprika and cayenne pepper to complement the sweetness of the summer corn and topped it with charred red bell peppers. Together we created a perfect soup. —Marea

Tanis insists on making broth for this restorative and iconic soup (pho ga) from scratch and warns against overcooking the noodles: "They should be pretty firm and snappy, not flabby."

Earn bragging rights by seeking out the bittersweet choricero pepper and traditional blood sausage to cook with, or use the other ingredients we've suggested—this homey dish will still taste superb.

There's an entire chicken in this soup, and then some. Not a mistake. You'll pull out the breast early on and use the white meat to garnish the finished bowls, but everything else stays and simmers for hours, enriching the stock with concentrated flavor and lip-smacking body.

Elegant and easy, this flavorful fish stew comes together in less than 30 minutes.

The key to a vibrant green (not khaki) soup: Bring the water up to a boil quickly over high heat, and err on undercooking the peas to preserve their color.

This soup is what Mayim makes when she thinks she has nothing left in the house. It's an "everything but the kitchen sink" soup and can be as simple or complicated as you like. The main point is once you start with sautéed onion and garlic, it's hard to go wrong.