Soup to the Rescue for the Holidays

+ recipe for Creamy Roasted Mushroom Soup

Soup is one of my key holiday survival strategies for several reasons. One is its convenience. I don’t think there is another time of year where I am stretched as thin and need food at the ready as much as I do during the holiday season. Soup is the ultimate in make-ahead nourishment—the kind of dish that tastes even better the next day or so. I make a different pot of it each week throughout the season to have on hand in the refrigerator, and I keep a stash of different soups in my freezer, frozen in individual servings to grab as needed. It’s like a little soup library in there. This totally saves me on the most bustling winter days. In minutes I can be digging into a satisfying bowl of goodness, as a meal in itself, as a snack, or as a party pre-game (I’ll explain more about that in a minute).

Besides soups’ convenience factor, there is no better way to get vegetables in the winter. Sure, winter salads and roasted vegetables are nice, but vegetable-packed soups dish up belly-warming, comfort-food coziness that hits the spot just right on a cold day. And vegetable-rich soups work wonders during the holiday party season to fill in the vegetable-gap created from eating more than the usual amounts of cheese, sausage and cookies.