January is undoubtedly soup weather, no matter where you are, in sunny Athens or slightly cloudy London, the weather is cold and it calls for heart-warming food. Nothing a bowl of soup cannot cure. There are some amazing Greek all-time-classic recipes you should definitely try.

There are two things I resort to when I do not know what to cook: one is pies, the other is soup.

Greek traditional soups are more on the broth side than the creamy, velvet soups and they are packed with vegetables or earthy pulses. The most common soups are lentils, beans and chickpeas – the latter, often most Greeks’ childhood nightmare. Why a nightmare? Well, personally I wasn’t too keen on having just a bowl of soup in cold weather. I was hungry within 30 minutes of finishing off my bowl. That’s way it always came with a tasty side, be it simply olives or feta cheese with morsels of fresh bread or a wonderfully melted cheese on toast. Sometimes when mum felt like it there could have been omelette too.

I certainly make a soup once a week now that I have resumed my 9-to-5 routine in London. It’s always a pot full of seasonal ingredients, mainly roots and vegetables. New recipes will be coming soon, meanwhile here are my 10 favourite Greek soups, hopefully enough inspiration and satisfying fuel for mid-winter weather.

Lentil soup, fakes

Fasolatha, Borlotti bean soup

Chicken soup

Artichoke and leek soup

Butternut squash soup

Youvarlakia, Greek meatball soup

and there is also the red version of youvarlakia

Trahanas soup – 2 ways

Fish soup, kakavia

Chickpea soup

Roasted pumpkin & garlic soup

I hope the soups will keep you warm and well nourished,

from frozen London with love,

Eugenia

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