I love soup. But I know sceptics exist. To them, soup isn’t a meal unless it’s accompanied by a cheese-oozing toastie or a slab of sourdough the size of a world atlas.

Honestly? I respect that kind of aggressive dedication to dinner. But to save you the side-dish admin, I’ve skipped straight to the chase. Here are soups with the something-something already built in. We’re talking halloumi fries, dunkable spring rolls and hunks of gloriously crispy-skinned chicken. No sides required.

Zaatar-roasted tomato soup with halloumi fries

In culinary school, a German chef once admonished my “thick soup”, going on a tirade about Australians and our horrifying love for a dense puree. Consider me a proud, card-carrying thick-soup advocate until the end of my days. How else could a bowl carry the piping hot, salty squeak of tanned halloumi fries? It takes a standard tomato soup and pushes it into an entirely new realm of mealtime.

Fresh tomatoes can be a little lacklustre during the colder months. I strongly encourage a taste-as-you-go mentality here – add a pinch of sugar alongside your salt as it travels along its cooking journey to coax out the flavour.

INGREDIENTS

  • 1.5kg beefsteak tomatoes, halved
  • 2 onions, peeled and chopped
  • 3-4 tbsp olive oil
  • 3 tbsp zaatar spice
  • 500ml (2 cups) chicken or vegetable stock
  • 4-6 garlic cloves, crushed
  • 1-2 tbsp olive oil
  • 250g block halloumi, sliced lengthways into even chip-shaped pieces
  • 2 tbsp finely chopped coriander leaves
  • 2 tbsp finely chopped flat-leaf parsley
  • 2 tbsp zaatar spice to serve

METHOD

  • Preheat oven to 160C fan-forced (180C conventional).
  • Spread the tomatoes and chopped onions across a large, lined baking tray. Drizzle over the olive oil and zaatar and roast for 1 hour, or until the vegies are soft and caramelised.
  • To make the soup, scrape the roasted tomatoes and tray juices into a large saucepan. Add the stock and crushed garlic and simmer for 20 minutes to let the flavours marry. Pour into a blender and blitz until completely incorporated and the soup has slightly emulsified. Return to the saucepan to keep warm.
  • Place a frying pan over low-medium heat. Add the oil and once hot, add the halloumi (you may need to do this in two batches) and fry, turning gently, until crisp and golden on all sides.
  • Ladle the soup into serving bowls. Working gently with a pair of tongs, divide the halloumi fries among the bowls. Top with chopped herbs and another smattering of zaatar. Serve immediately.

Serves 4

Massaman carrot soup with cashew cream and crispy spring rolls

Toast has had a good run, but crispy, flaky spring rolls are the future. There is truly nothing better than a steaming hot bowl of this soup, punctuated by the shatter of a spring roll and the subsequent joy of greedily fishing around for the stray bits you’ve accidentally dropped along the way.

You’ll end up with a little more cashew cream than tonight’s dinner demands – a happy accident. Spoon the rest into a clean jar and tuck it into the fridge, where it will happily keep for a week. Use it generously over the next few days to drape over charred roasted veg, puddle into tacos or bring life to a simple grain bowl.

INGREDIENTS

  • 1kg carrots, peeled and cut into chunks
  • 2 brown onions, chopped
  • 3 tbsp coconut oil
  • ½ tbsp ground coriander
  • 6 garlic cloves, finely chopped
  • 1-2 tbsp massaman curry paste
  • 5cm knob ginger, finely grated
  • 1 litre (4 cups) chicken stock
  • 250ml (1 cup) coconut milk
  • fish sauce to season
  • brown sugar to season
  • 3-4 frozen spring rolls per person, to serve
  • coriander sprigs to serve

Cashew cream

  • 1 cup raw cashews
  • 2 garlic cloves
  • ¼ cup coconut oil
  • 1 tsp sea salt flakes
  • 250ml (1 cup) boiling water

METHOD

  • Preheat the oven to 170C fan-forced (190C conventional).
  • Add the carrot, onion, coconut oil and ground coriander to a large lined tray and use your hands to toss and coat. Cook for 45 minutes to one hour or until caramelised and soft.
  • Meanwhile, make the cashew cream by blending the cashew cream ingredients in a high-speed blender on low speed to break down the nuts, then increase the speed to high and blend until very smooth, about 2 minutes. Measure out ½ cup of cashew cream for dinner and set aside.
  • Place a frying pan over medium heat. Add the garlic and massaman curry paste and cook for 1-2 minutes or until fragrant and the paste has begun to split. Add the roasted carrots, ginger, stock and coconut milk. Bring to a gentle simmer and let it bubble away for 20 minutes to let the flavours marry.
  • While the soup simmers, turn the oven to the temperature recommended on the spring roll package. Spread the spring rolls over a baking tray and bake until they are deeply golden and shatteringly crisp.
  • Transfer the soup to a large blender (you may need to do this in batches) and blitz until smooth, velvety and emulsified. Pour it back into the pot and adjust the seasoning with dashes of fish sauce for salt and tang, and pinches of sugar for sweetness until it sings.
  • Ladle the soup into bowls. Drizzle over the reserved cashew cream, top with a handful of crispy hot spring rolls, and scatter with fresh coriander sprigs. Serve immediately while the crunch is at its peak.

Serves 4

Coriander and lemongrass soup with slurpy noodles and crispy chicken

Undeniably a meal in a bowl, this blurs the line between soup and chicken noodles in the best way possible. There’s no elegant way to eat it, so don’t even try. You’ll slurp, you’ll splash, you’ll spend the final five minutes chasing a rogue noodle around the bowl. Lean into it. Between the fragrant coriander and lemongrass broth, the slippery noodles and the golden crispy chicken, this is comfort food that politely declines to be polite.

INGREDIENTS

  • 4 skin-on chicken thighs
  • 1 onion, peeled and sliced
  • 5cm knob ginger, finely grated
  • 3 garlic cloves, crushed
  • 3-4 tbsp lemongrass paste or 2 lemongrass stems, white part only, finely grated
  • 500ml (2 cups) chicken stock
  • 250ml (1 cup) coconut milk
  • 1 bunch coriander, washed well, roots removed, stems and leaves roughly chopped
  • 400-600g udon noodles
  • 1 bunch pak choy or bok choy, stems separated

To serve

  • superb quality chilli jam
  • sesame seeds
  • finely sliced spring onion

METHOD

  • Preheat the oven to 180C fan-forced or 200C conventional.
  • Place the chicken thighs, skin side down, in a high-sided oven-proof frying pan over low-medium heat. Cook without disturbing the chicken for at least 5 minutes. Gently turn once the skin has rendered down and looks gloriously crisp. Transfer the pan to the oven and cook for 10 minutes or until cooked through. Transfer the chicken to a chopping board, slice into even pieces and keep warm.
  • Return the same pan to a low heat and cook the onion, ginger and garlic in the residual chicken fat. Cook until soft and fragrant, stirring often to prevent catching. Add the lemongrass paste and cook briefly before scraping the mixture into a blender with the chicken stock, coconut milk and coriander. Blitz until thoroughly combined and you have a vibrant green liquid.
  • Pour the liquid back into the same pan. Simmer for 10 minutes to reduce the soup. Add the noodles and cook for another 2-5 minutes or until the noodles are soft and the soup is warmed through.
  • Scoop the soup into bowls. I never worry too much about evening out the noodles – that is the lucky dip of noodle soup. Top with a stem of bok choy and push it down slightly so it softens and cooks in the heat of the soup. Top with the sliced chicken, a drizzle of chilli jam, some chopped spring onion and a smattering of sesame seeds. Serve immediately.

Serves 4