Top Soups for Fall and Winter

Seattlest has been obsessed with soups lately (it's not quite cold enough for stew). Today we tucked into Than Bros. chicken pho (small, $4.75). Tuesday it was Von's Three Meat Soup (a hearty, verging-on-stew bowlful, $6.95).

It's a lively topic at Seattlest HQ. Yesterday Seattlest Jeremy was crowing about a potato leek he made. Katelyn chimed in with: "My top five soups, in no particular order: minestrone, potato leek, pho, French onion, cheddar broccoli."

That got us thinking. We'd have to have a lentil soup on our list, never mind what Kenyetta at the Kingfish tells us: "Lentil soup is on the low end unless it's true dal. I'd never go out of my way for lentil." Mmm. Annapurna dal. Apparently Kenyetta favors a creamy tomato. Dammit, there's another one for the list. Though generally our tomato soups must be accompanied by a grilled cheese sammich.

Another friend of our recommends a "beery cheese soup! Good cookbook, btw: "Soup Makes the Meal." But 150 recipes? There's goes our whole top five list idea. Now, "Top Seven Soups"? That's got a nice alliteration.

Waitaminnit! We skipped the chicken noodle with matzoh dumplings? Okay, okay, top eight.

The glorious French onion soup, captured in the wild by Nikchik, a member of our celebrated Seattlest Flickr pool.