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I've sung pureed soup's praises before, and I'll sing them again: few foods are more satisfying, nourishing, and leftovers-friendly while still allowing room for experimentation and intrigue. This Middle Eastern spiced carrot soup is no exception. Creamy without using cream and garnished with all matter of excellent nibbles, it's the sort of soup that is worthy of a light meal in and of itself.

A quick word on the garnishes: I know what you're thinking: four components for one soup . . . isn't that a hair excessive? The short answer is no. Spiced chickpeas, a tahini-lemon dollop, dukkah, and parsley make the soup the lovely dish it is by providing loads of textural and flavor contrast, while adding minimal time and effort to the recipe.

Keep reading for the warmly spiced recipe.

Cheddar soups are known for being creamy and rich but also come with a lot of calories and saturated fat. For a lighter twist on this favorite, try our simple-to-make cheddar-cauliflower soup. It's easy to throw together on a weeknight, and even better as healthy leftovers for lunch the next day.

Cold weather calls for hot soup, so keep reading for this cheddar-cauliflower soup recipe.

Perhaps you've tried cheddar beer chips, cheddar beer fondue, or even beer-infused cheese, but I'm going to go out on a limb and say that this bacon-studded cheddar beer soup is a whole new frontier, unless you've dined at Jonathon's Oak Cliff in Dallas, TX, where this ridiculously indulgent dish hails from.

Now, let's address the hulking elephant in the room: unlike many soups, this soup is decidedly not diet food, but that's OK. Heck, I could barely finish one petite bacon-studded bowl before admitting defeat, even though I loved every dreamy-creamy spoonful. Rather, this luxuriously decadent soup is the sort that's meant to be shared and paired with a pint of beer and a heaping mound of the greenest salad you can get your hands on.

That said, it is very good — as in ditch your dinner plans and make it tonight good. I can say with absolute certainty that I'll be making it at any appropriate opportunity I can conjure — for starters, I can think of no better Super Bowl party treat — and suggest you follow suit. Treat yourself!

Keep reading for the can't-miss recipe.

Soup is good food! Perfect for a light lunch, soup will keep the hunger pains a bay before your evening Thanksgiving feast. For a seasonal soup recipe, we turned to Richard Blais, the winner of Bravo's Top Chef All-Stars, for a recipe featuring acorn squash. Blais lightened up the traditional recipe by using Greek yogurt instead of heavy cream. Serve the soup without garnish for an easy-to-prepare lunch, or deck it out with pomegranate seeds, a little chorizo, cilantro, and a bit of lime.

See the recipe when you read more.

Rich in flavor yet light on the butter and cream, curried pumpkin soup is an easy Thanksgiving starter or a simple entrée that can be stored in the fridge for guests to enjoy during the holiday weekend. This particular pumpkin soup has an Indian twist with the addition of ginger, curry powder, and coconut milk; however, it is not overwhelmingly spicy or palate-burning.

While you might want to forgo using fresh pumpkin in baked goods, it's a must when making homemade pumpkin soup. Yes, it takes a while for the pumpkin to roast, but once the gourd is cooked through, the soup comes together in no time. Plus, roasting real pumpkin lets you reserve the pumpkin seeds and toast them for the topping.

The pumpkin makes the soup thick, fibrous, and slightly sweet, while the freshly toasted pumpkin seeds are fun to munch on. The Indian curry and fresh ginger make this soup plenty spicy, and a dash of cayenne heightens the fiery burn. The fluffy dollop of Greek yogurt gives the soup a tart bite and mellows out the spice.

Depending on how much parsley you use, you can consider it a "dose" of green vegetables before the indulgent Thanksgiving mains are served. I like a large handful, which wilts into an easy-to-chew, spinach-like texture. Learn how to make it.

Francophile alert: if Julia Child, the grand dame of French cookery, were still alive, then she would be celebrating her centennial birthday in just one short week (on Aug. 15). Naturally, it only seems fitting to crack the spine on her seminal masterpiece, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, and get cooking, in honor of the auspicious date.

Not too surprisingly, flipping through the pages of pithy prose and detailed instructions provided ample inspiration — one could easily spend a year devoted to cooking from the hefty tome — but my penchant for anything and everything soup eventually led me to settle on her classic recipe for potage parmentier (otherwise known as potato leek soup).

Keep reading for the classic recipe.