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Easy Pizza Soup

Take one bite of this pizza soup, and it tastes like your favorite pie in bowl form! Serve with crusty bread for an outrageously delicious meal.

With our affinity for artisan pizza recipes, I’m surprised it’s taken us this long to think this idea. Pizza soup! Because who wouldn’t want all the flavors of a supreme pizza wrapped up in a cozy bowl? The broth is flavored with pizza sauce, tomatoes, and a little Parmesan to make it creamy. The toppings are swimming along inside: bell peppers, garlic and mushrooms, making for a savory pop that surprises you in every bite. Serve with garlic toast, grilled cheese or simply crusty bread and it’s a meal you’ll want to make over and over…and over. (We already have.)

Ingredients in pizza soup

This pizza soup was only a matter of time. Alex and I have been enamored with making artisan-style pizza since our honeymoon to Italy years ago. We’ve spent a decade researching pizza dough recipes and learning from professionals, and you’ll see that culmination in our next level Margherita Pizza. So what better challenge than to take all that know how and distill it down into a…soup?

This pizza soup is for when you want the experience of pizza, but none of the hassle. The broth tastes so spot on that after a spoonful you’ll exclaim, “That tastes just like pizza!” (Promise. We did.) Here are the ingredients you’ll need to make it:

Pizza sauce
Canned crushed tomatoes (fire roasted if possible)
Vegetable broth
Olive oil
Parmesan cheese
Red onion, garlic, bell pepper, mushroom
Dried oregano and fennel seeds

Find your favorite pizza sauce or make homemade

Part of the pizza flavor in this recipe comes from…pizza sauce! There are lots of great all natural pizza sauces out there these days. Here are a few things to keep in mind:

Grab a high quality jar of pizza sauce, organic if possible. Check the ingredients on the back to make sure there’s not too much added sugar or preservatives.
Or, make homemade! You can also make your own pizza sauce. Our Easy Pizza Sauce takes just 5 minutes in a blender. It’s sensational.

Fire roasted tomatoes add complexity

Here’s another tip for the best flavor in this pizza soup. Use fire roasted canned tomatoes! Fire roasted tomatoes are canned tomatoes that have been roasted over an open flame. It lightly chars the outsides and makes the flavor sweet right out of the can unlike most canned tomatoes.

Fire roasted tomatoes are sold by several different brands, and have become popular in grocery stores here in the US. If you can’t find them, you can substitute any high quality tomatoes you can find.

Fennel seeds add meaty flavor

Lastly: don’t be tempted to leave out the fennel seeds! Fennel is a vegetable that’s used in recipes raw or as dried seeds. You should be able to find them in the spice aisle in your grocery. Why is fennel seed so important? Well, it’s a spice that’s used in sausage, so it makes your brain think of meat. It adds as meaty, savory flavor to this soup that cannot be replicated!

Pizza soup variation: add mix-in ingredients!

Want to add more “toppings” to this pizza soup? It’s easy to add more vegetables to make this soup even more filling or to add protein. Here are some more ideas:

White beans (to add plant-based protein)
Spinach
Chopped pepperoni
Sliced black olives

What else would you add to this pizza soup?

Easy garlic bread — Go for garlic bread, grilled cheese or cheese toast

What to serve with pizza soup

Once you’ve cooked up a pot of pizza soup, the best part is figuring out what to serve with it! There are so many great ways to accessorize it to make it a full meal. Here are some ideas:

Croutons: Mix up a recipe of homemade croutons to add on top!
Crusty bread: Serve with artisan bread like a sourdough or no knead bread.
Cheese toast: A favorite! This ultimate cheese toast has mayo, mustard and gooey cheese.
Garlic bread: Try our classic garlic bread, or an even easier version, garlic toast!
Grilled cheese: Try avocado grilled cheese or even better, pesto grilled cheese dippers! YUM.
Gluten free options: Browse this list of bread substitutes!

This pizza soup recipe is…

Vegetarian and gluten-free.

Easy Pizza Soup

(5 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)

5 from 5 reviews

Author: Sonja Overhiser
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 20 minutes
Total Time: 30 minutes
Yield: 4
Diet: Vegetarian

Print Recipe

Description

Take one bite of this pizza soup, and it tastes just like your favorite pie in bowl form! Serve with crusty bread for an outrageously delicious meal.

Ingredients

1 red onion
4 cloves garlic
1 green bell pepper
1 red bell pepper
2 medium portobello mushroom caps
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 tablespoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon fennel seeds
15 ounce jar pizza sauce (or Easy Pizza Sauce)
28-ounce can fire-roasted crushed tomatoes
1 quart (4 cups) vegetable broth
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese, plus more for the garnish
Fresh basil, for the garnish (optional)
1/2 recipe Homemade Croutons, crusty bread, garlic bread or garlic toast, for serving (optional)

Instructions

Dice the onion. Mince the garlic. Dice the bell peppers. Destem and chop the mushroom caps into bite-sized pieces.
In a large pot or Dutch oven, heat the olive oil over medium high heat. Add the onion, mushrooms, and peppers and sauté for 4 minutes, until translucent. Add 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt, the garlic, oregano, fennel, and red pepper flakes and cook 2 to 3 minutes until fragrant and the veggies have softened.
Add the pizza sauce, canned tomatoes and their liquid, and vegetable broth. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer 10 minutes. Stir in the cheese and simmer 5 more minutes until it is melted. Taste and add additional kosher salt if necessary.
Serve warm topped with homemade croutons, additional Parmesan cheese, and fresh basil leaves (or simply serve with crusty bread or a gluten free bread substitute).

Category: Soup
Method: Stovetop
Cuisine: Soup

Keywords: Pizza soup

More soup recipes…and pizza recipes!

When pizza and soup collide…it’s such a treat! Here are a few more of our favorite soup recipes and pizza pies:

Enjoy cozy and rustic Creamy Vegan Potato Soup with all the toppings
Try irresistibly hearty Best Ever Lentil Soup
Go Italian-style with traditional Pasta e Ceci (Italian Chickpea Soup)
Opt for ultra creamy Broccoli Potato Soup
Bake up gourmet Burrata Pizza
Go for a white sauce with Spinach Pizza, Pizza Bianca or Ricotta Pizza
Grab your cast iron skillet for Perfect Pan Pizza

A Couple Cooks - Healthy, Whole Food, & Vegetarian Recipes

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Stuffed Hazelnut Amaretti Cookies

These chewy hazelnut amaretti cookies have a hidden surprise inside: a core of molten Nutella.

Swapping hazelnut flour for almond flour in my soft amaretti cookie recipe results in a chewy, nutty cookie that’s downright delightful and naturally gluten free. The nugget of molten hazelnut spread in the middle makes it over the top delicious!

Stuffed Hazelnut Amaretti Cookies on a wire rack, bowl of hazelnuts and nutella on the side

I’ve thoroughly explored the options for flavored amaretti, from chocolate to raspberry to colorful confetti sprinkles, but this is the first time I’ve attempted stuffing them.

I’d actually tested a hazelnut amaretti some time ago, but shelved the idea, planning to revisit it during the holidays. And in an attempt to do something a bit different with it instead of just swapping out the nut flour (otherwise this recipe is virtually identical to all my other amaretti), I decided to combine my love of amaretti with my obsession with stuffing stuff inside cookies.

The result?

Simply magical.

Closeup of a Hazelnut Amaretti Cookie with a bite, showing the Nutella filling inside

The hazelnut flour has a much stronger flavor than almond, nutty and toasty and robust, with just a hint of almond serving as a fragrant foundation that rounds out the flavor profile quite nicely.

The texture is similar to that of the almond amaretti, although depending on the coarseness of your hazelnut flour you may end up with a softer, more open crumb which I found quite lovely.

The bottoms bake up slightly crispy (be sure to use a double layer of cookie sheets which helps insulate the bottoms and prevents them from getting too dark), with a chewy outside and a marzipan-like inside, and a core of molten Nutella hidden inside.

(more…)

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Survival, Sustainability, Uncovering Systematic Bias Among Hospitality Trends

Survival, resilience, and comfort connect the hospitality industry’s trends of the year, identified by af&co, a creative and strategic consulting firm with a focus on hospitality and lifestyle, and Carbonate, a creative services agency specializing in food, beverage, hospitality, and food tech, in the recent webinar, Do the Hustle: Hospitality Insights & Trend Report.

Hustle in this case refers to a hospitality industry hustling to stay afloat amid the coronavirus pandemic, devastating stay-at-home mandates, and ongoing economic uncertainty. “The creativity, innovation, and willpower has been amazing,” said Andrew Freeman, president and founder of af&co, and co-founder of Carbonate. “People are looking at everything with nimbleness, agility, and hustle as they work to survive.”

Freeman and Candace MacDonald, co-founder and managing director of Carbonate, identified four Big Picture trends, or key themes, that will impact 2021.

1. I will survive. This trend exemplifies the hustle and innovation of hospitality operators and chefs as they pivoted with new ideas and business models including pop-up restaurants, brand extensions such as going direct to consumers or launching virtual cooking classes, or solo ventures like micro-bakeries. “Sometimes crisis breeds creativity,” noted Freeman.

2. Embrace the great outdoors. Consumers wishing to safely socialize and dine out will be spending more time in open-air spaces as the pandemic continues and operators are figuring out logistics, especially as we head into winter. Freeman and MacDonald expect to see convertible, covered, and heated outdoor areas as well as hotels adding more outdoor activities and options for guests. For example, some operators like Table for One in Sweden are serving full solo meals in a meadow and Ett in Atlanta offers a five-course meal in the woods.

3. Uncovering systemic bias and raising the bar on inclusion. Business owners of all sizes will have to closely consider how they are actively seeking diversity. A focus is needed on raising awareness, equal pay, and supporting BIPOC businesses. This is a major issue for the industry, and we should be the leaders, said Freeman.

4. Future of sustainability. While sustainability seemed to take a backseat early in 2020 as COVID-19 spread, it is again top-of-mind and hitting the mainstream. We’ll see more innovations in sustainable packaging like wine bottles made from recycled paperboard. There will be a renewed focus on food waste. The pandemic changed mindsets, says Freeman, as people stayed home and tried to use everything in the fridge, making items like imperfect product more accepted. Also expect more direct to community distribution. The inefficiencies in the system were highlighted by images of rotting crops juxtaposed with empty supermarket shelves. We’ll see more coordination with this, he said.

Freeman and MacDonald also revealed the trends of 2021 in food, beverage, and cuisines, highlighting things that continued to trend or tipped to the point of becoming cultural.

• Food Trend of the Year: Quesabirria. Described as the most comforting comfort food during a difficult year, this is a meat and cheese stew from Mexico traditionally made with goat but now often made with beef or lamb. Originally popular in Los Angeles and San Francisco, it is beginning to take hold on the East Coast.

• Beverage trend of the Year: Hot Cocktails. With consumers embracing dining in the outdoors as the cold weather approaches, Freeman anticipates we’ll see more inventive cocktails served hot along with more tea-based drinks, mulled wines, and ciders.

• Cuisine of the Year. Chinese American. Known as a comforting traditional takeout item, it is making a comeback and along the way refining some recipes to reduce sugar and oil. Freeman pointed out that the cuisine is not authentically Chinese but has established its own identity in American taste memory. Other cuisines on the rise include regional Indian, Afro-Caribbean, Singapore Malay, and Jewish, including bagels, babka, and deli, said Freeman.

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Overnight Oats

This overnight oats recipe is the epitome of a healthy, easy breakfast! Here’s how to make it, with lots of tips and topping ideas.

Looking for the epitome of an easy breakfast idea? Try this overnight oats recipe! There’s no cooking involved here: in fact, you can mix up a jar in just 2 minutes! Lave rolled oats in the fridge overnight with milk, and it magically makes them into a sort of porridge. Eat them cold topped with berries or nut butter and they’re absolutely fantastic! This easy breakfast has been trendy for years now. But it wasn’t until recently that Alex and I found a recipe that we actually like (more on that below). Here are lots of tips and topping ideas for how to make the best overnight oats ever!

How to make overnight oats

This overnight oats recipe has just 4 ingredients, plus salt. That’s less than most recipes you’ll find! Here’s the breakdown of what you’ll need (or jump to the recipe below):

Rolled Old Fashioned oats*
Milk of choice (2%, oat milk, or almond milk or other)
Maple syrup
Vanilla

That’s it! Throw them into a jar and leave the in the refrigerator overnight. Instant breakfast! Here’s the thing though: there are a few tips to keep in mind about this process. Let’s run through them quickly!

Use Old Fashioned rolled oats, not steel cut

This overnight oats recipe is for Old Fashioned rolled oats, the kind that you use to make your standard oatmeal that look like flat discs. Do not use steel cut oats here! Why? Well, steel cut oats are whole grain oats that are cut into nubs instead of rolled out: the grains look like brown rice or barley. They take much longer to cook than rolled oats. We tested the overnight process with steel cut oats, but it turned out terribly. The texture of the oats tasted soaked grains of rice (yuck!), even after several days in the refrigerator.

Some people think that steel cut oats are healthier than rolled oats. That’s actually not true! Both varieties have very similar nutritional profiles: lots of protein and fiber to start your day. So opt for rolled oats here and you’re losing nothing. (Read more at Steel Cut vs Rolled Oats.)

Chia seeds aren’t required!

Many overnight oats recipes out there have chia seeds in them. Confession: we tried an overnight oats with chia seeds recipe a few years ago, and it turned us off on the concept for years. Chia seeds form a gel when they’re wetted, so they give overnight oats a jelly-like quality. To us, this wasn’t appetizing!

If this has happened to you before: never fear! Chia seeds aren’t essential for overnight oats. Overnight oats are simply oats soaked with milk and seasonings. So the texture here is just softened oats: not jelly-like at all!

Best eaten the next day, but you can store

Speaking of texture…let’s chat about that briefly. Make sure to note this, if you’ve never had them before: The texture of overnight oats is not like normal oatmeal. It’s softer and a little more…gooey. But it’s very delicious, once you get used to it.

This overnight oats recipe is best eaten the day after you make it. Why? We found that the texture of oats can get very soggy and gooey after a few days in the refrigerator. If you don’t mind that, you can store it 2 to 3 days. We like it best eaten the next day.

Overnight oats recipe is eaten cold (but you can warm them)

Another thing: overnight oats are typically eaten cold right from the refrigerator. This again makes it a little different from normal oats, so you have to get used to it. Think of it more like a combination between breakfast cereal and oatmeal.

Want to heat it up instead? You can do that too! Microwave it for about 40 to 60 seconds, stopping about halfway through to stir. Make sure you have enough room in your jar for overflow. You also can heat it on the stovetop, though that’s kind of defeating the purpose of these oats! In that case, you might as well just make oatmeal (it takes only a few minutes).

Healthy overnight oats topping ideas!

Once you’ve got your tasty overnight oats, you can decide on your toppings! Here’s the thing: many overnight oats recipes have loads of sugar in the toppings. For us, we prefer not to overload on sugar for the first meal of the day! So here are some ideas for healthy overnight oats topping ideas:

Strawberries
Blueberries
Sliced bananas
Cubed apples
Peanut butter
Almond butter
Cashew butter
Honey
Maple syrup
Pepitas
Dried cranberries or cherries
Raisins

What’s our favorite? Personally, I love my oatmeal with a pinch of salt and a swirl of cashew or almond butter. Alex likes to load it with fruit and a drizzle of honey or maple syrup.

More oatmeal recipes

Confession: we love this overnight oats recipe, but we’re partial to regular oatmeal and our extremely delicious baked oatmeal. This overnight oats is a close second. Here are a few more of our favorite oatmeal recipes:

Best Oatmeal Recipe Straight up delicious: the best way to make it!
Toasted Oatmeal (Vegan) The oatmeal recipe I eat every day: it’s toasted so it’s got a nutty scent.
Perfect Steel Cut Oats Creamy, chewy porridge, for you steel cut oats lovers.
Easy Instant Pot Oatmeal Did you know you can make oatmeal in a pressure cooker?
Everyday Baked Oatmeal Cozy spiced and full of flavor! A favorite.
Banana Baked Oatmeal Healthy and totally irresistible.

This overnight oats recipe is…

Vegetarian, vegan, plant-based, dairy-free and gluten-free.