13 Yummy Keto Soups to Warm Those Cold Winter Nights

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Nothing says ‘Hello Fall!’ like coming home to the smell of slow cookers full of hot keto soups and some crusty bread! Of course, our bread needs to be keto-style but that’s an easy fix!

There aren’t many things I look forward to about cooler weather – I always say that winter in Florida is the longest 72 hours of my life – but a hot creamy soup has to rank high up there with the best things about fall and winter.

While a lot of them use potatoes as a base or instant potato flakes to make them thicker and creamier (and a big no-no on Keto) you can easily find lots of Keto soups with recipes online for the cooler weather that are super satisfying and fit perfectly into your Keto lifestyle.

Plus, it’s an awesome way to get your veggies in!

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Why choose Keto Soups Instead of a Full Heavy Meal?

When you’re on a ketogenic diet, you cut carbs way down and raise your healthy fats. After a few weeks of doing this – by the book – you enter ketosis and can become fat-adapted. The little miracle of that process causes your appetite to diminish greatly. It’s an awesome appetite suppressor!

It does this so well that it’s normal to forget to eat. Besides that, your focus is so much increased that you honestly don’t realize it. Yes, you are so focused that you can forget to eat! Your meals may be having higher calorie content but being so satisfied at meals means you may be eating less at your meals and going longer periods of time between them. Hint: this is why so many people pair a real ketogenic diet with intermittent fasting. Win-win!

Some days you may want a big dinner of steak and a mound of vegetables but others you may want something much lighter like a chicken soup with a clear broth paired with some Keto bread with butter.

You can even make your soups more nutritious by making your own bone broth – debone your chicken (or save and use bones from a cooked chicken) and toss your bones in the freezer.

Tip: You could start a bone broth in the slow cooker before bed and use the broth for your soup you’re starting the next day. Get even more of a head start by having all your soup makings prepped the night before and ready in a container in the fridge to just add to the broth in the morning.

Some of my very favorite keto soups are the ones that are completely blended or nearly-completely blended. Nothing like a mushroom soup with a few mushrooms on top for a garnish! Finish it off with a teaspoon or two of truffle oil (or olive oil or avocado oil for your budget) on top for a lovely presentation for company.

Need more Keto info? If you haven’t read it already, hop over to How to Get Started with the Keto Diet For Beginners where you can get more information on ketogenic diets.

How Are Keto Soups Different from Non-Keto Soups?

Let’s face it – there are many ways to make soup – quick soup and slow soup.

You can have soup with a thin clear broth base or thicken it up more like a stew, which is still soup (in my book!). Or maybe Stewp?

The clear broth soups aren’t much different than their non-keto counterparts – you just need to be sure to choose low carb veggies and skip adding any noodles, rice, or pasta to them. Since they tend to be more low-fat that their counterparts you’ll want to be sure to pair them with something that’s higher fat – a small salad with avocado perhaps.

The thicker soups are a little different. Non-keto thick soups are usually thickened with flour, a non-keto thickener, or potatoes. You can thicken Keto soups with xantham gum, gelatin, or glucomannan but in much smaller amounts – like starting with a quarter teaspoon.

It’s easy to go from thickening to slimy if you aren’t careful so go very easy on them until you know how your soup will come together. I’d advise using a recipe the first time before you try to convert one of your family favorites.

Cauliflower is a good thickener in blended keto soups and for a nutritious boost, you can blend (blend very well!) okra into them as well. The kids will never know 🙂

Keto Soups Essentials

Soup is one of those dishes that it’s so hard to mess up and you can use many different methods and utensils and get the same finished meal. You can go as old school or as modern as you care to go!

You can make it fast – or slow – in an Instant Pot.

You can make it slow in a Crock Pot or Slow Cooker. (Yes – they are not the same thing! Crock Pot is the brand name of a certain slow cooker)

You can make it on the stove with a Soup Pot.

You can use a Potato Masher to mash up veggies to thicken the broth. (This one is seriously cool! Double action!)

You can use an Immersion Blender to make your broth blended and creamy.

You can pour it all in a Blender and zap it to a beautiful creamy base.

You could even cook AND blend it in this Soup Blender!

Recipes for Keto Soups

We’re going to separate our soups out into three categories – Clear Keto Soups, Keto Soups with a Thicker Broth (like a stew or just a tad thinner), and Completely Blended Keto Soups.

Save some time tip: for most of these Keto soups, you can add or substitute chicken the way we meal-prepped it!

Clear Keto Soups

This Weight Loss Vegetable Soup from Spend With Pennies is low fat so it doesn’t fit the plan all by itself. Add it to a meal with fats rather than on its own, or be sure to have keto bread with butter or avocado spread with it. You can make it your own – so taking out the carrots would make it fit better although the amount of carrots in it (1 cup in 14 servings) won’t hurt most people – it’s slightly over 1 tablespoon per serving. As written its got 5 grams of net carbs. It also freezes very well and is a super time-saver with the slow cooker.

Photo courtesy of Spend With Pennies

I’m not one for wasting food so when I came across this next recipe, I had to read it several times. Where did the chicken go? This Homemade Thai Chicken Soup from Paleo Flourish appeared to be chicken-free but I was *sure* I saw a chicken! This tasty and light broth is great for a warm accompaniment to a light chicken salad – so save it for that!

Homemade Thai Chicken Soup from Paleo Flourish

Photo courtesy of Paleo Flourish

This Good Ole’ Southern Potlikker Soup from Cavegirl Cuisine has a light broth but is packed full of greens and chunks of salty ham – and you can leave in or omit the two carrots to your liking!

Photo courtesy of Cavegirl Cuisine

Keto Soups with a Thicker Broth

Earlier I mentioned thickening soups with Xanthan Gum, Gelatin, and Glucomannan. Those ingredients can thicken nicely but you need to be sure to use them very very sparingly – your broth can go from thin to slime quickly if you add too much. Trust me, there is the moment of perfection and you can go straight to unappetizing if you don’t have the patience to wait and whisk like a madman.

If you choose to add gelatin to a broth use one envelope (about 2 teaspoons) of unflavored gelatin to 4-6 cups of broth to add body to your keto soups broth. You’ll want to add the gelatin to 1/4 cup of cold water to hydrate until the powder swells up. Then take a cup of the hot broth from your soup and add the softened gelatin and whisk well. Add it to your pot and continue to stir to disperse and dissolve all the gelatin. Remember that using gelatin with too little liquid will create a solid jiggly block!

30 Minute Turmeric Chicken Soup from Savory Lotus doesn’t use a thickener but you can always add it if you want more body to your broth.

Photo courtesy of Savory Lotus

The Commodore loves a soup I *used to make* with potatoes and cheese and hamburger but he doesn’t get that anymore. This Bacon Cheeseburger Soup from Ruled.Me is perfect to take its place!

bacon cheeseburger soup from Ruled dot Me

Photo courtesy of Ruled.Me

This beautiful Creamy Leek & Salmon Soup from Meatified gets a light creamy base from coconut milk – I’d use the kind from a can for this.

Photo courtesy of Meatified

Keto Buffalo Ranch Soup from Keto Size Me adds heavy whipping cream to make this broth a little thicker and creamier. It adds great body and flavor plus more of those healthy and satisfying fats you need!

Keto-Buffalo-Ranch-Chicken-Soup from Keto Size Me

Photo courtesy of Keto Size Me

You can’t get much heartier than this Coffee and Wine Beef Stew from Ruled.Me – I want to get dressed in sweaters and hang out by the fire with this one! Another one that’s great to share with company! This one takes a bit more prep but is so worth it!

coffee and wine beef stew from Ruled dot Me

Photo courtesy of Ruled.Me

Completely Blended Keto Soups

I really love the blended keto soups for the fall and winter. There is something about the creaminess that screams comfort foods to me. They’re a perfect warm-up with some substance so you don’t feel like you just drank a cup of coffee or tea – they’re an actual satisfying meal.

This Cauliflower and Broccoli Cheese Soup from Peace Love and Low Carb is perfect for a fall evening! You could even take it in a thermos so you can sip it while watching the kids at football or soccer practice.

Photo courtesy of Peace Love and Low Carb

And I have one more Broccoli Cheddar Soup for you!

What? Two broccoli and cheddar soups in a row?

Yep! But hear me out …

The soup above from Peace Love and Low Carb uses the vegetables alone (including cauliflower) – mashed – to achieve the creamy texture – and is cooked in a slow cooker. The next one – Broccoli Cheddar Soup from Tasteaholics – uses Xanthan Gum as the thickener and is cooked in a soup pot. Try them both – and cooked by both methods! (no photo)

I am a sucker for Creamy Mushroom Soups. My very favorite one is from Artist Point in Disney’s Wilderness Lodge in Florida (See the proper nomenclature for my former CM peeps?!) It’s super creamy, has a few mushrooms for garnish, and is finished with a drizzle of truffle oil that really makes the dish. I’m drooling now, just thinking about it. Hand me a bib while you try to get that mental image out of your head, will ya?

I know it sounds odd but mushrooms have such a ‘meaty’ taste, ya know? I’ve been known to put a burger patty between two large mushroom caps like a bun and the huge caps are awesome as a pizza ‘crust’.

This one is so rich and creamy – it makes 6 servings so in my world it’s one good serving 🙂 Okay, maybe you can share it. Check out this Brown Butter Mushroom Soup from All Day I Dream About Food. Yes, me too.

Brown-Butter-Mushroom-Soup-from All Day I Dream About Food

Photo courtesy of All Day I Dream About Food

I mentioned using cauliflower as a thickener but this Creamy Curried Cauliflower Soup from My Heart Beets takes it to another level! Plus it’s a quick soup to make – I counted it out to be under 30 minutes.

Photo courtesy of My Heart Beets

Maybe this is becoming a bad habit but I’m giving you another soup similar to the one before – but this one is DIFFERENT. It’s Roasted Cauliflower Soup with Fried Sage from Slim Palate. What makes it different? Roasting the cauliflower gives this soup another depth of flavor – sweet and nutty – plus the fried sage makes it perfect for company!