It’s split pea or ham and potato for me.
In my mind, soup is just a technique that’s really about the stock. This is just me suggesting that you all should adopt traditional French cooking technique.
For me, it’s saving old chicken scraps and certain veggies and then cooking them until they are mush in water. Grocery store rotisserie chicken skin, bones, and juice; carrots, onions, celery, garlic. Anything getting past it’s prime. No brassicas though. I’ll throw a t bone in there, but while really good beef broth is amazing, good beef bones cost as much as real beef.
Clam juice or shrimp/crab/lobster shells sauteed in butter with water (or the aforementioned stock…) Is also awesome.
Once you’ve got that, just put anything in it. That’s good soup.
Make sure that you put the correct amount of salt in it. If there’s no salt, stock tastes terrible.
There’s a soup season? I eat soup practically everyday.
Anyway, my favorites are: Caldo Verde and Sopa de Feijão. As I’m sure most people don’t know them heres a short description:
Caldo Verde
Lots and lots of finelly cut dark green cabbage on a smooth purée base of potatoes and onion. Traditional version also takes several slidces of blood sausage (chouriço).
Sopa de Feijão (Bean Soul)
Chopped up cabbage and carrots on a smooth base of beans and onion. Beans are usualy brown or butter beans bought dry, soaked overnight and then cooked.