Shaun Smith is a writer, journalist and former chef in Toronto. He is the author of the young adult novel Snakes & Ladders. If you're anything like me, December's holiday season — with its toxic mix of airplane rides, cocktail parties and family gatherings — brought you the New Year's gift of a head cold or flu. Add to that the bone-chilling onset of winter and there is no better time to turn to that great gastronomical cure-all: soup.

Be it to soothe a nasty cold, or to warm you up after clearing the sidewalk of snow, there is nothing quite as comforting as a nice bowl of hot soup. That's why I talked to three cookbook authors to get some delicious soup recipes to help you kill the chills this winter.

Soup aficionado Clifford A. Wright shares the pleasure of Corsican Country Soup from his book, The Best Soups in the World.

Halifax's chef Craig Flinn offers a comforting Sweet Potato Soup, with Warm Mussel, Shiitake and Winter Leek Salad from his book, Fresh Canadian Bistro.

From his new tome The Country Cooking of Ireland, Colman Andrews provides a recipe for Turnip & Brown Bread Soup.

My recipe this month is for an Asian variation of the classic chicken noodle soup, combining rice noodles, hot chicken broth, a dash of spices, tofu and some crunchy green vegetables. At our house, we love this soup not only because it is so nutritious and satisfying, but also because it can be made quickly and easily. If tofu is not to your liking, use cooked chicken instead. Likewise, chicken stock can be replaced with vegetable stock for a wholly vegetarian adaptation of this soup.

Tofu and Rice Noodle Soup

Serves four

Ingredients

• 1 large clove garlic, minced
• 1 shallot, minced
• 1 Tablespoon fresh ginger, minced
• 1 small carrot, cut to a small dice (about ½ cup)
• 1 Tablespoon vegetable oil
• 4 cups chicken or vegetable stock
• 2 teaspoons mirin rice wine
• 6 teaspoons soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon sesame oil
• 1 teaspoon hot pepper sauce
• 1 cup extra-firm tofu, cut in a large dice
• 1 cup chopped bok choy
• 1/3 standard package brown-rice vermicelli noodles (about 133 gms)
• 3 pinches salt
• 10 turns or the black pepper mill
• 1 lime

In a medium-sized pot, heat the vegetable oil over med-high heat. Sauté together for five minutes: garlic, shallots, ginger and carrots. After five minutes, add the stock to the pot. Stir in the mirin, soy, sesame, hot pepper, salt and black pepper. Bring to a boil, and then reduce heat to simmer for 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, set rice noodles in a bowl and soak covered in hot tap water for 15 mins. Cut the tofu into bite-sized cubes and add to the simmering soup pot. Wash and chop the bok choy into bite-sized pieces and set aside.

After 15 minutes, drain the noodles and divide them equally between four bowls. Add the bok choy to the soup pot and bring back to the boil. Once the soup boils, ladle it in equal portions into the four bowls over the noodles. Add a small squeeze of fresh lime juice to each bowl. Adjust seasoning to taste and serve steaming hot.

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Clifford A. Wright's Corsican Country Soup

(From The Best Soups in the World, by Clifford A. Wright, John Wiley & Sons Canada.)

Clifford A. Wright is a James Beard Award-winning author. To write his new book, The Best Soups in the World, Clifford A. Wright had to come up with a whole new method for categorizing soups.

"Most writing about soup is based on a perceived structure that is rooted in classical French cuisine," he says.

The French created categories such as consommés, pureed soups and creamed soups, but while Wright was working on his book — which gathers 247 recipes from around the world — he realized that the French categories left out many soup preparations from other cultures. Wright had to find a way to categorize soups from places such as Africa, South America and Iceland.

"I thought the best way to do it was to move away from the French concept and stick with certain kinds of themes," he says. Wright created 14 new categories, from "clear soups" to "chunky legume soups," and "grain-based soups" to "chilled soups," devoting a chapter to each in the book.

"The process of having to come up with those chapters really forced me to think not only about how we eat soups but also how to go about choosing the best ones," Wright says.

A James Beard Award-winning author, Wright has published 11 previous cookbooks. The collection of soups he eventually settled on for this new book was drawn from thousands of recipes he has collected in his travels over the years.

"I wanted to include the obvious soups — recipes for clam chowder, borscht and gazpacho — but also to introduce readers to how wide a world soups really are," he says.

A rustic classic, though also perhaps still unknown to many people, Corsican country soup is a simple yet hearty and satisfying soup made with whole kidney beans, cabbage and ham. "In the Mediterranean," Wright says, "beans have always been very popular in the diets of mariners and poor people."

Corsican Country Soup

(John Wiley & Sons Canada, Ltd.) (Excerpted from The Best Soups in the World. Copyright 2010 by Clifford A. Wright. Excerpted with permission of the publisher John Wiley & Sons Canada, Ltd.)

This is the most famous of all the Corsican soups. Country folk simply call it minestra (soup), while city folk call it soupe paysanne (country soup). Shepherds would take some leftover soup with them into the mountain pastures to eat cold for their midday nourishment. Besides the vegetables in the recipe below, some cooks also use carrots, celery, zucchini, leeks and dandelion, depending on the season. The pork fat can be cut off any pork you happen to have — the strip of fat surrounding a pork chop or shoulder, for example.

Ingredients (serves eight)

• ¼ pound pork fat or bacon (see Note), chopped
• 2 pounds boiling potatoes (such as Yukon Gold), peeled and diced
• 1 small green cabbage (about 1 ½ pounds), cored and chopped
• ¾ pound Swiss chard, stem removed and chopped
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 2 large garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 6 cups water
• 1 cup (about ½ pound) dried red kidney beans
• One ½-pound piece cooked ham or smoked bacon, preferably on the bone
• 1 large tomato (about 10 ounces), peeled, seeded, and chopped
• 6 slices day-old French or Italian country bread, or ¼ pound lasagne sheets
• 1 tablespoon salt
• Freshly ground black pepper to taste
• Extra-virgin olive oil for drizzling

In a large flame-proof casserole or stockpot, cook the pork fat over medium-high heat, stirring, until there is some fat in the bottom of the pot, about five minutes. Add the potatoes, cabbage, chard, onion, and garlic and cook, stirring, until the greens are wilted, about five minutes. Pour in the water and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to low, add the beans, ham or smoked bacon, and tomato, and cook until the beans are tender, two to three hours.

Add the slices of bread and continue to cook until a spoon can stand straight up in the center of the soup and, if using lasagne, the pasta is tender — about 15 minutes. Season with the salt and pepper, drizzle with olive oil, and serve.

Note: If using bacon in place of pork fat, blanch it first by bringing a pot of water to a boil and boiling the bacon for five minutes; then drain and dry it.

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Craig Flinn's Sweet Potato Soup, with Warm Mussel, Shiitake and Winter Leek Salad

(From Fresh Canadian Bistro, by Craig Flinn, Formac Publishing.)

In 2004, chef Craig Flinn took two months off from his Halifax restaurant, Chives Canadian Bistro, bought a $500 used car and drove to Vancouver and back, stopping to eat in as many restaurants as possible. "I wasn't looking for anything in particular," Flinn says. "I just wanted to experience Canadian cooking."

Flinn, who apprenticed with chef Michael Smith at The Inn at Bay Fortune in PEI, and at the Savoy Hotel in London, England, discovered that an old-fashioned style of cooking had found its way into kitchens across the land.

"Bistro influences can be found in even the best high-end restaurants in Canada," he says. "It has permeated all of our cooking in this country, and all of the top chefs have this influence whether they call themselves bistro or not."

What is bistro cooking?

"The classic French bistro," says Flinn, "is a small, family-owned establishment. They have very small menus where a chef-proprietor shops at the local market and prepares dishes for common people."

The food at such places, he says, tends to be traditional and simple using locally produced, seasonal ingredients. "To me, a French bistro is no different in function than a trattoria in Italy, a stube in Germany, or a pub in the UK."

Flinn discovered that chefs across the country were using a wealth of distinctly Canadian ingredients in their bistro fare, so he invited 35 of them to contribute recipes for his new book, Fresh Canadian Bistro.

Soups are very important part of bistro cooking, Flinn says. "Soup is the ultimate peasant food, but chefs will put a little bit of personality into it to pay homage to the local ingredients around them."

Flinn's recipe for sweet potato soup with mussel salad was inspired by a chowder made by Michael Smith.

"I love the flavor of sweet potatoes and mussels together," he says. "Making good soup is about taking one or two key ingredients at their peak of freshness and showcasing them. It should be about pure simplicity and heighten flavours."

Sweet Potato Soup with Warm Mussel, Shiitake and Winter Leek Salad

(Alanna Jankov/Formac Publishing Co., Ltd.) (Excerpted from Fresh Canadian Bistro. Copyright ©2009 by Craig Flinn. Photography by Alanna Jankov. Excerpted with permission of the publisher Formac Publishing Co., Ltd.)

Soups are an essential part of surviving the Canadian winter. Soup-making is relaxing and comforting. I fancy up this simple, nutritious puréed soup with a warm salad made from steamed mussels, haystack-cultivated shiitake mushrooms and winter leeks from the cold stores, but you can omit this step and serve it as is. Other garnishes I have used in the past include bacon bits and sour cream, roasted peppers with spicy chipotle coulis, and fried onions with croutons and Gruyere.

Ingredient (serves six, with leftovers)

Soup:

• 1 cup (250 mL) diced celery
• 1 cup (250 mL) diced onion
• 3 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped
• 1 tsp (5 mL) salt
• 1/2 tsp (3 ml) freshly ground black pepper
• 1/2 tsp (3 mL) dried thyme
• 1/2 tsp (3 mL) fennel seeds
• 1/2 tsp (3 mL) chili flakes
• 1/4 cup (60 mL) butter
• 1/2 cup (125 mL) white wine
• 4 cups (1 L) peeled and diced sweet potato
• 6 cups (1.5 L) chicken or vegetable broth
• 1/2 cup (125 mL) 35 per cent cream

Salad:

• 1 lb (450 g) mussels
• 1/4 cup (125 mL) white wine or dry vermouth
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 shallot, minced
• 1 cup (250 mL) sliced shiitake mushrooms
• 1/2 cup (125 mL) sliced winter leeks, white part only
• 2 tbsp (30 mL) extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 tbsp (15 mL) white wine vinegar
• 1 tsp (5 mL) chopped fresh parsley
• Salt and pepper to taste

(Formac Publishing Co., Ltd.) For the soup: In a pot, sauté celery, onions, garlic and all seasonings and herbs in butter. Cook for 10 minutes over medium heat until a little colour starts to form. Deglaze pot with wine and turn up the heat to boil off all the liquid. Add sweet potatoes and broth and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for one hour, or until sweet potatoes begin to fall apart. Purée in a high-speed blender and strain through a fine strainer or chinois. Return purée to the soup pot and add cream. Keep on a very low heat until ready to serve.

For the warm salad: Steam mussels in white wine, garlic and shallot in a covered pot until they just open, about two minutes. Begin to sauté mushrooms and leeks in olive oil while you are quickly shucking mussels. Pour juice from mussels into the sauté pan to deglaze, and reduce liquid until only 1 tbsp (15 mL) or so remains. Add shucked mussels to the pan with vinegar and parsley. Remove from the heat immediately and adjust seasonings.

Presentation: Pour a full ladle of hot soup into a shallow soup bowl (the warm salad should be visible and not sink to the bottom). Make a neat pile of salad in the centre of the bowl. Garnish with a sprig of fresh parsley and a mussel shells.

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Colman Andrews' Turnip & Brown Bread Soup

Colman Andrews is the former editor of Saveur magazine. (From The Country Cooking of Ireland, by Colman Andrews, Chronicle Books.)

The food of Ireland has had a grip on Colman Andrews' imagination for many years. While working as editor of Saveur magazine, he made many trips to Ireland to write about a burgeoning new culinary scene there. Those trips culminated in a 2006 issue of the magazine devoted entirely to the food of the Emerald Isle — an issue that won a James Beard Award.

"Once I got started I couldn't stop," Andrews says. "I kept meeting these people who were very much aware of the gifted position of Ireland."

Artisanal producers and chefs across Ireland, he says, were working with a wealth of local ingredients, as well as a greater awareness of traditional Irish cuisine.

Andrews has since left Saveur, but his love of Ireland continues. Now, collaborating with photographer Christopher Hirsheimer, he has produced a beautiful new cookbook about the people he met, places he visited and food he ate in Ireland.

The book begins with a chapter of hearty soup recipes. One comes from Catherine Fulvio, proprietor of Ballynocken House in Ashford, County Wicklow.

"Ballynocken is a small country-house hotel with a dining room and they have a cooking school," says Andrews. "Catherine Fulvio's family has owned the property for some generations."

At Ballynocken, Andrews ate soup made with turnips, soda bread and heavy cream. "To have a soup based on turnips in Ireland is quite common. Catherine's soup is a very good example of something that is not modern food but is a new take on something traditional."

Turnip and Brown Bread Soup

(Christopher Hirsheimer/Chronicle Books) (Excerpted from The Country Cooking of Ireland. Published by Chronicle Books. Copyright 2009 by Colman Andrews. Photographs by Christopher Hirsheimer. All rights reserved. Reprinted by permission of Chronicle Books.)

This unusual soup is another specialty at Catherine Fulvio's Ballyknocken House in Ashford, County Wicklow.

Ingredients (Serves eight)

• 4 tbsp butter
• 1 onion, chopped
• 2 lb/1 kg rutabagas or turnips, peeled and cut into pieces about 1/2 in/1.25 cm square
• 7 cups/1.7 ltr. chicken stock
• Pinch of nutmeg
• Three 1-in/2.5-cm slices brown soda bread or another dense brown bread, crusts removed, cut into 1-in/2.5-cm pieces
• Salt and pepper
• 1 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
• 1/4 cup/60 ml heavy cream

(Chronicle Books) Melt three tablespoons of the butter in a large pot over medium-low heat. Add the onions and cook until soft, about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the rutabagas or turnips and cook for about 10 minutes more. Add the chicken stock, nutmeg, and half the bread pieces, and season to taste with salt and pepper. Stir well, cover, and simmer for 45 to 50 minutes or until the rutabagas or turnips are soft.

Set the soup aside to cool slightly, then purée in a blender or food processor until smooth, working in batches if necessary. Wipe out the pot and return the soup to it, keeping it warm over low heat. Meanwhile, melt the remaining one tablespoon of butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Stir in the olive oil, then add the remaining bread pieces. Toss them in the butter and oil and cook for four to five minutes, stirring constantly, until golden brown.

Put the soup into a warm tureen, drizzle the top with cream, and garnish with croutons.