Are you reminiscent of the old days, when grandma or your mother warmed your belly with your favorite soup? If your experience were similar to mine, you'd give anything to get those days back. Cooking soup may have seemed difficult back then, but in fact making homemade soup is quite easy.

There are basically three key ingredients to making soup that satisfies the soul as well as your belly.

First, you can't rush perfection. Good soup is worth waiting for so don't cheat the process. Cooking soup is more than just tossing all the ingredients into a pot of water and bring the water to a boil and cooking as quickly as possible. Great attention should be paid to preparation such as cutting and adequate time should be given to slow cook your soups. If anybody trys to tell your otherwise say "Hogwash".

Second, the best soups use fresh ingredients. Many people will tell you that great soups can be made with leftover food ingredients. Just go to any upscale restaurant with a reputation for great tasting soup and see how many of their soup dishes feature leftover ingredients. It just doesn't happen. Take the advice of the professionals and always use the freshest of ingredients, no leftovers.

Third, if you really want your hearty soup to stick to your stomach, use a base other than water. Milk and cream soups with potatoes and beans or a combination of the two work best. You could also use a tomato base, beef or chicken base depending upon what type of soup you're into.

There you have it, three key ingredients that all of your hearty soup recipes must have. Now the only thing left for you to do is find a couple of soup recipes and get to work cooking up some hearty soup.