Curling up with a steaming bowl of soup in the dead of winter is one of the best ways to warm up on a cold, wet day. But popping the top off a can of ready-made soup unlocks stale flavors and a day's worth of sodium.

Cooking your own soup is not only easy, but is one of the best ways to start experimenting with homemade cooking, says Kathleen Bander, a Bellingham-area cooking instructor who specializes in canning and preserving.

"Making soup is not an exact science," says Bander, who offers cooking classes through Whatcom Folk School. "So even if you mess up, your soup won't taste terrible."

Soup is one of Bander's go-to meals in the winter. For her, the combination of veggies, starch and protein steeping in broth equals perfection.

"It's really an entire meal in a bowl," Bander says.

SOUP 101

Elementary items for your own broth-based soup are stock, protein, carbohydrate and vegetables. Start by sautéing onions and garlic, then add other vegetables, some precooked meat and either rice or pasta. Done.

To add delicate greens such as Swiss chard, spinach or turnip greens, just chop them up and add them to the top of the soup during the last few minutes of simmering.

Here's a list of a few combinations for the basic, yet interchangeable, recipe:

Stock: chicken, beef or vegetable.

Vegetables: butternut squash, zucchini, carrots, mushrooms.

Proteins: cubed or pulled chicken, sliced beef, fish or beans.

Carbohydrates: whole-grain pasta, brown rice, barley, soba noodles.

For additional flavor, add common seasonings, such as thyme, basil, oregano or ginger.

STOCK 101

There are plenty of great broths and stocks in grocery stores, but Bander says there's nothing like making your own stock for your homemade soup.

For chicken stock, Bander saves bones from chicken carcasses and keeps them in the freezer. When she's ready to make broth, she fills a large pot with water, adds the bones, along with carrots, a garlic clove, peppercorns and a quartered, unpeeled onion. She brings the liquid to a boil, and then turns the heat down to simmer for a few hours.

You can also make seafood stock with shells from shrimp or lobster, or simply use Bander's recipe to make your own vegetable broth by adding celery and leaving out the chicken bones. Adding onion skins ensures that your stock has a rich, brown color.

THE OTHER PROTEIN

Beans are one of the most underutilized proteins in the American diet. Even if beans aren't your favorite, stashing them in soup is a great way to get their nutrition and fiber, with lots of flavor, too.

You can buy beans for around a dollar a can, or less. But most cost-conscious cooks soak their own dried beans overnight, then drain and rinse them, all for less than 25 cents per cup. The beans can then be cooked in soup, on the stovetop, or in a slow cooker for a few hours.

The great thing about beans is that when they're puréed, they act as a thickener," Bander says. "So if you want a thickened soup, hold back some of the beans and throw them in the blender or food processor and add them back into the soup."

MAKE ONCE, EAT MANY TIMES

Soup is a great meal to store in the freezer for those early sunsets in January and February, when only the rare cook wants to dirty up his or her kitchen at 6 p.m.

When making soup, simply double the recipe. Freeze the extra soup in individual portions in glass containers, or in freezer bags laid flat in the freezer to maximize space.

Bander says getting out as much of the air from the freezer bag as possible will reduce the risk of freezer burn, and will keep the soup as fresh as possible for thawing later.

Soups kept in the freezer should be used within three months.

Bander says her only caveat to having ready-made soup in the freezer is dairy products. If a soup is cream-based or uses cheese, leave those items out before freezing, then add them when you reheat the soup just before serving.

BE EXPERIMENTAL

There are innumerable books on soup if you're a novice cook, but most often Bander lets her refrigerator and pantry guide her decisions.

As a prolific gardener, as well as an expert on canning and preserving, Bander often has jars of tomatoes and vegetables to make bowlfuls of soup all winter long.

She suggests that other people making soup clear out their pantries and refrigerators by using that half-empty container of rice in their pantry, or that just-about-to-wither bunch of spinach in their fridge.

"I might open my refrigerator one day and see a bunch of Swiss chard, some Jerusalem artichokes and hot peppers," she says. "I pick two or three and make a vegetable soup. Next time, I'll throw in a potato."

Final hint: Bander says sautéing onions and garlic together on low heat brings out the flavors of both aromatics and also prevents burning, which otherwise can lend an acrid flavor to your soup.

SENEGALESE CREAM SOUP

Ingredients

2 onions, minced

2 stalks celery, chopped

2 apples, chopped with skin left on

3 tablespoons butter

2 tablespoons curry powder

4 tablespoons flour

4 cups chicken broth

Dash of chili pepper and dash of cayenne pepper, to taste

* 2 cups heavy whipping cream

three-fourths cup finely chopped, cooked chicken white meat

Avocado, for garnish

Directions

Sauté onions in the butter, then the celery and apples until tender, but not brown. Add curry power and stir. Add flour, stirring constantly to avoid lumps.

Stir in chicken broth until slightly thickened. Add seasonings. Let cool slightly, then pour in blender and blend until smooth.

Just before serving, add cream and chicken, and heat until warm. Garnish with avocado.

* To save calories on the cream, use half-and-half or fat-free evaporated milk.