January is often one of the coldest months in the northern hemisphere, including the usually warm and sunny Puerto Rico. Thus, it is often an excellent time to partake in some nice, warm Puerto Rican soups.

Soups are a big part of Puerto Rican cuisine, with many having rice and noodles to help warm a person up. Even if it is not the cold month of January, which is considered the coldest month in the U.S. territory, soup can be enjoyed all year as a nice hearty meal.

5 Puerto Rican Soups to Warm You Up

There are plenty of Puerto Rican soups to choose from, all complement the cold weather we are all experiencing now. So, here are five hearty soups from the island that will surely fill one up.

Puerto Rican Sancocho

Sancocho can be found throughout Latin America, but this Puerto Rican variant differs as it uses local ingredients found around the island, according to All Recipes.

These include adding corn and pumpkin into the sancocho and other ingredients like ginger, cumin, and many more. However, like other sancocho recipes, this one is best served with a slice of bread.

Asopao

Asopao is a cross between a soup and a stew, as this thick and hearty dish contains plenty of ingredients like rice, peas, and pork. Beef or seafood can also replace pork. 

Variants also have other ingredients like ham, peppers, onions, tomatoes, olives, and sausages. This dish is often considered a staple of Puerto Rican cuisine, usually found in restaurants and served in most Puerto Rican households.

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Sopa de Fideo (Puerto Rican Chicken Noodle Soup)

Another staple soup dish in Puerto Rico is Sopa de Fideo, which uses sofrito as its base. The soup has noodles and is considered a chicken noodle soup.

According to Latina Mom Meals, this dish has a wide variety of ingredients like carrots, red peppers, boneless chicken, celery, onions, and thin pasta, all cooked with a variety of traditional Puerto Rican seasonings. So, expect this dish to be very spicy and may even be able to clear your sinuses.

Caldo Santo

This traditional Puerto Rican soup is often served during the Holy Week when much of the Catholic-majority island sacrifice meat consumption.

The soup uses coconut milk as its base, with fish, pumpkin, taro root, plantains, green bananas, sweet potatoes, sofrito, and achiote seeds. They are slowly simmered together to make a warm and flavorful soup.

Sopa de Salchichon

This dish is basically sausage noodle soup, with the popular Spanish sausage salchichon serving as the main ingredient.

It is simmered together with other ingredients like potatoes, broken spaghetti, onions, garlic, sofrito, tomato sauce, olive oil, sazon spice blend, corn, olives, and coriander, according to Taste Atlas.

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This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Rick Martin

WATCH: Cooking Sopa de Salchichon - From Sharlene Colon