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.
I had a potato and leak soup not too long ago and a vegetable soup that was honestly better than it has any right to be.
I can’t really say I have a favorite though. As long as it’s home made it’s probably delicious.
Potato Leek is an outstanding soup. I often start it off with chopped bacon, reserve that for garnish, but leave the fond, deglazing it with the steam of the leeks as they hit the hot bacon fat.