Warm up on a cold day

During the chilly months of winter nothing will warm you up like a hearty soup or stew.

QVC's resident foodie and best-selling cookbook author David Venable has the best recipes to cozy up to this winter, like this Hearty Vegetable Lentil Stew, Grammie's Noodle Soup or Coconut-Curry Chicken Stew.

Hearty Vegetable Lentil Stew

Serves 6-8

David's insider tip: "This is one 'meaty' vegetarian stew, thanks to the pumpkin purée, potatoes, lentils and smorgasbord of veggies. Garnish each bowl of soup with a little grated cheese maybe Parmesan or Asiago. Or, add a dollop of sour cream, yogurt or crème fraîche."

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 teaspoons garlic, minced

2.5 cups leeks, thinly sliced

3 stalks celery, thinly sliced

1 cup carrots, medium diced

1 cup red skin potatoes, medium diced

1 (15 ounce) can diced tomatoes with liquid

1.5 cups canned pumpkin purée

5 cups vegetable stock

1.5 teaspoon dried oregano

1 teaspoon cumin

1 teaspoon smoked paprika

1.5 cups cooked lentils

1 (15 ounce) can white beans with liquid

Three-quarter cup fresh green beans, snapped in half

One-half cup canned roasted red peppers, chopped

2 tablespoons fresh sage, chopped

Heat the olive oil over medium-high heat in a large stockpot. Add the garlic, leeks, celery, carrots, and potatoes and sauté until the leeks begin to soften.

Add the tomatoes, pumpkin, vegetable stock, oregano, cumin, and paprika. Bring to a simmer and continue to cook about 10 minutes, or until the potatoes are tender.

Add the lentils, white beans, green beans, red peppers, and sage. Return to a simmer and continue to cook another 10 minutes. Serve hot.

Grammie's Noodle Soup

Serves 10-12

David's insider tip: "If you have a leftover ham bone in the freezer, you can use it and speed up the cooking time to just 45 minutes. If you have the time to cook the broth from the hocks, however, that's best. The flavor the hocks impart is just incredible."

Ham stock:

2.5 pounds smoked ham hocks

6 quarts water

1 large onion, chopped

2 carrots, cut into one-half-inch pieces

3 celery stalks, cut into one-half-inch pieces

4 large garlic cloves, crushed

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon ground black pepper

2 dried bay leaves

2 tablespoons dried parsley flakes

1 teaspoon dried thyme

3 whole cloves

Noodles:

1.5 cups flour

2 large eggs

2 teaspoons salt

6-8 teaspoons water

Flour, for rolling

Soup:

1 cup onion, chopped

1 cup celery, chopped

1 cup carrots, chopped

Salt, to taste

Ground black pepper, to taste

2 tablespoons dried parsley

8 ounces cooked ham, cut into one-quarter-inch cubes

To make ham stock, place the ham hocks and water in a large stockpot and bring to a boil. Skim any foam that rises to the top of the water.

Add all of the remaining ingredients to the pot. Reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer, until the ham hocks are tender, about 2 hours. While your ham stock is cooking, begin preparing the noodles (see directions below).

Pour the ham stock through a fine-mesh colander into a large bowl. Reserve the hocks and discard the remaining cooked ingredients. Pour the stock back into the stockpot.

Remove the skin from the ham hocks and discard. Next, pull the cooked meat from the bones and cut into one-quarter-inch cubes and set aside.

To make noodles, combine the four, egg, and salt in a medium-size bowl and mix well, with clean hands, until crumbly. Add the water by the teaspoon until you're able to mold the dough into a ball. (Add more flour if the dough becomes too wet.)

Spread a generous amount of the flour on a flat surface and place the dough on top. Coat a rolling pin with more flour and roll out the dough, flipping it often to prevent sticking, until it's about one-eighth-inch thick.

Loosely fold the dough in half and use a knife to cut it into one-half-inch strips. Carefully unfold the noodles and then cut the strips into one-half-inch squares. Place the squares onto a large cutting board and let them dry, about 2 hours, or until brittle.

To make the soup, bring the ham stock to a boil, and then reduce the heat to medium. Add the chopped onions, celery, carrots, dried parsley, reserved ham hock meat, and the pre-cooked ham cubes and cook for 15 minutes. Gently add in the noodles. Reduce the heat to medium-low and cook for about 20 minutes, or until the noodles are soft, but not mushy. Season the soup with salt and black pepper, to taste.

Coconut-Curry Chicken Stew

Serves 8-10

David's insider tip: "Some curries contain salt, so be sure to read the label on your curry blend before adding additional salt to this recipe. Start to finish, this stew is ready in about 30 minutes. Make it on a busy weeknight."

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 cup chopped onions

3 garlic cloves, minced

2 stalks lemongrass (or the rind of a lemon), cut into 3-inch pieces

2 teaspoons ginger, grated

2 tablespoons, plus 1 teaspoon curry

One-half teaspoon ground black pepper

One-half teaspoon red pepper flakes, or to taste

1 (13.66-ounce) can light coconut milk

1 tablespoon sugar

2.5 pounds boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into '' pieces

Salt, to taste

One-third cup cilantro, chopped, loosely packed

2-3 cups cooked white rice (optional, for serving)

One-third cup toasted coconut (optional garnish)

Heat the olive oil over medium heat in a 5-qt stockpot (or select the stovetop setting on your Ninja Cooking System). Add the onions, garlic, lemongrass (or lemon), and ginger and cook until the onion is translucent.

Stir in the curry, black pepper, red pepper flakes, coconut milk and sugar.

Add chicken pieces and cook for 10-12 minutes, or until the chicken is completely cooked. Add the cilantro and stir until completely incorporated.

Serve over white rice and garnish with the toasted coconut.

As program host of QVC's popular cooking and dining show "In the Kitchen with David," David Venable offers a diverse and unique viewership experience with features such as product information, cooking demonstrations, on-air guests, celebrity appearances and live viewer interaction.

Watch Venable on QVC Wednesdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at noon, and visit QVC.com/ITKWD for Venable's recipes and blog posts.