>>21675665
>might get into cream soups and see how I can best get some meat in there
I know of at least one Italian soup that uses sausage. My dad used to make a potato soup with finely diced ham that also fit the bill. These days what I usually use in my soups is a beef shank, people don't know about them so they're still cheap and you get some bone with marrow that can impart some nice flavor. You also don't have to prepare them at all, they're really several small chunks of meat held together with connective tissue that melts away overnight in a crock pot so you shouldn't have trouble chewing. Go for ones with small bones, I've found that the ones with bones tend to fall apart and then you're fishing them out in pieces.

Someone else mentioned butternut squash and that's definitely a solid option, I ate a lot of that as a kid. You might also want to look into lentil soups. Some time ago I got a bunch of red lentils for free and found a recipe that used sweet potato which made a nice flavorful mush.