Simplicity Key To Making Quick Vegetable Soups

Vegetable soups have long been family supper favorites in practically every cuisine. Their charm lies in their simplicity. With only two or three vegetables, cooks have created delicious soups like French potato and leek soup with a balance of flavors and textures.

Root vegetables such as carrots, turnips and potatoes are perfect for hearty vegetable soups, as they lightly thicken the soup and make it satisfying. Choose at least one vegetable from the onion family - onions, leeks, shallots or garlic. They give the soup a lovely aroma and enhance its flavor.

You might think that homemade vegetable soups take long to prepare, but your soup can be ready in less than 30 minutes if you proceed efficiently. Undoubtedly you will find it convenient to prepare enough soup for more than one meal; vegetable soups reheat beautifully.

Even if you use water as the cooking liquid, these easy, warming soups will be tasty. For greater depth of flavor, use packaged vegetable, chicken or meat broth.

At the supermarket you’ll find a broad selection of ready-made broths (canned, powdered and frozen), including low-salt and nonfat varieties. It’s a good idea to keep several of these on hand. Of course, if you happen to have poached a chicken, your own chicken broth will contribute the best taste to vegetable soups.

To round out the flavor of a vegetable soup, add one or two herbs. Dried thyme, bay leaves, oregano and dill are good choices that are probably in your pantry. Add zip with spices like nutmeg, ginger, cumin, curry powder or a few drops of hot pepper sauce.

Chunky soups are the quickest to prepare. An added bonus is that the vegetables keep their identity. Sometimes I like to vary the texture and taste by pureeing half the vegetables to thicken the soup.

Crusty bread is soup’s classic partner. If your bread basket contains a loaf of French or Italian bread that has become dry, cut it into cubes and sprinkle them in the soup at the last minute as fat-free croutons. Other good accompaniments are steaming hot rice, couscous, barley or wheat berries.

One way to get ahead in preparing soup is not cutting up all the ingredients first. If the carrots need to cook for five minutes before you add the onions, chop the onions while the carrots are cooking. Mince any garlic while the soup is simmering. It’s practical to have a large cutting board so you can work comfortably and a heavy, sharp knife to make chopping easy.

A modern time-saving option is buying prepared fresh vegetables at the market. Some useful ones are diced onions, peeled carrots and seeded winter squash.

Busy cooks will enjoy another useful quality of these classic comfort foods: No special shopping trip is required. As the ingredients needed are likely to be in your kitchen, you can make these soups on the spur of the moment.

Quick Carrot Soup with Onions and Thyme

It’s hard to believe you can make such a tasty soup so easily and with so few ingredients. And it’s very inexpensive, too. You can double the recipe and serve a chunky soup the first day, then puree it and turn it into a smooth soup for another day. This soup is great with hot cooked rice spooned into each bowl.

1 pound (9 to 10) medium carrots, peeled if desired

1 (14-1/2-ounce) can chicken or vegetable broth or 2 cups homemade broth

2 cups water

1 bay leaf

2 medium onions

4 garlic cloves, coarsely chopped, optional

1 teaspoon dried thyme

Salt, freshly ground pepper, optional

Cut wide part of carrots in half lengthwise. Cut carrots into 1/4-inch-thick slices. Place in saucepan with broth, water and bay leaf. Bring to simmer.

Meanwhile, dice onions. Add to broth along with garlic and thyme. Bring to boil. Cover and cook over medium-low heat so that soup cooks at low boil or until carrots are tender, 15 to 20 minutes. Discard bay leaf. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Yield: 3 to 4 servings.

“Creamy” Winter Squash and Potato Soup

To make this velvety-textured soup low in fat, use defatted chicken broth and nonfat milk. For quick preparation, buy winter squash that comes cleaned of seeds. You might like to top each serving with a spoonful of sour cream (nonfat or regular) and to sprinkle it with chopped fresh dill, chives or parsley.

1-1/2 pounds winter squash (such as banana squash or butternut squash)

1 tablespoon oil

1 large onion, chopped

2 medium baking potatoes (about 12 ounces total)

1 (14-1/2-ounce) can chicken or vegetable broth or 2 cups homemade broth

1 bay leaf

Salt, pepper

1 cup milk

Freshly grated nutmeg

Cut off peel from squash. Remove any seeds or stringy flesh. Cut squash into 1-inch cubes. Set aside.

Heat oil in large saucepan. Add onions and cook over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, 5 minutes. Meanwhile, peel potatoes and cut them into 3/4-inch dice. Add potatoes, squash, broth, bay leaf, salt and pepper to taste to onions. Cover and bring to boil. Cook, covered, over low heat until vegetables are tender, about 20 minutes. Discard bay leaf.

Ladle 2 cups vegetables and 1 cup broth into blender. Puree mixture and return it to remaining soup. Stir gently. Bring soup to simmer. Stir in milk. Reduce heat to low and heat through. Do not boil. Add nutmeg. Taste and adjust seasonings.

Yield: 4 servings.