4 fast soups for fall

Published 12:00 am Tuesday, November 1, 2016

Just because it’s soup season doesn’t mean you have to get out your big stockpot and set aside a whole afternoon. But you don’t have to just resort to opening a can, either.

With the help of a few products and fast tricks, you can have a bowl of soup about as fast as you can order a pizza.

With the help of a few good cookbooks on fast cooking, I came up with a list of four easy soups that all take less than 30 minutes, start to finish.

And how about cutting a little fat, too? Cooking Light’s new cookbook “Amazing Recipe Makeovers” (Oxmoor House, 2016) has a handy trick for replacing heavy cream in creamy soups by making a replacement from nonfat milk and overcooked instant brown rice. It takes about 25 minutes, but you can do it in advance and keep a batch around for chowders this winter.

Consider your soup season off to a fast start.

Keep these handy

Any of these will help you make soup fast enough for a weeknight.

Wonton skins. Find them in the produce section of most supermarkets. Cut them into thin strips, drop them into simmering broth and you’ll have instant noodles.

Almost-instant meatballs. Get Italian sausage or brats, cut open the casings and quickly roll the meat into balls for fast meatballs, already seasoned and ready to go.

Tiny pasta. Orzo or acini de pepe cook in 10 minutes or less. Bonus: They don’t soak up so much broth that you end up with stew.

Canned beans. Add one can’s worth to the soup and puree the second to use as a fast thickener.

Flavor boosters. Since you don’t have long-simmered flavor, you sometimes need something to add a little depth. Try a little balsamic vinegar, Asian fish sauce or toasted sesame oil. Start small, with 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon, and see if you like it before adding a little more.

Fast bases. Frozen hash browns and frozen corn can both be turned into a fast chowder.

Fast vegetables. When a soup would work with cabbage, stir in shredded coleslaw mix.