Soup is the most forgiving thing you can cook. Nothing is overdone at 40 minutes that was right at 35, the pot does not need watching, and almost every one of these is better reheated the next day than it was the first night.
These twenty-five are grouped by what they are built on. The fastest is 20 minutes and the longest is 45, so the deciding factor is usually what is in the refrigerator rather than how much time you have.
Chicken Soups
Two of these five start with a rotisserie bird, which is the difference between a 25-minute soup and a 45-minute one. The other three build the broth as they go.
Chicken Tortilla Soup (30 Minutes)
A whole rotisserie chicken with refried beans and black beans — eight ingredients and 25 minutes, the fastest real dinner in this group. The refried beans are what thicken it without flour or cream. View the full recipe — 25 minutes, serves 6
Rotisserie Chicken Noodle Soup
Twelve ingredients built on a rotisserie bird with onion, carrot, and celery. Thirty-five minutes, and using cooked chicken means the vegetables set the timing rather than the meat. View the full recipe — 35 minutes, serves 4
Classic Chicken Noodle Soup
Three ribs of celery and three large carrots, eleven ingredients, no shortcuts. This is the long version — 45 minutes — and the one to make when someone is sick. View the full recipe — 45 minutes, serves 6
Lemon Chicken Noodle Soup
The same shape as the classic with lemon stirred in at the end, fourteen ingredients. The acid lifts the whole pot, and it is the version that does not taste heavy in spring. View the full recipe — 40 minutes, serves 6
White Chicken Enchilada Soup
Fourteen ounces of chicken breast with sixteen ingredients. It lands between a soup and an enchilada filling, and it is the most assertive thing in this group. View the full recipe — 45 minutes, serves 6
Creamy, Cheesy, and Filled With Pasta
These four are dinner rather than a starter. Gnocchi, tortellini, and ravioli all go in near the end, because they only need a few minutes and turn to paste if they sit.
Cheesy Broccoli and Potato Soup
Fourteen ingredients starting with a proper butter-and-flour base rather than a can. Thirty-five minutes, 6 servings, and the potato does as much thickening as the roux. View the full recipe — 35 minutes, serves 6
Rotisserie Chicken Gnocchi Soup
Fourteen ingredients on a rotisserie bird with gnocchi added at the end. Thirty-five minutes, and gnocchi is the fastest starch you can put in a soup — about three minutes from the bag. View the full recipe — 35 minutes, serves 6
Creamy Spinach Tortellini Chicken Soup
Two cups of mirepoix mix and three cloves of garlic do the base work, thirteen ingredients in total. Buying the mirepoix pre-cut is the only reason this lands at 45 minutes rather than an hour. View the full recipe — 45 minutes, serves 4
Creamy Ravioli Soup
Sixteen ingredients, the longest list in this group, and cheese ravioli floated in at the end turns a soup into a full plate. Six servings from one pot. View the full recipe — 40 minutes, serves 6
Tomato Soups
Three versions of the same idea at different levels of effort. All of them are better with something to dip in them.
Grilled Cheese and Creamy Tomato Soup
Two cans of crushed tomatoes, broth, and half a cup of heavy cream — eight ingredients, 30 minutes, and the grilled cheese is part of the recipe rather than an afterthought. View the full recipe — 30 minutes, serves 4
Pantry Tomato Basil Soup with Canned Tomatoes
Nine ingredients and every one of them is shelf-stable except the basil. This is the one to know by heart for the night when nothing was planned. View the full recipe — 40 minutes, serves 4
Creamy Tomato Bisque Soup
Thirteen ingredients with both olive oil and butter in the base, which is what separates a bisque from a plain tomato soup. Richer than the other two and worth the extra four ingredients. View the full recipe — 40 minutes, serves 4
Potato Soups
Potato soup is the cheapest pot on this page and the most filling. The only real decision is how much bacon.
Stovetop Bacon Potato Soup
Four large potatoes and a full eight ounces of bacon, thirteen ingredients. Forty minutes on the stovetop, and the bacon fat is the cooking medium rather than an afterthought. View the full recipe — 40 minutes, serves 6
Chive Topped Baked Potato Soup
Six slices of thick cut bacon with butter and onion, fourteen ingredients. It is the loaded baked potato version — sour cream, cheese, chives on top. View the full recipe — 45 minutes, serves 6
Creamy Red Potato Soup
Two pounds of red potatoes, nine ingredients, no bacon. Red potatoes hold their shape rather than dissolving, so this one is chunky where the others are smooth. View the full recipe — 40 minutes, serves 6
Beef Soups
A pound of ground beef turns into three very different pots depending on what goes in with it.
Tomato Hamburger Vegetable Soup
A pound of ground beef with two cups of carrots and celery in a tomato base. Ten ingredients, and it is the plainest and cheapest dinner on this page. View the full recipe — 45 minutes, serves 6
Easy Taco Soup
Seventeen ingredients, the longest list here, built on lean ground beef with four cloves of garlic. It makes 6 servings and reheats better than almost anything else on this page. View the full recipe — 45 minutes, serves 6
Keto Cheeseburger Soup
A pound of lean ground beef with onion and celery, thirteen ingredients and no potato, pasta, or flour. Thirty minutes, which makes it the fastest beef pot here. View the full recipe — 30 minutes, serves 6
Vegetable Soups
Four that are built on vegetables rather than finished with them. Two are pumpkin, going in opposite directions.
Creamy Pumpkin Soup with Crusty Bread
Two and a half pounds of pumpkin or butternut squash with onion and garlic — nine ingredients and nothing clever. Thirty-five minutes, and the crusty bread it is served with is the point. View the full recipe — 35 minutes, serves 4
Creamy Thai Red Curry Pumpkin Soup
The same squash taken somewhere else entirely with red curry paste and coconut. Twelve ingredients, and it is the more interesting of the two pumpkin soups by a distance. View the full recipe — 40 minutes, serves 6
Sweet Potato Soup with Leeks and Cumin
Two medium onions, leeks, and cumin with sweet potato — eleven ingredients. The cumin is what keeps it from reading as dessert, which is the usual failure of a sweet potato soup. View the full recipe — 38 minutes, serves 4
Homemade Cabbage Vegetable Soup
A whole small head of cabbage with carrots and onion, ten ingredients. It costs almost nothing to make and produces a very large pot. View the full recipe — 45 minutes, serves 6
Light and Restorative
Three for when you want something warm that is not heavy. The first takes 20 minutes.
Homemade Egg Drop Soup Recipe
Two eggs, four cups of stock, a tablespoon of cornstarch — seven ingredients and 20 minutes, the fastest thing on this page. The cornstarch slurry is what lets the egg form ribbons instead of scrambling. View the full recipe — 20 minutes, serves 4
Turmeric Chicken Soup
Twelve ingredients with turmeric carrying the colour and most of the flavour. Forty minutes, and it is noticeably lighter than the chicken soups in the first group. View the full recipe — 40 minutes, serves 4
Anti Inflammatory Chicken Soup with Turmeric and Ginger
Turmeric and fresh ginger together, twelve ingredients. Whether or not the name holds up, ginger and garlic in a hot broth is a genuinely good thing to eat when you feel rough. View the full recipe — 45 minutes, serves 4
Before You Choose Your Recipe
Noodles and soup have a scheduling problem: pasta left sitting in broth keeps absorbing it, so a chicken noodle soup that was perfect at dinner is a thick casserole by morning. If you plan on leftovers, cook the noodles separately and add them to each bowl. The second thing worth knowing is that dairy and heat do not get along — every creamy soup above should come off the boil before the cream or cheese goes in, because a hard simmer after that point is what makes a soup look curdled. And almost all of these taste better on day two, so making a pot on Sunday is a legitimate plan rather than a compromise.
Soup Questions
How do you thicken a soup?
Four ways, in rough order of how much they change the flavour. Simmer it uncovered to reduce; puree a cup or two of the solids and stir them back in, which is what the potato soups above rely on; stir in a cornstarch slurry of equal parts cornstarch and cold water; or start with a roux of butter and flour, which is what the cheesy broccoli soup does. Never add dry cornstarch or flour straight to hot liquid — it will seize into lumps.
Why did my cream soup curdle?
Heat or acid, usually heat. Dairy proteins separate when they boil, so cream, milk, and cheese should go in with the pot off the boil and never be brought back up to a hard simmer afterwards. If the soup is acidic — tomato especially — temper the dairy first by stirring a ladle of hot soup into the cream before adding the cream to the pot.
Can you freeze soup?
Broth and vegetable soups freeze very well for about three months. Cream-based ones often separate when thawed, and potatoes go grainy. The workaround is to freeze the soup before adding the dairy, then stir in the cream when you reheat it. Soups with pasta or gnocchi are best frozen without them.
Should you cook noodles in the soup or separately?
In the pot if you are eating it all tonight, separately if you are not. Pasta cooked in broth takes on far more flavour, but it also keeps absorbing liquid after the heat is off — a soup that looked right at dinner can be nearly solid the next day. Cooking the noodles on the side and adding them per bowl is the only way to have both.
How long does soup keep in the refrigerator?
Three to four days, per USDA guidance, in a covered container. Cool it down quickly rather than leaving the pot on the stove — dividing a big batch into shallow containers gets it through the danger zone much faster than one deep pot does. Most of these soups taste better on the second day.
Can you make soup ahead for the week?
Yes, and the beef and vegetable soups above are the best candidates — taco soup and cabbage soup in particular improve for two or three days. Hold back anything that goes soft: noodles, gnocchi, tortellini, and crisp toppings like bacon and chives are better added when you serve rather than stirred into the batch.
More Soups to Try
Four more from the archive, including two you can make instead of buying a can.
- Stovetop Cream of Mushroom Soup — a pound of cremini, seven ingredients — replaces the can
- Homemade Cream of Chicken Soup — the other can, made properly
- Pastina Soup — eleven ingredients, the smallest pasta there is
- Brussels Sprout Soup with Bacon — four bacon slices and an unexpected vegetable
Browse all of our recipe collections.
