Fast Soups

Good sausage is an excellent time-saver, because the links are already spiced and seasoned. The slices of Polish kielbasa in this soup add a wonderfully smoky, peppery, garlicky flavor.

Shrimp and scallops are excellent for quick meals, since they take just minutes to cook perfectly.

Sophie Dahl likes eating peppery watercress in the spring and has figured out a way to highlight its bright flavor in this silky soup. A single tablespoon of cream gives the vivid green soup a touch of richness.

Here's a silky soup that doesn't rely on cream for its creamy texture; pureed avocados do the job nicely. It doesn't rely on long cooking for its full flavor, either—the soup's in the pot for less than ten minutes.

Rocco DiSpirito likes to heat shirataki noodles (a low-calorie noodle made from tofu or a kind of sweet potato) in store-bought chicken broth seasoned with lime juice.

The idea for this hearty, risotto-style soup came to Frédéric Morin while he was sitting on a combine in his uncle's barley field. He could smell the peat from the neighboring farm, which reminded him of Scotch whisky.

For this spicy, soothing and restorative chicken-and-rice soup, Ratha Chau prepares his own delectable chicken stock and roasts a chicken, which is then cut into large pieces and added to it. Using prepared stock and preroasted chicken significantly cuts back on prep time.

Colorful vegetables brighten our satisfying brothy soup. If Jerusalem artichokes (also called sunchokes) aren't available in your area, substitute another flavorful, slightly scratchy vegetable such as parsnips or turnips, or simple increase the quantities of the other vegetables in the soup.

This thick and savory soup, which is reminiscent of cowboy campfire cooking, is a delicious cross between baked beans and tomato soup. The crunchy, sweet corn muffin croutons make it even more rustic.

Pino Maffeo serves his vibrant, spicy, warming stew with gai lan (Chinese broccoli). Sautéed garlic chives stud his plump potato dumplings. Baby bok choy, an easy-to-find Chinese green, replaces the gai lan, while regular chives substitute for the garlic chives.

Black beans, often served in a soup or stew, have been a mainstay of Mexican cuisine for thousands of years. Black-bean soup is also popular in the Caribbean, where rum, sherry, or peppered wine is often added toward the end of cooking. We add the sherry somewhat earlier in this version, which combines elements of both traditions.

Brothy and brimming with beets, parsnips, turnip, celery root, and slices of kielbasa, this earthy beet soup gets a finishing touch of sour cream and fresh dill. Serve it in big bowls with plenty of crusty bread for an appetizing cold-weather dinner.

When Grace Parisi was growing up, her mother made white bean and escarole soup every Friday. To transform the soup into a main course, Parisi substitutes ham and spiced croutons for the greens.

Tanya Holland's decadent crab bisque is studded with plenty of lump crabmeat. Thanks to a hit of cayenne and Tabasco, the soup has a sneaky heat.

This is a terrific way to use leftover cooked vegetables. They get stirred into a flavorful, healthy broth along with pasta and beans.

Combining Two Portuguese favorites—kale-and-sausage soup and a bean, sausage, and tomato stew—makes a simple, sensational one-pot meal. To keep the focus on the vegetables, we've used just a tiny amount of fresh sausage; you can add more, if you like, or substitute dried chorizo or pepperoni.

The secret to this speedy soup is buying ingredients with lots of built-in flavor, like hummus and jarred piquillo peppers.