20 Easy Veggie Soup Recipes

The lead, because it is the soup on this list most people have already made and been quietly disappointed by. It roasts the squash hot and spread out so the cubes brown instead of steaming, and it finishes with vinegar stirred in off the heat. That last spoonful is the whole difference between a bowl that tastes of something and a bowl that only tastes sweet.

Watch for: If it tastes sweet and then just stops, it is short of acid, not salt. Stir in a tablespoon of cider vinegar or lemon juice off the heat, wait a moment, and taste it again.

Second because it is the one the other nineteen are variations on: onion, carrot, celery, whatever else is in the drawer, and a broth that ends up tasting of all of it. Worth cooking once exactly as written before you start substituting, so you know what the baseline is.

Watch for: The greens go in at the end, not with the broth. Spinach and kale turn olive and lose their bite if they sit through the whole simmer.

On the list because it is the clearest demonstration that body comes from technique rather than from flour. The cans go in undrained, since that cloudy liquid is dissolved starch, and only about a third of the pot is blended. Everything it tastes of is built in the first ten minutes, in a sofrito of onion and green pepper.

Watch for: Blend the whole pot and it turns gray-purple instead of black. The color lives in the bean skins, so stop at roughly a third and leave the rest whole.

The one dish here where cooking it without meat is a real problem to solve rather than a substitution. With no beef stock underneath, every bit of depth has to come out of the onions themselves, which is why the caramelizing is the recipe and everything after it is assembly.

Watch for: Onions rushed over high heat scorch at the edges while staying raw in the middle, and that bitterness carries straight into the broth. Keep the heat moderate and give them the time.

Here because it gets a silky bowl out of potatoes, stock and plant milk, with no roux to make and no cashews to soak the night before. The potato starch does all of the work, which is also why the method is short enough to cook without reading ahead.

Watch for: Potatoes turn gluey when they are blended hard. Use short bursts with a stick blender and stop while some pieces are still whole, rather than running it smooth in a countertop jug.

It earns its place on what goes on top. The pot underneath is straightforward, and the crunch of the strips against it is the entire experience, which also makes this the easiest one to serve to a table where everybody wants something slightly different.

Watch for: Tortilla strips belong in the bowl, not in the pot. They go soft within a minute of hitting the broth and take the contrast with them.

The pantry entry: dried split peas, a couple of carrots and stock, with nothing that needs soaking overnight. It thickens itself as the peas collapse, so it is the one to cook when you want a bowl you can stand a spoon in without adding any cream.

Watch for: As it thickens it starts catching on the bottom of the pot, and a scorched layer flavors the whole batch. Stir it properly through the back half of the simmer.

On the list as the version of mixed vegetable soup that actually fills you up, because the beans and the pasta cook in the pot rather than arriving alongside it. It is also the most forgiving here for using up whatever the vegetable drawer has left.

Watch for: The pasta keeps drinking broth after the pot comes off the heat, so a batch meant for tomorrow is better cooked without it, with the pasta boiled separately and dropped into each bowl.

The one everybody already knows how to eat, which is exactly why it is worth owning a version that does not come out of a can. Fresh or canned tomatoes both work here, and the coconut milk goes in at the end for body rather than at the start.

Watch for: Coconut milk splits into grains if the pot is boiling when it goes in. Drop the heat first, then warm it through without letting it bubble.

Here because hominy behaves like nothing else in this collection. It is corn treated with lime until it swells and slips its skin, and it stays chewy however long the pot simmers, which is what makes the bowl feel substantial without meat in it.

Watch for: Skip the radish, cabbage and lime and you are left with a mild vegetable soup. The raw, sharp toppings are what the long simmer underneath is built to sit beneath.

The plain white bean soup that most versions of this dish are busy complicating. Beans, aromatics, herbs and greens, leaning on rosemary and thyme rather than on cream for what it ends up tasting like.

Watch for: Beans and stock on their own land somewhere near bland. A squeeze of lemon and a hard pour of olive oil over each bowl at the table is what this one is actually built around.

The only soup here worth making for how it looks as much as how it tastes. Grating the beets rather than dicing them is what carries the color through the whole pot instead of trapping it in a few cubes, and it is the entry that improves most by the following day.

Watch for: The vinegar is not only for flavor. Beet pigment turns brown and muddy through a long simmer without acid, so leaving it out costs you the color that makes the bowl.

It makes the case that a chowder is a technique rather than a dairy product. Part of the potato is blended into the broth and the rest is left in pieces, which is what gives you a spoonful with something to chew on rather than a smooth puree.

Watch for: Corn added at the start of the simmer goes soft and loses its snap. Stir it in near the end, once the potatoes are already tender.

The cheapest pot on this list by a distance, and the one that argues cabbage is worth more than a side of slaw. It softens down into the broth and gives the whole thing a sweetness that carrots on their own will not.

Watch for: Cabbage turns sulfurous when it is boiled hard for too long, and the smell gets into everything. Keep it at a gentle simmer and stop while it is tender rather than collapsing.

The shortcut entry. Filled pasta puts something substantial in the bowl without a separate protein, a can to open or a bean to soak, which makes this the one to remember on the night when nobody wants to cook at all.

Watch for: Tortellini burst and spill their filling in a rolling boil. Drop the pot to a simmer before they go in, and lift them out as they float.

Included because it rebuilds a savory, umami-heavy broth out of miso, soy and mushrooms instead of a stock simmered overnight, which is the actual problem with making this bowl without meat. The noodles cook in their own pot and only meet the broth in the bowl.

Watch for: Miso loses its aroma the moment it boils. Bring the broth to a simmer, stir the paste in with the heat low, and keep it there.

The one bowl here that is a starter rather than dinner, which is precisely why it is worth keeping in the rotation. It fills the gap where a salad would otherwise go, on a night when everything else on the table is heavy.

Watch for: Miso paste dropped straight into the pot leaves lumps that never dissolve. Slacken it in a ladleful of hot broth first, then stir that back in.

The least work on this list for the amount of food it produces: a few cans, a pepper and an onion, and the spice blend carries the rest. It is the one to cook for a crowd where half the table is not vegetarian and nobody needs to be told.

Watch for: Taco seasoning is mostly salt. Taste the pot before you add any of your own, or you end up with something nobody can finish.

The same vegetables as the pot on the stove, with the simmer traded for a few minutes under pressure. It is on the list for the evenings where the difference between soup and no soup is whether it needs watching.

Watch for: Cut the vegetables larger than you otherwise would. Pressure cooking pays no attention to how small the pieces are, and a fine dice comes out as mush.

The hands-off end of the collection, and the one that suits a day out of the house rather than an evening in the kitchen. Everything sturdy goes in at the start, and the pot is left alone until the vegetables give way.

Watch for: Not everything survives that long. Corn, peas and any greens go in for the last half hour, or they come out colorless and mealy.