Vegan

Leeks and potatoes are a classic soup duo. It’s a match that’s always mild and soothing. For an easy meal, serve this with veggie burgers on whole grain buns and a tomato salad. For maximum flavor, try this with Yukon gold potatoes.

Nutritious sweet potatoes need little embellishment to make a flavorful soup. This one is made extra easy by microwaving the sweet potatoes ahead of time, sparing the cook from having to scrape and dice them. Just scoop, mash, and heat for a comforting, nearly-instant soup.

With a generous portion of tofu, this soup is perfect to team with a light noodle dish.

This nicely flavored miso soup is made more substantial with the addition of tofu. Fresh shiitake mushrooms impart the best flavor to the broth. Follow with an Asian-style noodle dish, such as Asian Sesame-Soy Noodles (page 85).

If you find yourself with too much lettuce and some leftover rice, here’s a great way to use both.

A trip to an Asian market to find exotic noodles is no longer necessary. Most well-stocked supermarkets feature an array of imported noodles in the Asian foods section. See the menu with Instant Tofu and Mixed Vegetable Stir-Fry (page 144).

This comforting classic thickens considerably as it stands, resulting in a generous quantity of soup. Each time you reheat it, thin it with additional water, and adjust the seasonings. Or, once your original batch cools, consider freezing half of it for later use. This soup is a meal in itself. All you need is a good bread and a salad—simple or bountiful, as you prefer.

Here’s a great way to take advantage of late summer’s sublime tomatoes. Use the ripest tomatoes possible.

This is a soothing remedy when you are coming down with a cold—though you need not wait for a cold to try it!

This soup is simple but labor intensive. If you want to immerse yourself in the summery, sensory experience of peeling fresh tomatoes and scraping kernels off of corn cobs, you won’t regret it. This is an appealing accompaniment to a late summer meal of grilled vegetables and veggie burgers.

Here’s another nearly-instant cold soup. While cucumbers may not be the most nutritious of vegetables, they are undoubtedly one of the most refreshing. On a very hot day, if you want to be as cool as one, serve this lilting cucumber soup.

Fresh herbal overtones lift the flavor of this instant soup. White beans make a creamy base for soups, dips, and sauces.

This features a base of canned beans and is best served at room temperature.

A contemporary stripped-down fruit dessert that is so unbelievably good, with very few ingredients.

The flavors of mango, lime, and chile are inspired by Mexican street food. Granitas can be made a day or two before serving. Granitas are just as satisfying as ice cream, and you don’t need a machine. The flavors are limited only by your imagination.

Quince is an ancient Roman fruit that looks like a cross between a pear and an apple. It has an amazing aroma when poached.

Fish is my fave thing to serve with this.

Boiling corn leaches out all the flavor and natural sweetness. Once you try corn this way, you will never look back.