Serious Eats / Greg Dupree

When I was growing up, bowls of homemade soup were as integral as side dishes and rice at our dinner table—save for those nights when mom made Western-style fare like spaghetti with meat sauce. I didn’t always appreciate the time and effort it took for her to gather just the right ingredients and simmer them for hours, as I do now that she’s passed, and I struggle to find an approximation of those recipes stored in her head.

Nowadays, for weeknight meals, I look for ways to create flavorful soups that don’t take eight hours of simmering (sorry, Mom), which is where these 30-minute soup recipes come into play. They include rib-sticking renditions chock-full of protein-rich beans and legumes, including hearty black bean and split pea and ham made in the pressure cooker; comforting Vietnamese chicken noodle; and even a 15-minute tomato soup you can whip up to go with your favorite cheesy toasty. With these quick and easy options, there’s no reason not to make soup at home.

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J. Kenji Lopez-Alt

This easy black bean soup is a perfect example of how to turn pantry staples and a handful of fresh ingredients into a warm, filling weeknight dinner that’s protein-rich and laced with smoky, earthy spice. A 15-minute simmer in chicken broth and quick blitzing with an immersion blender are all that’s needed to meld together the black beans, peppers, onions, garlic, chipotle chile, and dry seasonings.

J. Kenji Lopez-Alt

Let’s just say right off the bat that, yes, this soup recipe does suggest using homemade vegetable stock—but it’s so worth the minimal effort (five minutes of active prep) it takes to put together. Its umami richness provides a shortcut to flavor in this white bean soup. Sauté the aromatics, then add the canned white beans and vegetable stock, and simmer. Toss in the spinach to wilt and a squeeze of lemon juice during the last five minutes of cooking, and drizzle in some good extra virgin olive oil for a supple, spoon-coating finish.

Serious Eats / Greg Dupree

There’s plenty to love about split pea and ham soup (heck, an entire town was built around a once-legendary California pea soup restaurant!) if you look past its unfashionable shade of green, such as a thick, almost creamy texture and meaty, smoky notes. But to get there can be a laborious process—unless you use a pressure cooker, that is. Using a high-pressure setting, it takes only about 20 minutes to fully tenderize the split peas, and the rapid boiling from releasing the pressure valve provides more than enough agitation for the peas to purée themselves. Just be sure not to overfill the pressure cooker to prevent the split peas from clogging up the valve.

J. Kenji Lopez-Alt

These days, I’m just as likely to order pho ga, or Vietnamese chicken noodle soup, as its beefy cousin pho bo, which had been my go-to for years. Its clear, aromatic, subtly sweet broth is milder in flavor, and when paired with fall-off-the-bone tender chicken, it is the kind of comfort food I want when I’m feeling a little under the weather or need something gentler on my stomach. To make it at home, I turn to this pressure cooker version, which delivers the whole shebang, including soaking the rice noodles and prepping the fresh garnishes in 30 minutes—less time than going out to a restaurant or getting takeout delivered.

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Serious Eats / Eric Kleinberg

Think of this vegan tomato soup as a kind of hot gazpacho, thickened and emulsified with bread and olive oil in the blender, but made with quality canned tomatoes, which ensures consistent flavor and freshness year-round. Seasoned with sautéed onions, garlic, dried oregano, and crushed red pepper, this will be the only “canned” tomato soup you’ll want to dip your grilled cheese sammie into.

Vicky Wasik

I’m the type of person who buys leafy greens with every intention of turning them into a salad or two, but invariably end up tossing out half of them because I can never get myself in the mood to make a salad before they wilt and die in my fridge. Enter this recipe for creamy lettuce soup, which can be served hot or cold, and is perfect for lettuce past its prime. Combined with sautéed aromatics and some fresh herbs, it’s velvety smooth and has a fresh, clean, mildly sweet, vegetal flavor that is so remarkably delicious you won’t feel the least bit guilty about not making a salad.

J. Kenji López-Alt

A riff on classic Polish kapusniak, this iteration is more akin to a rich and creamy potato and leek soup. It’s blended until silky smooth and topped with chunks of pan-fried sausage and fresh dill. Cooking the leeks in rendered kielbasa provides a porky, smoky base, while using both fresh cabbage and sauerkraut gives the soup a distinctive kraut flavor without being overly sour.

Vicky Wasik

We’re told to always save Parmesan rind, but what do you do when your freezer is overtaken with zipper-lock bagfuls of them? Make Parmesan stock, of course—and then use the savory, nutty cheese stock to make this incredibly easy, creamy, garlicky soup. As with our vegan white bean and spinach soup, the built-in umami of homemade stock fast-tracks flavor, so it takes only a few additions, like roasted garlic, and a little simmering to make a big impact in the finished soup.

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Serious Eats / Qi Ai

Originating from Hangzhou, China, famous for its West Lake, this hearty soup has a similar cornstarch-thickened, silky texture as the ever-popular hot and sour soup, but with a delicately savory and herbaceous flavor, thanks to plenty of fresh cilantro. Although it’s traditionally made with minced beef, you can substitute ground pork or roughly chopped white fish fillet, such as cod or flounder. Egg whites, instead of whole eggs, impart a subtler flavor that allows the cilantro to shine, artfully suspended in the thickened broth dotted with meat and snowy white gossamer strands, as if it were leaves floating on the West Lake. If, like me, you don’t like cilantro, you can swap it for chopped scallions, watercress, or spinach, or any combination of the three.