YUMMY! Great to freeze. Either raw or cooked. I have also canned at the cannery. (see Cannery Recipe for large amounts)

YUMMY! Great to freeze. Either raw or cooked. I have also canned at the cannery.

Serves 4 to 6

The combination of rotisserie chicken and store-bought broth gives this soup a rich chicken flavor in minutes.

WHY THIS RECIPE WORKS:
Store-bought broth proved a good substitute for homemade stock in our Quick Chicken and Dumpling Soup, especially after we added flavorful vegetables and seasonings. Shredding a precooked rotisserie chicken—available at most supermarkets—saved us cooking time as well as cleanup time. Rolled noodle-style dumplings were too labor-intensive for our streamlined stew. Dropped biscuit-style dumplings were easier to make and just as fluffy and soft.

Serves 6 to 8

If you cannot find hot Italian sausage, use the sweet variety and add 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes to the soup along with the garlic and rosemary in step 2. Serve with extra Parmesan cheese and a drizzle of extra-virgin olive oil, if desired.

WHY THIS RECIPE WORKS:
Traditional pasta and bean soup recipes start by cooking dried beans for hours in either water or broth to create a rich, flavorful base. Because we wanted to streamline our Pasta and Bean Soup recipe by using canned beans and store-bought broth, we knew that we’d have to get a lot of flavor out of the meat and vegetables. To do this, we started our Pasta and Bean Soup with hearty and fully seasoned hot Italian sausage, which gave it just the right amount of meaty, spicy flavor. Sautéing the vegetables in the sausage drippings (along with a bit of oil) built even more flavor. A can of diced tomatoes tasted better, and required less effort, than fresh tomatoes, since the juices had a bright flavor. To create body, we pureed half the beans with a portion of the broth prior to cooking—this gave a thick, creamy texture without the hassle of pureeing hot soup in a blender. Cooking the pasta separately before adding it to the soup at the end of cooking prevented the pasta from absorbing too much liquid and becoming bloated.

Serves 6

Sweet onions, such as Vidalia or Walla Walla, will make this recipe overly sweet. Be patient when caramelizing the onions in step 2; the entire process takes 45 to 60 minutes. Use broiler-safe crocks and keep the rim of the bowls 4 to 5 inches from the heating element to obtain a proper gratinée of melted, bubbly cheese. If using ordinary soup bowls, sprinkle the toasted bread slices with Gruyère and return them to the broiler until the cheese melts, then float them on top of the soup. We prefer Swanson Certified Organic Free Range Chicken Broth and Pacific Beef Broth. For the best flavor, make the soup a day or 2 in advance. Alternatively, the onions can be prepared through step 1, cooled in the pot, and refrigerated for up to 3 days before proceeding with the recipe.

WHY THIS RECIPE WORKS:
With too many onion soups, digging through a layer of congealed cheese unearths a disappointing broth that just doesn’t taste like onions. The ideal French onion soup combines a satisfying broth redolent of sweet caramelized onions with a slice of toasted baguette and melted cheese. We wanted a foolproof method for achieving extraordinarily deep flavor from the humble onion—the star of this classic soup.

The secret to a rich broth was to caramelize the onions fully. The good news is that caramelizing the onions, deglazing the pot, and then repeating this process dozens of times will keep ratcheting up the flavor. The bad news is what a laborious, hands-on process this proved to be. Fortunately, we found that if we first cooked the onions covered in a hot oven for two and a half hours, we only needed to deglaze the onions on the stovetop three or four times. Just one type of onion (yellow) was sufficient, but a combination of three different liquids (water, chicken broth, and beef broth) added maximum flavor. For the topping, we toasted the bread before floating it on the soup to ward off sogginess and added only a modest sprinkling of nutty Gruyère so the broth wasn’t overpowered.

SERVES 6 TO 8

Do not use prepeeled squash in this recipe. Our favorite vegetable broth is Swanson Vegetable broth. Low-sodium chicken broth can be substituted for the vegetable broth. If you use a blender to puree the soup, fill the jar two-thirds full-not more-and process in batches. Alternatively, use an immersion blender to puree the soup right in the pot. In addition to sour cream, serve the soup with Fried Leeks (related), which provide nice textural contrast.

WHY THIS RECIPE WORKS:
For soup with intense squash flavor, many recipes will roast the squash to rid it of excess moisture and concentrate its flavor. But what if you don’t want to turn the oven on? For our soup, we start by microwaving large chunks of squash to hasten the cooking process. We then slowly caramelized the parcooked squash in a Dutch oven, much as we do with onion for French Onion Soup, until a thick brown fond developed. Deglazing the pot and scraping up the fond gave the soup the deep flavor of roasted squash soup in a fraction of the time. To further enhance the soup’s vegetable flavor, we chose vegetable broth over chicken broth and used an aromatic base of leeks, fresh thyme, and bay leaf.

http://s3.amazonaws.com/atk-public/pdf/ATKRadio_Recipes_butternutsoup.pdf