Serves 6
The toasted flour in step 1 should be slightly paler than a brown paper bag. You can find fish sauce with the other Asian products at most grocery stores. Since the salt content of fish sauce varies from brand to brand, taste the finished gumbo before seasoning it with salt. Serve with rice.

WHY THIS RECIPE WORKS:
Cajun food isn’t known for its healthfulness, and gumbo is no exception. Toasting flour in a dry pan and mixing it with the aromatics allowed us to slash the amount of fat needed for the “roux” while keeping the deep, toasty flavor. Lean breast meat replaces chicken thighs, but we use bone in to maximize the flavor while reducing the calories and fat. Fish sauce enhances the seafood flavor of lean shrimp, and just 4 ounces of andouille adds meaty richness and spice.

Serves 6 to 8
We prefer to make this chili with whole dried chiles, but it can be prepared with jarred chili powder. If using chili powder, grind the shiitakes and oregano and add them to the pot with 1⁄4 cup of chili powder in step 4. We also recommend a mix of at least two types of beans, one creamy (such as cannellini or navy) and one earthy (such as pinto, black, or red kidney). For a spicier chili, use both jalapeños. Serve the chili with lime wedges, sour cream, diced avocado, chopped red onion, and shredded Monterey Jack or cheddar cheese, if desired.

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

Serves 6 to 8

Leftover turkey wings, thighs, or drumsticks can be used in place of the carcass.

WHY THIS RECIPE WORKS:
Turkey and rice soup is a great way to make use of leftover Thanksgiving turkey. Unfortunately, all the turkey and rice soup recipes we found tasted of weak broth studded with undercooked rice and rubbery turkey. Our Creamy Turkey and Wild Rice Soup recipe avoids these pitfalls by sautéeing and simmering the turkey carcass with vegetables and a combination of chicken broth (for flavor) and white wine (for brightness), which produced a rich, savory broth. To speed up the cooking of the rice, we added a small amount of baking soda to the soup—this helped break down the tough fibers in the rice and reduced our cooking time by about 15 minutes. Adding the leftover turkey at the very end of cooking ensured that it stayed tender.

SERVES 6 TO 8
Serve this hearty vegetable stew with crusty bread.

WHY THIS RECIPE WORKS:
Italy’s ciambotta is a ratatouille-like stew chock-full of veggies that makes for a hearty one-bowl meal with nary a trace of meat. We wanted to avoid the ill fate of most recipes, which end in mushy vegetables drowning in a weak broth. In order to optimize the texture of the zucchini and peppers, we employed the dry heat of a skillet. To address the broth, we embraced eggplant’s natural tendency to fall apart and cooked it until it completely assimilated into a thickened tomato-enriched sauce. Finally, we found that a traditional pestata of garlic and herbs provided the biggest flavor punch when added near the end of cooking.

Simmer down to prevent blown out beans.

SERVES 8

We prefer the creamier texture of beans soaked overnight for this recipe. If you’re short on time, quick-soak them: Place the rinsed beans in a large heat-resistant bowl. Bring 2 quarts of water and 3 tablespoons of salt to a boil. Pour the water over the beans and let them sit for 1 hour. Drain and rinse the beans well before proceeding with step 2. If pancetta is unavailable, substitute 4 ounces of bacon (about 4 slices). For a more substantial dish, serve the stew over toasted bread.

WHY THIS RECIPE WORKS:
We were determined to avoid tough, exploded beans in our Tuscan bean stew recipe, so we soaked the beans overnight in salted water, which softened the skins. Then we experimented with cooking times and temperatures, discovering that gently cooking the beans in a 250-degree oven produced perfectly cooked beans that stayed intact. To complete our bean stew recipe, we added tomatoes toward the end of cooking, since their acid kept the beans from becoming too soft.

http://www.americastestkitchenfeed.com/test-kitchen-community/2012/08/best-of-the-best-day-nine-tuscan-bean-stew/

Serves 4 to 6

If you’re short on chicken fat at the end of step 1, supplement it with vegetable oil.