28 Quick Soup Recipes for Fast Fall Meals

A hearty, warming bowl of soup is one of the most comforting things you can eat on a chilly day. Some of our favorite wintery soups need to simmer for hours, though, and sometimes we're just too busy for that. Fortunately, we have plenty of recipes that come together in an hour or less for when you need a satisfying soup as quick as possible. French onion soup sped up in a pressure cooker, potato and sauerkraut soup two ways, rich cream of mushroom soup that just happens to be vegan, and more—keep reading for 28 quick soup recipes to warm you up in a hurry.

Meat-Based Soups

Pressure Cooker Beef Barley Soup

Pressure cookers are your best friend when it comes to making quick soups. Here we use one to turn our beef and barley soup, which normally takes several hours, into a recipe that can be finished in 60 minutes. Like the oven version, this soup is packed with tender chuck roast, plump barley, and aromatic vegetables.

Pressure Cooker Black Bean Soup With Sausage and Cumin-Lime Sour Cream

This black bean soup also only takes an hour, even though you start with dried beans. We pair the beans with earthy mushrooms and smokyy andouille and season with thyme and bay leaf. The deep, mellow soup needs something to balance it out, so we top it with tangy cumin- and lime-spiked sour cream.

30-Minute Pressure Cooker Split Pea and Ham Soup

A pressure cooker makes short work of the split peas in this soup flavored with garlic, onion, celery, bay leaves, and ham. Rapidly releasing the pressure brings the soup to a violent boil, which pulverizes the ingredients without the need for a blender (just make sure to clean out the gasket immediately).

Pressure Cooker French Onion Soup

Using traditional technique, caramelizing onions is a slow, painstaking process. Thirty minutes in the pressure cooker, though, and they taste just as good as if they had been on the stove for hours. Once they're done, it just takes a few more minutes to make them into soup. Our recipe calls for a ton of Gruyère—French onion soup just isn't right without a thick blanket of cheese.

Creamy Cauliflower and Bacon Soup

Don't worry if you don't have a pressure cooker—the stovetop is all you need for this comforting soup made with cauliflower, bacon, and cream. You shouldn't be alarmed by the dairy breaking as it cooks, because blending it all up before serving will bring the soup back together.

Caldo Verde (Portuguese Potato and Kale Soup With Sausage)

If you're looking for a soup with minimal effort, you can't do much better than caldo verde. The Portuguese kale, potato, and sausage soup comes together with just about 10 minutes of prep work, depending on how fast you are with a knife. We make the dish with two kinds of potatoes—Russets fall apart and thicken the soup while Yukon Golds stay chunky.

Polish Potato, Kielbasa, and Cabbage Soup (Kapusniak)

This version of kapusniak, the Polish potato and sauerkraut soup, uses a mix of fresh and fermented cabbage so that the funkiness doesn't get too intense. We pair the two main ingredients with slab bacon, kielbasa, and dill and thicken the broth up with a cornstarch slurry.

Easy Creamy Potato, Leek, and Sauerkraut Soup

This variation on kapusniak is inspired by a dish Kenji's mom made when he was a kid. The ingredients are basically the same, but we make it creamy by blending everything up. The potatoes, cabbage, and leeks are a bit much for an immersion blender to handle, so we recommend breaking out the countertop model.

Easy, Creamy One-Pot Salmon Chowder

Salmon chowder is a New England classic. We make it with salt pork, potatoes, aromatics, and whole milk, plus clam juice for extra seafood flavor. Despite the name, you can make this with whatever boneless, skinless fish you'd like.

Classic Oyster Stew With Fennel

As much as we love eating good oysters raw, when we can muster up a little self control, we love making this briny oyster stew. It comes together by cooking the oysters and their liquor with aromatics, milk, and fennel, which adds a lovely anise aroma to the soup.

Sopa de Lima (Yucatán-Style Lime Soup)

Similar to Tex-Mex tortilla soup, sopa de lima is made with broth, sofrito, poultry (turkey is more traditional than chicken), and lime. It's not made with regular limes, though, but bittersweet limas. There's virtually no chance you'll find them in the US, so go with a mix of lime and grapefruit juices instead.

Arroz Caldo (Filipino Chicken and Rice Soup)

Forget chicken noodle soup—reach for a big bowl of this Filipino chicken congee when you're sick instead. The quick soup is flavored with onion, garlic, ginger, and fish sauce, but the star ingredient is the crispy fried garlic—make more than you need, because we guarantee you're going to want to put it on everything.

Korean Anchovy Knife-Cut Noodle Soup (Myeolchi Kal Guksu)

Like most soups, this recipe starts off with a flavorful broth base that’s made up of dried anchovies, dried kelp, and either dried herring or a seafood flavor packet. After the solids are strained out, simply add some store-bought fresh noodles and any vegetables of your choice, as well as toppings like scallions and spicy chiles for extra flavor.

Cullen Skink (Scottish Smoked Fish Chowder)

The most difficult part of this recipe is sourcing your fish. Though you’ll need to get your hands on a type of smoked fish called finnan haddie, which you can buy online, you can also cold-smoke your own fish at home with the help of some specialty gear. Once you’ve taken care of that, all that’s left to do is poach the fish, sauté some onions, and cook potatoes into it.

Stracciatella alla Romana (Italian Egg Drop Soup)

Stracciatella alla romana is basically the Italian version of egg drop soup. The key here is using homemade beef or chicken stock—store-bought options just don’t offer the same flavor needed to make this soup shine. Whisk a mixture of eggs and grated Parmigiano-Reggiano into the stock to form tiny clouds, and finish the soup with fresh nutmeg and lemon.

Vegetarian Soups

Quick and Easy Creamy Mushroom Soup

Infinitely better than the cream of mushroom soup you get out of a can, this recipe is also a great way to use mushrooms that have been in your fridge just a couple of days too long. We brown them deeply in a pan, mix in a little flour, then add a mixture of milk and stock (or water). The flour helps thicken the soup without the need for heavy cream.

Vegan Cream of Mushroom Soup With Crispy Shiitake Chips

Not only can you make a creamy mushroom soup without cream, but you can even do it without any dairy at all. Our vegan cream of mushroom soup takes a page from gazpacho, getting its thick texture from white sandwich bread. Without the overwhelming dairy fat, the mushrooms can really shine.

Quick and Easy Stovetop Butternut Squash Soup

To make the absolute best butternut squash soup you need to roast the squash to bring out its intense sweetness. Fortunately, if you're pressed for time, you can still make a delicious version on the stovetop. Start with browned butter for some nutty complexity, cook the squash until tender, and sweeten to taste with sugar to make up for the fact that you didn't caramelize the squash before putting it into the soup.

Miso-Squash Soup With Sesame-Ginger Apples

Rather than try to bring out the sweetness of squash by roasting it or adding sugar, in this Japanese-inspired recipe we simmer the squash in dashi broth to play up its nutty, earthy side. Mixing in a couple tablespoons of miso reinforces the squash's savoriness, while a topping made with diced apples gives the soup just enough sweetness.

Mexican Butternut Squash Soup With Ancho Chile, Crema, and Pepitas

This quick butternut squash soup gets a Mexican twist from dried ancho chiles. We toast the chiles in a dry skillet, then sauté them in a pot with onion, carrot, and garlic before adding the stock. To keep the Mexican theme going, garnish the soup with pepitas and crema.

Creamy Spiced Parsnip Soup

We're fans of sweet, earthy of parsnips, but we also recognize that they can be a little bland. To keep this soup from being boring, we add some unexpected aromatics: jalapeño, ginger, and coriander seed. If you don't care about the dish being vegan, serve it with a dollop of allspice-scented whipped cream.

Spicy Carrot and Ginger Soup With Harissa

This creamy carrot and ginger soup gets its heat from harissa, the North African pepper paste. We emphasize the North African flavor profile with cumin and coriander seed and use a variety of aromatics to give the soup depth. Garnishing with a mixture of toasted pine nuts, parsley, and lemon zest adds textural contrast.

Broccoli Cheese Soup

Broccoli cheese soup is basically just an excuse to eat nacho cheese with a spoon, but that doesn't mean that the broccoli should be a total afterthought. Our recipe showcases the vegetable—we char the florets and simmer the stems to build up layers of flavor. We still add tons of cheese, of course, plus potatoes to make the soup even gooier.

Creamy Roasted-Broccoli Soup With Buttermilk and Spiced Pepitas

Want a creamy broccoli soup that isn't quite so heavy? This recipe uses buttermilk rather than cream, which is lighter and adds a pleasant tang. We roast the broccoli, which gives the soup more depth than if you just blanched it. Spiced pepitas make a delightfully crunchy garnish—if you want a shortcut you can season them with store-bought curry powder rather than a homemade spice blend.

Rustic Miso Soup With Tofu and Seaweed

It takes less than half an hour to make a homemade version of the miso soup you'll often find at sushi bars. For the best flavor, ditch the powdered dashi and make the broth from scratch with kombu and bonito shavings. The recipe calls for both light and dark miso—use the hearty hatcho variety in place of dark miso to make an unusually intense soup.

Vegan Peanut, Sweet Potato, and Kale Soup With Coconut

Our take on the West African groundnut soup maafe is made with peanuts, kale, and sweet potatoes. Coconut milk is a traditional ingredient in maafe, but since we so strongly associate it with Thai cooking, we were inspired to add ginger and cilantro into the mix. Serve the soup with rice for a filling vegan dinner.

Hearty Vegan Polenta and Kale Soup With Miso and Toasted Sesame Oil

Keeping with the cultural fusion, we make this Italian soup vegan by replacing the traditional Parmesan with white miso and soy sauce. It might sound weird, but miso adds a savory quality to the soup in much the same way the cheese would. Since we've already thrown tradition out the window, finish the soup with a drizzle of sesame oil and a sprinkling of scallions.

Kanuchi (Cherokee Pureed Nut Soup)

Despite its short ingredient list, kanuchi is chock full of nutty flavor. The creamy Cherokee soup is traditionally made with hickory nuts, but because they’re not commercially farmed in the United States, we reach for pecans instead. A food processor helps transform the nuts into a paste, which we whisk together with water on the stove. For a final boost of flavor, we add maple syrup and serve with hominy or sweet potato.