Some nights the most I can manage is opening a few cans. These twelve are for those nights. Nine are done in half an hour, two more need thirty-five minutes, the last one cooks while you ignore it, and every bowl runs from 1 to 3 WW Points. Swaps change the number, so check your app if you improvise. The rest live in the soup collection. Enjoy!
1. Stracciatella Soup
Six ingredients and fifteen minutes. Beef broth comes to a simmer, four eggs get whisked with grated Parmesan, and you pour them in a thin stream while stirring so they set into soft ribbons instead of clumps. A handful of chopped spinach wilts in at the end.
It’s the Italian cousin of egg drop soup, and a good starter if you have people coming over. Four bowls of a cup and a half, 2 Points each.
2. Quick Weight Watchers Chicken Tortilla Soup
This one is three steps and twenty minutes. Soften half an onion and some garlic in a pot, tip in a can of crushed tomatoes, a can of black beans, a can of corn and two cups of broth with cumin, and simmer for fifteen minutes. Stir in two cups of shredded chicken and the cilantro and you’re done.
Rotisserie chicken makes it even easier. Four servings at 2 Points, with the tortilla strips on top.
3. Easy Instant Pot Chicken Soup
The pressure cooker does the simmering here. A quick sauté of onion, garlic, pepper, celery and green beans, then cubed chicken breast, a diced potato and four cups of broth. Ten minutes at pressure, ten minutes of natural release, and you’re ladling.
Six servings, 1 Point apiece. If you’d rather swap the potato for cauliflower , the recipe shows how the number drops.
4. Cream of Broccoli Soup
Not a drop of cream in it. Broccoli florets simmer in broth with an onion until tender, a spoon of cornstarch in cold water thickens the pot, and a cup of skim milk goes in at the blender. Twenty-five minutes, four servings of about two cups, 2 Points a bowl.
Blend it only halfway if you like some chunkier texture. The sprinkle of Parmesan on top is worth it.
5. Creamy Mexican Corn Soup
Two cans of corn are the whole shopping trip. They go into a pot with sautéed onion and garlic, cumin and paprika, then broth, and after ten minutes you blend it smooth and stir in a cup of plain Greek yogurt. A squeeze of lime juice at the end keeps it from tasting flat.
Thirty minutes, four bowls, 1 Point each. Save a few kernels to scatter on top with a dollop of yogurt.
6. Instant Pot Split Pea Soup
Split peas normally want an afternoon. Here they get fifteen minutes under pressure with onion, carrot, celery, six cups of broth and a cup of diced turkey ham, then a ten-minute release. Half an hour from rinsing the peas to the table.
The turkey ham does the job bacon usually would, and a few croutons on top don’t hurt. Four servings, 2 Points each.
7. Weight Watchers Ground Beef Taco Soup
One frying pan, no blender. Brown an onion and a pound of ground beef, stir in black beans, taco seasoning and paprika, add corn, canned tomatoes, two stock cubes and water, and let it simmer until it thickens. About thirty minutes all in.
Each of the four bowls is 3 Points. The toppings are where the number moves, so go easy on the cheese and lean on the spring onion.
8. Weight Watchers Pea Soup
Frozen peas and a bag of spinach do the heavy lifting here. Onion, garlic and one small potato soften in a pot, the spinach wilts in, the peas and four cups of broth follow, and ten minutes later it all goes under the immersion blender. Bright green, thick, and ready in thirty minutes.
Four one-cup servings at 3 Points, and that includes the croutons and Parmesan on top.
9. Tarasca Soup
A Mexican bean soup that eats like a meal. Two cans of pinto beans, four tomatoes, an onion and a few rehydrated dried chilies (ancho or pasilla) simmer in broth for ten minutes and then get blended smooth. A whole wheat tortilla, cut into strips and toasted while the pot simmers, goes on top.
Four servings of about two cups, 1 Point each. It thickens as it cools, so the leftovers are almost a dip.
10. Garbanzo Bean Soup
Pantry soup, and it happens to be vegan. Onion, carrot, celery root and bell pepper soften with a sprig of rosemary and a bay leaf, then a can of tomatoes, a few leaves of Swiss chard and two cups of water, and finally two cups of chickpeas. Four steps, thirty-five minutes.
Red pepper flakes give it a little heat, and a spoon of plant-based yogurt on top finishes it off nicely. Four bowls, 1 Point a bowl.
11. Lemony Shrimp and Bean Stew
Shrimp cook in minutes, which is the whole trick. They sit in lemon juice and paprika while an onion softens and three cups of cannellini beans warm through in broth with two sprigs of rosemary. The shrimp go in last and need two to four minutes.
Thirty-five minutes start to finish, four servings of about two cups, 1 Point each. Crusty bread to mop up the broth if you have the Points to spare.
12. Buffalo Chicken Chili
This is the one you walk away from. Sauté an onion in the Instant Pot, then layer in fire-roasted tomatoes, tomato paste, half a cup of Buffalo sauce, a can of navy beans and the raw chicken breasts, pour the broth over the top and don’t stir. Fifteen minutes at pressure, a twenty-minute natural release, and you shred the chicken right in the pot with two forks.
Six servings, 1 Point each. Spicy, filling, and it never needed you.
