Quick-Simmering Soups (Better Homes and Gardens(R): Fresh and Simple)

Rating:
Summary: Almost as fast as "fast food" but with wonderful results
Review: I like this cookbook so much that I bought a dozen of them to give as gifts to best friends and family. The recipes meet two major needs. First, when I'm exhausted and hungry and want real food, these soups can be made in 30 minutes with a minimum of fuss. Second, the results are amazingly complex in flavor. There is something restorative about the combination of little effort and great results. Don't mess with the recipes the first time around. You'll be surprised how good they are. Some of the ingredients will not be regular inhabitants of your larder, so pick out a few soups you want to try every week and buy the ingredients to have on hand. Because of the short cooking time, the recipes call for fresh herbs added last thing, but if you don't have any just add dried herbs with the liquid ingredients and you will get good results.

Rating:
Summary: A very fresh approach to soup-making
Review: My wife often buys me cookbooks that I wouldn't think of, with mixed results. THIS one became an instant favourite. Gorgeous fonts and use of color; perfect layout - mostly a photo on one page (for us visual-oriented males ;-), and the complete recipe on the facing page. Most important: very tasty, visually-appealing, and quick recipes.

There is nothing in the book that isn't a photograph or recipe, yet I still think of it more as a COOKBOOK than a recipe book -- after you've made a few of the soups, you'll find yourself absorbing and adopting the common philosophy behind all these recipes. Even the photographs suggest new ways of making and serving soup.

I hardly need the actual book any more -- I just head off to the produce section and grab whatever is freshest and most appealing.

Favourite recipes? Out of the 60-odd here, I haven't found a dud yet.

Rating:
Summary: Great, quick soups that taste complex
Review: The books in this series are wonderful. The crab chowder, Middle Eastern sausage and bean stew and curried mushroom tortolloni soup are tasty and satisfying without having to stand at the stove a long time, so you don't have to wait till a day off to make them. Tip: the first time you make them, the recipes will take just a few minutes longer than the book says.