How to Draw a Thin Watery Soup
Soup can be food if there are enough ingredients in it, but sometimes the reality inside the can doesn’t match what is advertised on the outside. It’s easier to prevent this with homemade soups, but sometimes you don’t add enough food initially, or someone eats the good stuff, leaving you mostly with the broth. But none of these situations are cause for panic – there are many things you can add to add bulk to your soup after the fact, none of which are noodles or rice. (Noodles and rice are always acceptable, but I think they’re pretty obvious.)
Store-bought tortellini (or gnocchi)
Tortellini are similar to noodles, but even better because they have a lot of stuff in them, and our goal here is to increase the volume. You can buy them frozen or chilled – either way, all you have to do is toss the prepared pasta into the boiling soup and cook until tender, which usually takes 2-5 minutes, depending on the starting temperature of your tortellini.
Gnocchi stored on a shelf or refrigerated require a similar effort. Add it to the simmering soup and cook until small potato dumplings come to the top. Garnish with condensed or fermented milk products and onions to enhance the potato vibe.
Puree
Speaking of potato vibes, you can use leftover mashed potatoes to make dumpling-like dumplings – all you need is one egg and one cup all-purpose flour for every two cups of cold mashed potatoes. Stir gently, then roll out the potato dough into a potato snake and cut into small pieces. Cook in the same way as the already cooked gnocchi (in boiling water until they float).
If you don’t feel like stirring, rolling, or cutting with knives, you can turn the puree into a watery soup to give it a firmness. For each cup of broth, use about a glass of cold chopping machines and blend into the broth using a hand blender before bringing to a boil. Reduce heat to a simmer, add cheese if desired, and simmer until soup is velvety and smooth.
Wonton wrappers
They are not technically noodles, but they sit side by side with noodles and cook much faster than most noodles due to their handkerchief-like fineness. Dip them in boiling soup for a minute or so, until they feel a pleasant firmness between your teeth (try after 60 seconds).
Pre-cooked lentils
I’m very obsessed with Steamed Lentils from Trader Joe. While I understand that making lentils is not a difficult culinary activity, it is boring and these pre-cooked lentils are quick, satisfying, and very versatile. I mostly add them to salads, but they swell almost instantly in the soup, which is very nice in the cold winter months. They are already cooked, so they only need to be simmered, which takes about a minute.
Strained soup
If all you have is two cans of frail, insubstantial soup, you can do what our associate editor Jordan Calhoun does and simply strain the solids out of one of the cans to make a double-filled super soup. “I just open one can and pour it into a saucepan; but then, in the second jar, strain the broth (just holding the lid in place and turning the jar upside down) and leave what’s left, ”he explained to me via Slack.
If you don’t want to waste any extra stock, save it and add it to your next batch of rice, beans, or – I don’t know – soup. It’s just soup until the very end.