Buzz
Soup can certainly be a fulfilling meal if it contains enough ingredients. However, the contents of canned soup often fail to live up to the promise on the label. This problem is less common with homemade soups, but sometimes you don't add enough initially or someone finishes all the good ingredients, leaving only broth. Don't worry—there are plenty of ways to bulk up your soup after the fact, and none of them involve noodles or rice. (Though noodles and rice are always fine, they feel a bit too obvious.)
Pre-packaged tortellini (or gnocchi)
Tortellini are like noodles, but better—stuffed with even more delicious ingredients. Adding them to your soup is a great way to increase its bulk. Whether you buy them frozen or fresh, simply drop them into simmering soup and cook until they're tender, usually within 2-5 minutes, depending on how hot your tortellini were to start with.
Shelf-stable or refrigerated gnocchi requires little effort to prepare. Just add it to simmering soup and cook until the little potato dumplings rise to the surface. Finish with a dollop of thickened or cultured dairy and some scallions to enhance the potato flavor.
Leftover mashed potatoes
For a gnocchi-like experience, you can transform leftover mashed potatoes into dumplings with just one egg and one cup of all-purpose flour for every two cups of cold mashed potatoes. Mix gently, roll the dough into a long shape, and cut into bite-sized pieces. Cook them like you would regular gnocchi—drop them into simmering water and wait until they float to the top.
If you're not in the mood to mix, roll, or cut, you can simply blend mashed potatoes into a thin soup to add body. Use about one cup of cold mashed potatoes for every cup of broth. Purée them into the broth using an immersion blender, then bring the mixture to a boil. Lower the heat to a simmer, add cheese if desired, and cook until the soup reaches a velvety smooth consistency.
Wonton wrappers
These aren't exactly noodles, but they are noodle-like and cook much faster than most. Their delicate, handkerchief-like texture allows them to cook quickly. Drop them into boiling soup for about a minute until they feel pleasantly bouncy when you bite into them (test one after 60 seconds).
Pre-cooked lentils
I'm pretty obsessed with the steamed lentils from Trader Joe's. While cooking lentils isn't particularly difficult, it can be tedious, and these pre-cooked lentils save time while being filling and versatile. I usually add them to salads, but they bulk up a soup in no time, which is a lifesaver during the cold winter months. Since they're already cooked, they only need to be simmered until warm, which usually takes about a minute.
Strained soup
If you only have two cans of weak, uninspiring soup, you can follow our deputy editor Jordan Calhoun’s trick and strain out the solids from one can to create a heartier, double-stuffed soup. 'I just open one can and pour it into the pot; then, for the second can, I strain out the broth (by holding the lid in place and flipping the can upside down) and keep what's left,' he explained to me over Slack.
If you don’t want to throw away the extra broth, save it for your next batch of rice, beans, or—who knows—soup. It’s basically soup all the way down.
