Vegetable Soups

Vegetable soups can be almost ridiculously simple to make; a sliced leek and a handful of chopped potato can be boiled in a cup or two of water, a dollop of butter tossed in, and the whole thing slurped up with a few good slices of crusty bread, A last-minute vegetable soup along with a salad and a wedge of cheese make up many of my weekday dinners at home. Vegetable soups can also be hearty meals in themselves; some are elaborate concoctions groaning with sausages, meats, rice, pasta, beans, and a dozen kinds of vegetables. Most vegetable soups fall somewhere in between these two extremes and contain three or four vegetables and maybe a few cubes of leftover meat.