I love soup. I love its great variety, its generally healthy ingredients (the occasional heavy cream excepted), and how beautifully it holds up in the freezer. I love how calm I feel when I cook a huge pot of soup on a weekend afternoon, making days’ worth of wholesome, delectable fare with the relatively painless consequence of having to wash only one single dirty dish (plus a utensil or two). I love how flexible and utilitarian soups can be—don’t want to waste the rice pilaf from last night’s doggie bag? Toss it in the soup! Most of all I love how soup so often provides justification for eating extra bread and cheese. That’s totally cool.

As a Lazy Gourmet, I don’t go out of my way to make my own soup stock. I’m always thrilled when my mother has occasion to boil a chicken and winds up with extra broth to share, but most of the time I use canned or boxed broth for my soups. Actually, I should say I used to use canned or boxed broth—until I discovered Better Than Bouillon. Better Than Bouillon is a line of concentrated soup bases—flavorful pastes that you add to water to create delicious stocks for any purpose. According to their website, which lists over a dozen different BTB products, “Better Than Bouillon concentrated paste food bases are made primarily from meat, seafood, or vegetables. This gives them a richer and more natural flavor than ordinary bouillon cubes or granules.” BTB’s many flavors include beef, chicken, vegetable, mushroom, fish, lobster, and chili (to name just a few) and they offer a selection of vegan, organic, low-sodium, and kosher items among their extensive product line.

Why am I such a big fan? Here is a list of reasons:

1. A tiny spoonful goes a long way, so one jar seems to last forever (in the fridge)
2. I never wind up with half a can or box of broth that needs to be used up in the next two weeks
3. It’s DELICIOUS
4. In addition to using it for soups, I also like to stir it into the water when I cook rice or other grains
5. It’s much easier to lug home from the grocery store than multiple cans or boxes of broth
6. It’s not packed with weird artificial mystery chemicals

And there you have it. Better Than Bouillon lives up to its name and gets a Lazy Gourmet stamp of approval. Try it in one of my favorite super simple comfort soups:

Turnip Soup with Rice and Greens

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This super simple comfort soup is made even more delicious with Better Than Bouillon soup bases.

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 1 pound turnips, peeled and diced to ½ inch
• 6 cups water
• 1 tablespoon Better Than Bouillon vegetable or chicken base
• ½ cup uncooked brown rice
• 1 big bunch Swiss chard, chopped
• Kosher salt, to taste
• Freshly ground pepper, to taste
• Freshly grated Parmesan cheese for garnish

Instructions

1. In a stockpot, heat oil and butter over medium-high heat. When oil is hot but not smoking, add onion and turnips. Sautée until onions are soft and turnips are browned, about 7-10 minutes.
2. Add water and bring to a boil.
3. Stir in Better Than Bouillon, reduce heat, and let simmer, covered, for 10 minutes.
4. Add rice and continue to simmer, covered, until rice is slightly tender, about 15 minutes.
5. Stir in Swiss chard, submerging it in the broth and simmering until softened, 5 to 7 minutes.
6. Add salt and pepper to taste, and additional BTB if needed.
7. Serve with grated Parmesan.