[close] Soup seems to revive the spirit even as it contents the stomach. In Judith Barrett's case, it also helped her lose 10 pounds. These low-fat and reasonably low-calorie soups, she claims, provided filling comfort as she cut back on calories and on the overall quantity she ate, helping her lose weight and keep it off.

The 100-plus recipes in Saved by Soup contain, at maximum, three grams of fat per three-quarter-cup portion. (Most of us eat more than that, and in restaurants a serving is at least a full cup.)

Barrett explains how to de-fat homemade stocks and store-bought broth. Her recipes start with a light, clear consommé graced with angel hair pasta and fine strips of fresh spinach, then progress to hefty Pasta e Fagioli, a section on chowders, chicken soups both thick and thin--including one with fluffy matzoh balls--and verdant spring soups like Creamy Watercress. There are rustic Italian minestre and chilled soups for summer. Perhaps best of all are chili-spiked Racy Red Lentil and clever, chunky Summer Fruit "Minestrone," a melange of fruit cut up in mint-perfumed orange juice.

The nutritional analysis provided for each recipe proves Barrett's point--that soups can be both lean and flavorful. Glorious color photos show that they can also be eye filling. --Dana Jacobi [close]