There is a basic principle, that is pretty obvious, but that was hard for me to assume: if you cut the veggies in small pieces to cook them, less time you need. So if you use bite sizes an boil them with a little water, so that we don't loose vitamins in water we are not using for the soup, in 10 minutes they are done. The only thing that I'm freezing now a days are little pieces of meat and chicken to add proteins.

  Another obvious tip is the oven, conventional and microwave. the veggies cooked in the oven keep all their benefits, so it's the healthier way to make a soup to cook them there and add some boiling water when you are about to stir. You can also chop them smaller to make it faster. with only 3 minutes of microwave you have tender potatoes, soft and sweet carrots. If we want to eat them ourselves, we can put them in a hot pan with a bit of olive oil, sea salt, pepper, green onion, nothing better. To add proteins to the oven soup, a bit of ham is fine.

Delicious combinations:
carrots-green peas-parsley
potatoes-carrots-tomatoes-basil
rice-potatoes-pumpkin-coriander
pumpkin-carrot-tomatoe-thyme