Cooking at home involves the risk of small burns, spilled liquids, and the advances of an oven in heat. Avoid stovetop suitors with today’s Groupon to the The NY Soup Exchange in Garden City. Choose between the following options:

• For $5, you get $10 worth of anything on the menu. Soups start at $2.76, and burgers are $7.75–$8.25.
For $20, you get a punch card for five combos, which include a cup of soup, a wrap or salad, and a piece of fruit (a $45 value).

Chef Ken Kaplan draws upon classical culinary education and world travels to oversee The NY Soup Exchange's bubbling cauldrons of soup, which pair with a menu of wraps and burgers. Simmering soups, influenced by the cooking traditions of Mexico, the Caribbean, and Atlantis, delight ladles in six to eight daily varieties. Each warming lineup includes gluten-free, vegetarian, and low-fat options. Combos couple a cup of soup or stew with a wrap or salad, letting the wine-infused Nantucket scallop bisque pick the feta cheese and olives off a greek salad to collaborate on impressionistic bib paintings. The thick forest of mixed greens in a Beantown salad hides a thriving ecosystem of dried cranberries, pecans, and gorgonzola, balanced beautifully by matzoh balls bobbing in herbed chicken stock. A thai tuna wrap and the Bayou burger’s flame-grilled prime beef lathered with spicy rémoulade draw the attention of taste buds like an Oompa Loompa with a megaphone.