25 Easy Soup Recipes For When You Need a Hot Soup Facial, Stat
When it's technically spring but it doesn't feel like spring (which, let's be real, can be the majority of this sham of a season), you need easy soup recipes. You're not about to spend all evening babysitting broth, but you still want that feeling of leaning over a simmering pot, letting the moisture cleanse and hydrate your pores. (No? Not into it? Just us?)
That's where these 25 easy soup recipes come in. They're Basically all-stars. With big flavor and short ingredient lists, they're impressive enough to serve to friends but casual enough to slurp loudly when no one's around to criticize. Gather your blankets, light a candle, and queue up your favorite TV show. On this ol' website, spring might be a lie but soup season is forever.
Photo by Emma Fishman, Food Styling by D'mytrek Brown1/25Salmon Coconut Soup
Packed with clear-your-sinuses heat, this comforting and spicy coconut soup will warm you up on cold nights. Inspired by the classic Thai soup tom kha gai, this version from recipe developer Diana Yen has pieces of salmon instead of chicken and uses easy-to-find ginger instead of traditional galangal root. (If you have access to galangal, though, by all means use it!) Fresh lime juice adds a bright, tangy finish that balances out the richness of the coconut broth. Try serving it with vermicelli noodles for a heartier meal.
- Photo by Laura Murray, Food Styling by Pearl Jones2/25
Tomato and Egg Drop Noodle Soup
The combination of tomato, egg, and noodles is a beloved dish in the cuisine of Hong Kong cha chaan teng, tea cafés that date back to the 1850s. There are many variations of this dish: Often, the egg is scrambled and mixed through a tangy tomato and macaroni soup; other times, a thick tomato soup is served with instant noodles and a fried egg on top. This recipe from Hetty McKinnon takes its cues from dan faa tong, which translates to “egg flower soup” (more commonly known as egg drop soup), a reference to the way the egg flocculates and blooms when dropped into the boiling soup.
- Photo by Emma Fishman, Food Styling by Yekaterina Boytsova3/25
Broccoli Cheddar Soup With Cheesy Croutons
Our better-than-ever broccoli cheddar is lighter, brighter, and less gloppy than the kind you’d find in your corporate cafeteria—with a creaminess that comes from blended potatoes and broccoli stalks rather than heavy cream.
- Photo by Emma Fishman, Food Styling by Anyka Brown4/25
Lemony Tortellini Soup With Spinach and Dill
Springy and light yet comforting and flavor-packed, this recipe takes its cues from avgolemono, a family of Greek soups (and sauces) in which broth is thickened with egg and lemon juice. Eggs and lemon is a classic pair that's also common in Turkish, Balkan, Arab, Italian, and Sephardic Jewish cuisine, among others. Since a good deal of the flavor in the final dish comes from vegetable broth, you’ll want to make sure you’re using one that tastes good to you.
- Photo and Food Styling by Emma Fishman5/25
Any-Vegetable Coconut Soup
The vegetables are flexible—tomatoes (even canned ones), winter squash, kale, carrots, sweet peppers, zucchini, corn, frozen peas, fennel, potatoes (sweet or otherwise), mushrooms, even beets—which means this soup is just as suited to a CSA surplus as to the I haven’t been to the store in three weeks and all I have left are carrots conundrum. It’s the coconut milk, sweet and mellow, that makes all of the ingredients hold hands.
- Photo by Emma Fishman, Food Styling by D'mytrek Brown6/25
Leveled-Up Potato Leek Soup
Recipe developer Christian David Reynoso started making this soup after learning the hard way that puréeing potatoes with a blender yields a gummy texture. So instead of fussily using a food mill, he asked himself why he was making a pureéd soup in the first place. Instead, he slices the potatoes into thin rounds so that they turn tender and creamy. The fried herb gremolata is a simple lesson that adds a crispy, bright punch. You’ll have more than you need, which is okay because it’s good in sour cream to make a ranch-style dip, tossed with roasted root vegetables, or on braised chicken, seared salmon, fried eggs, popcorn—almost anything, really.
- Lucas Sin7/25
Simple Egg Drop Soup
The egg drop soup is a sublime experience: a bright yellow, deeply savory broth laced with dreamy wisps of eggs. But even though the soup is humble, its origins are not. In Cantonese imperial courts, egg drop soup was used as a way to showcase a chef’s finesse: the fine swirl of eggs, when done right, was meant to mimic the gelatinous texture of a clear stock fortified with rooster and Jinhua ham. That idea has since evolved into the American Chinese takeout-style egg drop soup, made from instant chicken stock, thickened with a cornstarch slurry, and perfumed with sesame oil, white pepper, and a dash of light soy sauce. It’s delicious—but egg drop doesn’t have to end there. Most, if not all, soups could be enhanced by a last-second egg drop to give it an aesthetic and textural enhancement. You can and should egg drop any soup.
- Photo by Laura Murray, Food Styling by Pearl Jones8/25
Porotos Con Riendas
“Perhaps my favorite of all comfort foods is porotos con riendas, the stew to top all stews,” writes Miska Lewis. “Made with beans, squash, chorizo, and spaghetti, this dish’s name comes from an old campesino (farmer) metaphor. Originally, this meal was made with strips of pig skin (referred to as riendas or reins) rather than spaghetti. Some of my friends’ mothers still make it in this way, but as the dish became a staple of Chilean households outside of the countryside, noodles often replaced this traditional ingredient.”
- Photo by Emma Fishman, Food Styling by D'mytrek Brown9/25
Hungarian Mushroom Soup
Hungarian mushroom soup, or gomba leves, is a mushroom-heavy soup spiced with paprika, dill, and thyme. This soup just hits the spot on a cold night. There are a number of variations that include pasta, turnips, soup dumplings, and more, but Hetal Vasavada's recipe is a simple version that includes milk for a creamy, rich texture.
- Photo and Food Styling by Paul Wang10/25
Korean Fish Stew
When Paul Wang was growing up in Seoul, he remembers his grandmother hurrying home from the local fish market to prepare this stew for their family. As she prepared the dish, its scent would waft through the house, making his stomach rumble. When the pandemic gave him more time to revisit dishes that bring back fond memories, he decided to commit his grandmother’s recipe to paper (with a few phone calls to his mother for moral support).
- Photo by Laura Murray, Food Styling by Kat Boytsova11/25
Vegetarian Chili With Lots of Fritos
Quick, spicy, filling, and made mostly of pantry ingredients, this chili/tortilla soup/frito pie mash-up is calling your name. (Shhh. Listen closely.) Garnish it with the toppings of your choice: We like avocado, sour cream, and chopped white onion, but you can add shredded cheese, pickled or fresh jalapeños, and/or sliced scallions or radishes.
- Photo by Alex Lau, Food Styling by Yekaterina Boytsova12/25
Classic Chicken Noodle Soup
There are tons of shortcuts for chicken noodle soup, but this time we're not cutting corners—this is the long game! This version is about as classic (and as comforting) as they come, using a whole chicken—bones, skin, and all—to lend flavor and body to the broth. The key is to treat the breasts and legs differently: The breasts need to be pulled early so they don't overcook and dry out, whereas the legs require a long simmer to become incredibly tender.
- Photo by Laura Murray, Food Styling by Yekaterina Boytsova13/25
Pork and Shiitake Congee
To make congee, a quintessential comfort food with many regional variations across China, you’ll cook rice until it breaks down and turns the liquid into a thick, creamy porridge. Since congee can take hours to make on the stovetop, recipe developer Betty Liu came up with a clever trick: Rinse the rice and freeze it overnight. The frozen rice breaks down quickly, cutting your cooking time by half.
- Photo by Chelsie Craig, Food Styling by Yekaterina Boytsova14/25
Soba Soup With Shrimp and Greens
Dashi is the sort of super-powered broth that every cook should know how to make. One of the building blocks of Japanese cuisine, the most popular dashi is made from just two ingredients (kombu and katsuobushi a.k.a. bonito flakes) and comes together in fewer than 15 minutes. That makes it the fastest route to a slurp-able, umami-rich broth (with no loooong simmers or bags of chicken bones necessary). Here, it's the base of a super savory soup packed with poached shrimp, nutty soba, and tons o' greens—the perfect antidote to that cold you kinda sorta feel coming on.
- Photo by Chelsie Craig, Food Styling by Yekaterina Boytsova15/25
Hammy Chickpea Soup
When cooked from dry, chickpeas are way more tender than their canned counterparts—and, despite what you've been told, they don't even need to be soaked. We cook them straight from the bag, then harness the flavor of their cooking liquid to make the base for a creamy, bean-studded soup. A small amount of ham—in the form of a smoked hock—goes a long way here. You won’t get a lot of meat off that bone; its major contribution is saltiness, smokiness, and a silky, rich texture. If you don’t have or can’t find a ham hock, use a few ounces of slab bacon instead.
- 16/25
Vegan Butternut Squash Soup
This is just what the doctor ordered when you've been going too hard on the meats and cheeses. This comforting, ginger-laced soup just so happens to be vegan, and is exactly what we want when we feel like we've been overindulging a bit. If you've always thought you needed to own a $500 blender or have hours to spare to make a luxuriously silky puréed vegetable soup, well, you don't! We made a super smooth soup using a $40 model. Just make sure the butternut squash is completely tender before it goes in the blender.
- Photo by Chelsie Craig17/25
Low-Commitment Wedding Soup
This recipe takes all the right shortcuts and none of the wrong ones. We doctor up sweet Italian sausage for the meatballs, opt for adding canned beans instead of boiling pasta in a separate pot, and still manage to make an uber-flavorful soup without having to call for boxed chicken stock. It's one-pot, one-bowl magic.
- Photo by Chelsie Craig, Food Styling by Rhoda Boone18/25
Chicken and Rice Soup with Garlicky Chile Oil
This comforting chicken soup tastes like it took hours to make but comes together in a flash. Simmering a handful of uncooked rice directly into soup is a great trick for giving a quick, broth-y number like this one lip-smacking body and richness; as the rice cooks, it releases starches that thicken the cooking liquid. And a finishing drizzle of spicy oil and crunchy fried garlic chips takes the whole thing to the next level. About that garlicky chile oil: Go ahead and double it, because you're going to want to put it on everything this week. You'll thank us later.
- Photo by Heidi's Bridge, styling by Molly Baz19/25
Vegan Coconut Lentil Soup
Never has such a flavorful, hearty, and warming meal come together so quickly or using so many pantry staples. We love it with a dollop of yogurt on top, but feel free to omit or use a non-dairy yogurt to keep it vegan.
- 20/25
Beef and Bacon Stew
You can call it beef bourguignon if you want to sound fancy—nobody has to know how much easier it is than the French classic. About the wine: Resist the urge to buy the cheapest bottle you can find, and choose a red wine that you'd be happy to drink, especially since you'll drink some of it and use the rest. And while serving this hearty stew with some torn bread is definitely the fastest way from point A to point B, it would also be incredibly delicious spooned over some boiled or mashed potatoes.
- Photo by Chelsea Kyle, Food Styling by Jennifer Ophir21/25
Kielbasa and Lentil Soup with Lots of Basil
We're obsessed with the smoky flavor that good kielbasa brings to this hearty soup, but if you can’t find it, any smoked and/or fully cooked sausage will work just as well. About those lentils: You can use whatever you'd like here, but you'll end up with a slightly different dish. Lens-shaped green (pictured here), brown, and red lentils tend to fall apart as they soften, yielding a soup that is thick and porridge-like. By contrast, French green (a.k.a. lentilles du Puy) and black beluga lentils are sturdier and maintain their shape when cooked, resulting in a brothier situation. Different vibes, same great flavor.
- Photo by Heidi's Bridge, styling by Molly Baz22/25
Creamy Tomato Soup with Cheese Toasties
To keep our tomato soup a one-pot operation (and avoid splattering scalding hot liquid), we purée the mixture with an immersion blender, which gets the job done. For an extra-smooth texture, though, feel free to use a regular blender. Want to keep it vegan? (Well, the soup, that is.) Omit the sour cream and drizzle with a couple of extra tablespoons of olive oil at the end.
- Photo by Chelsie Craig, food styling by Jennifer Ophir23/25
Simple Ribollita
The only thing better than soup with bread? Soup that not only has chunks of bread in it, but crunchy croutons on top as well. This (vegetarian!) Italian classic is about as comforting as it gets, packed with hearty greens, meaty beans, and plenty of rich olive oil and umami-packed Parmesan. A note on that cheese: If you've been throwing out your Parm rinds all these years, that stops right now. The rind is full of flavor, and makes a great addition to any broth-y, stewy situation.
- Photo by Alex Lau, Food Styling by Yekaterina Boytsova24/25
Vietnamese Shrimp and Ginger Canh
Loaded with vegetables and a little protein, the light, brothy soups known as canh signal homey comfort to recipe developer Andrea Nguyen. “I learned to make them from my mom, who prepared them five nights a week. When one of us kids jokingly complained, she’d say, ‘Hot soup warms you in the cold and cools you in the heat.’ That always got us to quiet down and slurp up.”
- Photo by Caleb Adams25/25
Basically Black Bean Soup
Few ingredients have such a stellar deliciousness-to-affordability ratio, and the best part about starting a soup with dried beans is that they create their own incredibly savory broth as they cook.