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Comfort Soups

Recipe
Indonesian Spiced Beef and Lemon Grass Soup
This aromatic soup is our adaptation of the sop konro that home cook Nobita Budianti demonstrated for us in her kitchen in Jakarta, Indonesia. The blender does much of the heavy prep, pureeing many of the ingredients into a spice paste, called bumbu d
By Courtney HillAugust 26, 2025
Recipe
Thai Rice Soup (Khao Tom)
One of our readers’ favorite recipes, this pork soup showcases almost magical layers of aroma and flavor.
By Diane UngerApril 2, 2018
4
Recipe
Polenta Soup with Kale and Parmesan
Soft polenta takes on a brothy quality in our take on comforting polentina alla toscana.
11
Recipe
Canederli in Brodo (Bread Dumplings in Broth)
Stale country-style bread is the base for canederli, the rustic, generously sized dumplings that originate in the Alpine regions of northern Italy. Our version is based on the recipes we learned in the city of Trento from Mauro Pisoni and Pietro Gambo
By Courtney HillOctober 24, 2024
4
Recipe
Chili Crisp Chicken and Corn Soup
James Ooi—founder of Little Bao Boy, an Asian street food business based in Leeds, England—inspired us with his go-to soup for a quick weeknight dinner. Chicken breast, soy sauce, and canned corn. We were intrigued. Based on his description, we develo
By Hisham Ali HassanSeptember 2, 2025
Recipe
Vietnamese Meatball and Watercress Soup (Canh)
“This is my favorite Milk Street soup recipe,” a reader writes of this Vietnamese pork meatball soup: a bright green bowl of juicy, tender pork with a complex background of fish sauce, scallions, garlic, ginger and lime juice.
By Diane UngerAugust 7, 2017
10
Recipe
Italian Bean Soup with Fresh Pasta
“Everyone should eat this,” a reader writes of one of our all-time most popular soups: rustic Italian bean soup, the perfect vehicle for fresh pasta.
21
Recipe
Korean Hand-Torn Noodle Soup with Chicken (Sujebi)
Rustic hand-torn wheat noodles are the star of sujebi, a hearty, brothy Korean soup. In Seoul, we learned there are countless ways to make the dish, but for our version, we combined our favorite elements of the recipes we learned from home cook Insook
By Courtney HillJanuary 19, 2024
2
Recipe
Filipino-Style Chicken Soup with Coconut and Lemon Grass
Coconut water makes the brightest, freshest-tasting chicken soup we’ve ever had—and out of thousands of Milk Street recipes, it’s one of our kitchen’s favorites.
By Courtney HillAugust 9, 2021
7
Recipe
Butter-Braised Tomato Soup
In “The Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking,” Marcella Hazan shared her now-famous recipe for a sublimely delicious, remarkably simple sauce made with nothing more than tomatoes, onion and butter. This soup turns that sauce into a light meal. If you
2
Recipe
Tomato-Rice Soup with Caramelized Onion
Caramelized onion soup: one onion, deep flavor, and a couple pantry staples.
By Rose HattabaughNovember 8, 2022
18
Recipe
Kale and White Bean Soup
A leftover Parmesan rind and canned cannellini beans make for an extra-savory broth in one of our favorite crusty-bread soups.
8
Recipe
Somali Chicken Soup
This electric Somali-style chicken soup is heaped with fresh, crisp ingredients added at the end and spiked with hot sauce. OR. Warming spices, a cut of lime juice, and broth simmered in a pot-full of browned onions is our prescription for all ailment
By Diane UngerJanuary 8, 2018
5
Recipe
Thai-Style Coconut and Chicken Soup
This fragrant Thai soup is rich with coconut milk, awoken with chili heat, lime, and lemongrass, and studded with meaty chicken and mushrooms—and its electricity depends on that deep, coconutty backdrop. Ersatz homemade coconut milk provides the rich
By Courtney HillJanuary 21, 2024
32
Recipe
Soup from Nothing (Caraway Soup with Parsley and Walnut Pesto)
At Milk Street, this simple, comforting broth is affectionately known as “soup from nothing.” It is our adaptation of a recipe we learned from Oana Udrea, chef at Meșendorf 65 in the Transylvania region of Romania. The heart of the soup is a light but
By Courtney HillMarch 7, 2025
Recipe
Chickpea and Garlic Soup with Cumin-Spiced Butter
Canned chickpeas become a creamy, elegant soup.
By Courtney HillNovember 7, 2022
1
Recipe
Rice Porridge with Chicken and Mushrooms
Warm up with this intensely flavored congee, a soul-soothing alternative to chicken soup—rice porridge with chicken and mushrooms, a comfort meal from parts of Asia. OR Whether its called congee, jook, juk, chok, chao or okayu, rice porridge is homey,
By Courtney HillDecember 15, 2021
4
Recipe
Garlic and Cilantro Soup with Chickpeas (Açorda Alentejana)
This brothy bowl of green—our take on Portuguese açorda alentejana—starts with a sort of jalapeño-cilantro pesto, served with a hefty dose of Parm.
8
Recipe
Colombian Potato Soup with Chicken, Corn and Capers (Ajiáco)
Loaded with potatoes, a corn cob, and avocado slices, this chicken soup (ajiáco) is creamy, hearty, and fresh all at once.
By Rose HattabaughAugust 12, 2022
6
Recipe
Korean Chicken and Noodle Stew with Potatoes and Mushrooms
Inspired by jjimdak, a Korean chicken and vegetable stew, this flavor-packed dish gets a hit of heat from gochujang, plus umami from mushrooms and soy sauce. Jjimdak typically includes dang myun noodles, which are made from sweet potato starch. We soa
By Malcolm JacksonApril 25, 2023
Recipe
Umbrian Lentil Soup (Zuppa de Lenticchie)
In her kitchen in Perugia, Italy, home cook Silvia Buitoni taught us how to make brothy but hearty Umbrian lentil soup, or zuppa di lenticchie, a regional classic and a fine example of rustic Italian cooking. Of utmost importance, of course, are the l
By Diane UngerAugust 9, 2021
6
Recipe
Thai Hot and Sour Soup with Chicken and Mushrooms
“Words, in every language, fail us,” J.M. Hirsch writes of this explosively flavorful tom yum soup he tried in Bangkok.
By Courtney HillFebruary 1, 2023
9
Recipe
Georgian Chicken Soup (Chikhirtma)
This pearly Georgian chicken soup (chikhirtma) is incredibly satisfying to make—while relatively hands-off—with all of the components are built from scratch. OR Adapted from Darra Goldstein, this egg-and-flour-thickened Georgian chicken soup (chikhirt
9
Recipe
Chicken Soup with Ricotta Dumplings
Light and tender ricotta dumplings (Calabria’s meat-free “ricotta meatballs”), nestled in a bowl of chicken and broth.
By Diane UngerApril 1, 2022
11
Recipe
Spicy Red Lentil Stew with Coconut Milk and Spinach
“One of the best lentil soup recipes I’ve ever tried,” a reader writes about this lentil soup that mixes soothing coconut milk, woken up with spices, heat, and cut with lime.
12
Recipe
Tuscan Chickpea and Pasta Soup (Striscia coi Ceci)
Gabriele Borgianni, chef/owner at Trattoria Bel Mi’ Colle in Colle Val d'Elsa, Italy, showed us how to cook the Tuscan chickpea and pasta soup called striscia coi ceci, which translates as “strips with chickpeas.” He prefers the taste and texture crea
By Hisham Ali HassanFebruary 26, 2025
1
Recipe
Romanian-Style Potato and Sausage Soup
In Bucharest, Romania, at Bucataria Local Food, a restaurant owned by brothers Adrian and Gabriel Alexe, we tasted a broth containing aromatic vegetables, potatoes and a local smoked sausage called babic. The dish is one of countless types of borş, or
By Courtney HillMay 5, 2025
1
Recipe
Chicken and Orzo Soup with Garlic and Paprika
This bright red chicken and orzo soup gets rich, Turkish-inspired flavor from tomato paste, garlic, sweet paprika, and a touch of dried mint.
By Julia RackowApril 13, 2020
17
Recipe
Peruvian Chicken, Rice and Cilantro Soup (Aguadito de Pollo)
This emerald green chicken and rice soup gets its vibrant broth from a bunch of herbaceous cilantro and sweet pops of peas.
By Courtney HillOctober 15, 2019
2
Recipe
Greek Egg-Lemon Soup (Avgolemono)
Chicken and rice soup with a satisfying thickness from an egg whisked broth with a cut of citrus— perfectly simple and soothing. OR Sunny flavors, winter comfort: this Greece chicken soup uses an egg-lemon mixture for thickened broth and a cut of brig
By Courtney HillNovember 11, 2022
3
Recipe
Corn and Coconut Soup with Ginger and Scallions
Pops of sweet corn, bathed in gentle coconut milk, is our loose vegetarian take on tom kha gai—featuring the signature Thai mixture of salty, spicy, sour and sweet.
By Diane UngerNovember 15, 2022
7
Recipe
Lemony Lentil-Kale Soup with Sweet Potatoes
We use lemon two ways in this bright, lemony lentil kale soup, based on Lebanese soup adas bil hamod.
By Courtney HillDecember 17, 2019
3
Recipe
Chicken and Noodle Soup with Turmeric and Dill
Turmeric lends golden hue and earthy spice to this herbal riff on classic chicken noodle soup.
By Diane UngerAugust 10, 2022
4
Recipe
Hand-Torn Noodle Soup with Chicken and Vegetables
In most chicken noodle soups, the noodles are an afterthought. Here, they’re the star. Inspired by sujebi, a Korean hand-torn noodle soup, we form our noodles from a simple flour-and-water dough. While it rests, the chicken and vegetable base comes to
By Hisham Ali HassanSeptember 20, 2024
3
Recipe
Indonesian Spiced Beef and Lemon Grass Soup
This aromatic soup is our adaptation of the sop konro that home cook Nobita Budianti demonstrated for us in her kitchen in Jakarta, Indonesia. The blender does much of the heavy prep, pureeing many of the ingredients into a spice paste, called bumbu d
By Courtney HillAugust 26, 2025
Recipe
Romanian-Style Cabbage and Potato Soup with Bacon and Paprika
A category of Romanian soup, ciorbă is characterized by a pleasant sourness that comes from vinegar, pickle brine or the juice of sour fruits. There are many types of ciorbă; here we took inspiration from ciorbă de varză acră, which derives its sourne
By Calvin CoxNovember 11, 2022
1
Recipe
Lentil Soup with Lemony Shrimp
At Vittoria Ristorante, a 100-year-old eatery in Marche, Italy, chef Sunni Martelli taught us to make her grandmother’s lentil and shrimp soup. The coastal region is known for its seafood, while lentils are a nod to its neighbor, Umbria. To make the l
By Hisham Ali HassanMarch 25, 2025
Recipe
Homemade Chicken Broth
For broth-centric soups, store-bought pales in comparison to slow-simmered homemade broth that is full-bodied with gelatin and rich poultry flavor. This recipe is minimalist—we’ve even left out the usual aromatics (onion, carrot, celery) and herbs (pa
By Hisham Ali HassanFebruary 26, 2025
Recipe
Bread and Tomato Soup with Poached Eggs (Acquacotta)
In Colle di Val D’Elsa, cookbook author Giulia Scarpaleggia prepared this classic Tuscan soup for us. It is called acquacotta, or “cooked water,” because the thrifty dish originally was made with little more than day-old bread, vegetables and hot wate
By Hisham Ali HassanJanuary 13, 2025
2