Our Most Comforting Soups

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

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

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

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

Polenta Soup with Kale and Parmesan

Soft polenta takes on a brothy quality in our take on comforting polentina alla toscana.

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

By Courtney HillDecember 15, 2021

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

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

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.

Tomato-Rice Soup with Caramelized Onion

Caramelized onion soup: one onion, deep flavor, and a couple pantry staples.

By Rose HattabaughNovember 8, 2022

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

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

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

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

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.

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

Chickpea and Garlic Soup with Cumin-Spiced Butter

Canned chickpeas become a creamy, elegant soup.

By Courtney HillNovember 7, 2022

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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