Vegan Soup Recipes: 13 Vegan Soups to Try

Just because vegan soup is healthy doesn’t mean it’s not flavorful. Here’s how to make a crave-worthy vegan soup:

1. 1. Use dairy-free substitutes. You don’t need dairy to make a creamy soup. Use your favorite nut butter or dairy-free milk, such as coconut, oat, or almond milk, to add richness to vegan recipes.
2. 2. Choose the right cooking method. Slow cookers are ideal for dishes like stews or soups featuring ingredients with a longer cook time, like root vegetables or dried beans. While the slow cooker is a hands-off cooking tool, some soup recipes require you to pay attention to the order and timing in which you add ingredients so that the grains and vegetables don’t overcook and turn mushy. Make those soups on the stovetop instead.
3. 3. Add spices and herbs. Make vegan soup more flavorful by adding fragrant spices and herbs. Toasting whole spices like coriander and cumin seeds in oil before adding the rest of your ingredients helps activate their flavor and aromatics, resulting in a vegan soup with a more complex flavor profile.
4. 4. Make your own vegetable broth. Making your own vegetable stock at home results in a stronger concentration of vegetable flavor. You can also control which vegetable flavors to feature. Use a combination of savory vegetables like onions, carrots, celery, and garlic. Try adding dried mushrooms to your vegetable broth recipe for umami depth.
5. 5. Cook grains and noodles separately. To ensure that starchy ingredients, like wild rice or noodles, stay springy and chewy, cook them separately and add them to your vegan soup just before serving.

You can make almost any soup recipe vegan, but some work particularly well with plant-based ingredients. Here are some vegan soup recipes to try.

1. 1. Asparagus soup: This silky puréed soup features asparagus and unsweetened coconut milk (or other nondairy milk) for creaminess. Add spinach to your vegan asparagus soup for a brighter green color.
2. 2. Broccoli soup: You don’t need cream to make a satisfying broccoli soup. This vegan broccoli soup recipe features blended cashews and potatoes for a creamy texture. To recreate the flavor of broccoli cheddar soup, add a sprinkling of nutritional yeast. (Here’s how to use nutritional yeast in recipes.)
3. 3. Mushroom soup: To make a thick and creamy mushroom soup, use cornstarch or an arrowroot slurry and full-fat coconut milk. Try incorporating cremini, shiitake, and button mushrooms for textural contrast and the most mushroom flavor. Add brightness by topping your vegan mushroom soup with chopped fresh tarragon or parsley.
4. 4. Potato soup: Many recipes suggest using unsweetened oat milk, coconut milk, or almond milk to thicken plant-based soups and stews, but you can also purée a portion of the soup to add creaminess. Puréeing activates the natural starches in the potatoes, thickening the soup and adding body. Since it doesn’t use a roux or all-purpose flour as a thickener, it’s also naturally gluten-free. Since potatoes have little flavor, incorporate aromatic vegetables like leeks and celery into vegan potato soup for a more savory flavor. For a twist, swap some or all of the potatoes for sweet potatoes for bright orange sweet potato soup.
5. 5. Butternut squash soup: Sautéed with onions and puréed with broth, cubed butternut squash makes for a silky and nutritious soup. To make butternut squash soup vegan, simply swap the heavy cream in most recipes for coconut milk. Since coconut milk is a key ingredient in Thai curries, try adding red curry paste for a curried butternut squash soup with a spicy kick that will warm you up on chilly fall days. Here’s how to cube butternut squash.
6. 6. Cabbage soup: There are variations of cabbage soup across the globe: Italian cabbage soup features tomato paste, while Poland has several variations, many of which highlight sauerkraut. This easy cabbage soup recipe features fresh cabbage and sauerkraut; to keep it vegan, simply omit the sour cream garnish (or use your favorite vegan sour cream).
7. 7. Carrot soup: Purée roasted carrots, ginger, and turmeric together for a nourishing, warming vegan soup. Adding coconut milk or cashew cream gives this orange soup a luxurious, rich, and creamy quality. Use this carrot soup recipe as a template, swapping the chicken stock for vegetable broth.
8. 8. Cauliflower soup: Puréed cauliflower is a popular vegan substitute for a cream sauce, so it’s no wonder it can also make smooth and rich animal-product-free soup. Roast the cauliflower before puréeing to add an extra layer of caramelized flavor. (Here’s how to roast cauliflower.) Use nondairy milk and vegetable broth to adapt Gordon Ramsay’s creamy cauliflower soup recipe for a vegan palate.
9. 9. Lentil soup: High in protein, lentils make for a healthy soup. One of the most popular lentil soups is dal, a creamy lentil soup from India. Many dal recipes can be vegan if you use oil instead of ghee; try Madhur Jaffrey’s moong dal and red lentils with browned onions.
10. 10. Minestrone soup: This classic Italian pasta, bean, and vegetable soup is the perfect way to use up any produce languishing in the crisper. Keep this minestrone recipe vegan by using vegetable broth and swapping the Parmesan cheese for nutritional yeast or your favorite vegan cheese.
11. 11. Miso soup: This traditional Japanese soup accompanies many Japanese meals. To make this soup vegan, make umami-rich stock from kombu (dried kelp) and dried shiitake mushrooms. Learn how with this vegan miso soup recipe.
12. 12. Tomato soup: Using a combination of fresh and canned tomatoes and umami-packed tomato paste provides layers of tomato flavor to tomato soup. Adding an entire bunch of basil—stems and leaves—results in a classic vegan tomato basil soup. Serve this bowl of soup with croutons or crusty bread for the ultimate comfort meal.
13. 13. Tuscan white bean soup: This hearty Italian soup features white beans, vegetables, and broth. It’s easy to make it vegan by choosing vegetable broth. Puréeing just some of the beans creates a creamy texture without any dairy. Serve the soup with a squeeze of fresh lemon juice and a drizzle of extra-virgin olive oil. If you don’t have white beans, substitute chickpeas.

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