Best & Easy Soup Recipes

Soup is a primarily liquid food, generally served warm or hot (but may be cool or cold), that is made by combining ingredients of meat or vegetables with stock, or water. Hot soups are additionally characterized by boiling solid ingredients in liquids in a pot until the flavors are extracted, forming a broth. Soups are similar to stews, and in some cases there may not be a clear distinction between the two; however, soups generally have more liquid (broth) than stews.

In traditional French cuisine, soups are classified into two main groups: clear soups and thick soups. The established French classifications of clear soups are bouillon and consommé. Thick soups are classified depending upon the type of thickening agent used: purées are vegetable soups thickened with starch; bisques are made from puréed shellfish or vegetables thickened with cream; cream soups may be thickened with béchamel sauce; and veloutés are thickened with eggs, butter, and cream. Other ingredients commonly used to thicken soups and broths include egg, rice, lentils, flour, and grains; many popular soups also include pumpkin, carrots, potatoes, pig's trotters and bird's nests.

Other types of soup include fruit soups, dessert soups, pulse soups like split pea, cold soups and other styles.

This is a list of notable soups. Soups have been made since ancient times.

Some soups are served with large chunks of meat or vegetables left in the liquid, while a broth is a flavored liquid usually derived from boiling a type of meat with bone, a spice mix, or a vegetable mix for a period of time in a stock. A common type of broth is consommé, which are crystal clear broths or stock that have a full flavor, aroma, and body.

A potage is a category of thick soups, stews, or porridges, in some of which meat and vegetables are boiled together with water until they form into a thick mush.

Bisques are heavy cream soups traditionally prepared with shellfish, but can be made with any type of seafood or other base ingredients. Cream soups are a dairy based soup. Although they may be consumed on their own, or with a meal, the canned, condensed form of cream soup is sometimes used as a quick sauce in a variety of meat and pasta convenience food dishes, such as casseroles. Similar to a bisque, chowders are thick soups usually containing some type of starch.

Coulis were originally meat juices, and now are thick purées.

Some soups are served only cold, and other soups can optionally be served cold.