Food52’s 11 best soup recipes of all time, ranked
The days may (allegedly) be getting longer, but winter is still undeniably here. While the sun’s annual foray into playing hard to get comes to a close, it’s best to use our remaining time indoors to celebrate winter’s most iconic dish: soup. Here are our 11 most popular soup recipes of all time, from French onion to butternut squash, and beyond.
11. Marcella Hazan’s Rice and Smothered Cabbage Soup
A soup that proves an under-appreciated truth: cabbage is a bottomless reservoir of flavor. Top with parmesan for an additional umami kick.
10. Tomato Soup with a Whole Head of Garlic
Garlic improves this already-perfected soup without muddling any of its classic flavors. Bonus: You don’t need to peel the entire head of garlic to get to all that allium goodness — simply cut in half across the middle to save time.
9. Vegetable Beef Soup Like Great-Grandma Vera Mae’s
This recipe is childhood in soup form. A spoonful of beef, potato, and carrot — all covered in the rich, dark broth — brings me straight back to my mother’s kitchen table.
8. Marcella Hazan’s White Bean Soup with Garlic and Parsley
This soup is eaten in two stages. First, enjoy perfectly tender white beans bathing in parsley and garlic. Second, mop up the remaining broth with whatever bread you can find.
Print this out and leave it somewhere in your kitchen. Your future fully exhausted post-Thanksgiving self will thank you.
6. Creamy Butternut Squash Soup with Sherry
Classic butternut squash with an added kick from the sherry. We don’t need to sell something that’s already perfect.
Two facts: First, every dinner party is made better with French onion soup. Second, this is our most popular french onion soup.
4. Joanne Chang’s Hot and Sour Soup
This recipe makes a few convenient changes to traditional hot and sour soup, namely using ground instead of sliced pork and replacing cornstarch with eggs. Even with these swaps, this dish maintains all of its classic flavor.
3. Lentil and Sausage Soup for a Cold Winter’s Night
Perfect for chilly weather, this recipe relies on pantry items like lentils, frozen spinach, wine, and garlic, meaning you might be able to make this soup without braving the elements on a trip to the grocery store.
Despite only using seven ingredients, this soup produces an entire world of carrot flavor. Serve it up with homemade sourdough if you’re so inclined, or reach for any crusty bread you’ve got on hand.
1. Genius Cauliflower Soup from Paul Bertolli
This recipe highlights how cauliflower cauliflower’s ability to play the main character of any dish. It’s deeply flavorful, plus it’s our most popular soup of all time (and it uses water in place of stock).
