How to Add Flavour to Soup with Herbs and Spices

Although soup is a tasty, nutritious, simple, and budget-friendly meal option, people sometimes worry that soups are bland. That is not the case as you can combine any ingredients you want to create to add flavour to soup that suits your tastes.

Using herbs, spices, and condiments in your soup-making is a fantastic way to add flavour to soups. It can completely transform an easy soup recipe. You can experiment with different herbs, spices, and condiments to find ingredients that create flavours that you enjoy.

Here are just some of the ingredients that you can use as ways to add flavour to soup.

Herbs to Add Flavour to Soups

• Basil: Fresh basil is best, and this is something that you can grow at home in a pot on your kitchen windowsill. However, dried basil will also add a great flavour. Basil works particularly well with soups containing ingredients such as tomatoes, peppers, and zucchini (courgettes). A great soup to which you can add basil is bloody mary tomato soup.
• Bay leaves: Adding bay leaves is one of the simplest and cheapest ways to add flavour to a soup. Some people may find the flavour overwhelming if you leave the bay leaves in for the whole cooking time. Try adding bay leaves into the soup mixture for five minutes of the cooking time.
• Cilantro/ coriander: Coriander is a herb that is used in cuisines across the globe, including South American, Asian, European, and African food. Therefore, it is a herb that you can add to almost any soup to add flavour. A fantastic soup to try is carrot & coriander soup.
• Lemongrass: Usually, lemongrass is an ingredient used in Southeast Asian food, especially in Thai cuisine.
• Lemon thyme: This variation of thyme offers a similar flavour and aroma as general thyme, but with a hint of lemon.
• Mint– More often associated with desserts, mint can also add a distinctive flavour to a soup. One of the best uses of this herb is pea and mint soup or our popular courgette and mint soup. It is also a nice addition to a chilled cucumber soup.
• Oregano: Oregano works well with ingredients including tomatoes, zucchini (courgettes), peppers, and other vegetables associated with the Mediterranean diet. It is a great herb to add to our tomato, pepper, and courgette soup.
• Parsley: Regardless of whether you are making meat, fish, or vegetable-based soup, parsley is an ingredient that will work well alongside most others.
• Rosemary: According to The Spruce Eats, rosemary works well with almost every meat and fish. It is also a nice flavour to add to mushrooms, spinach, potatoes, peas, and onions. If you are making a soup featuring any of these ingredients, then rosemary is a good addition.
• Tarragon: This herb works particularly well with soups containing fish or chicken. Try adding it to our Cullen Skink, which is a Scottish fish soup.
• Thyme: There is almost a floral taste to Thyme, and it is an aromatic herb. It will enhance both the aroma and the flavour of vegetable soups.

Spices to Add Flavour to Soups

• Allspice: Commonly used in the cuisines of the Caribbean and South America, Allspice is a spice made from the dried berries of the Pimenta dioica plant. It is responsible for the clove-like flavour in Caribbean dishes.
• Black pepper: You will see black pepper listed as an ingredient on many soup recipes, as it is one of the most basic ways to add flavour to a soup. You can adjust the flavour of black pepper in your soup by merely adding more or less pepper.
• Chilli: If you like a little heat in your meals, then the easiest way to spice up soup is to add chilli. There are various types of fresh chilli that you can use, each of which has a different heat grading. There is also the option to use dried or powdered chilli.
• Coriander seed: Derived from the coriander plant, coriander seeds are often used in Indian cuisine.
• Cloves: Cloves are an ingredient that some people love and other people. They add a rather strong and medicinal taste if you use too many. However, they are a wonderful aromatic if you do not go overboard.
• Cumin: Usually associated with Tex-Mex and Indian cuisine, cumin has a distinct flavour that will add some warmth to your soup. Southern Living describes this spice as having an earthy and slightly peppery flavour.
• Five-spice: This spice mix is commonly used in Chinese and Vietnamese cuisine. The spices can vary from one mix to the next, but will commonly include cloves, star anise, fennel seeds, Chinese cinammon, and Sichuan pepper.
• Ginger: Both heat and flavour are added to a soup with the addition of ginger. It is a good choice for Asian-style soups. Grated fresh ginger and dried ground ginger have different flavours.
• Paprika: Made from peppers, paprika has a relatively sweet flavour for spice.
• Saffron: The first point to note about saffron is that it is an expensive ingredient, so it is something that you will probably use sparingly. Another reason to use it sparingly is that too much saffron is overpowering. Saffron works well in soups with an Asian influence.
• Smoked paprika: Using smoked paprika adds a smoky flavour to your soup. This spice works particularly well in soups containing beans, tomatoes, or peppers.
• Star anise: Many people liken the flavour of star anise to aniseed. This is a brilliant spice to add to southeast Asian soups. It also works surprisingly well in leek and potato soup. BBC Good Food describes star anise as a staple ingredient of Chinese and Vietnamese cooking.
• Turmeric: This is a spice that will add some heat and a smoky flavour. There are many health benefits to including turmeric in your diet, so this is another reason you should consider adding a sprinkle of this spice to your soup.
• White pepper: White pepper has a completely different flavour to black pepper, and some people would say that it adds a little heat to food. Whether you add it to the soup at the beginning of cooking or the end will alter the flavour.

Stocks to Add Flavour to Soup

Stocks are one of the most common ways to add flavour to soups. You might find it helpful to read our guide to making and using stocks in soups. However, the following is a brief overview:

• Beef stock: Unless you are a vegan or vegetarian, beef stock is a fantastic ingredient to add depth of flavour to a soup. Adding it to soups containing meat is not the only option, as it can also add a meaty flavour to vegetable soups. You can make your own beef stock, crumble in a stock cube, or by premade beef stock. Beef stock is also the basis for making fantastic French onion soup.
• Chicken stock: Using chicken stock is the middle ground between vegetable stock and beef stock. While a vegetable stock has a lighter flavour and a beef stock has a rich, meaty flavour, chicken stock adds a light, meaty flavour. It is ideal for enhancing the flavour of chicken-based soups, and it is also a good option for broths.
• Fish stock: Most commonly, fish stock is used in soups containing fish, such as bisques, bouillabaisse, gumbo, and seafood noodles soups. If you like the fishy flavour, you can also add it to vegetable-based soups.
• Ham stock: Save the stock when you cook ham along with any leftover meat. Use them to make something delicious, like a pea and ham soup.
• Vegetable stock: Like meat stocks, using a vegetable stock will add a depth of flavour that you will not find in soups that do not contain a stock. You can make your own vegetable stock, crumble in a dried vegetable stock cube, or buy premade vegetable stocks from the store.

Other Ingredients to Add Flavour to Soup

• Salt– This is one of the most basic ingredients of soup making, and salt is listed in most soup recipes. How much salt you should add is a matter of personal preference. If you are concerned about the health implications of too much salt consumption, then consider using a low-sodium alternative way of adding flavour to soup.
• Soy sauce-A fantastic alternative to adding salt, soy sauce will add a salty flavour and a bit of a tang. Soy sauce works well in soups influenced by Thai, Japanese, and Chinese cuisine.
• Fruit– To some people, adding fruit to soup may seem like an alien concept. However, tomato is a fruit, and this is used in soups all the time. Other fruits that can add amazing flavours to soups include apples, pears, lemons, limes, and oranges. Try our carrot and orange soup.
• Garlic-This is a common ingredient that you will see listed in the ingredients for a soup and other dishes, and it is a great way to add flavour to a soup. Adding only a small amount to the soup will make it tastier without giving the soup a garlicky taste. The more garlic you add, the more garlicky the soup. Roasting the garlic before adding it to soup gives it a different, milder flavour.
• Tomato puree– Compared to fresh or canned tomatoes, tomato puree has a more concentrated flavour. Adding tomato puree can also give your soup a more profound red colour.
• Worcester sauce– If you have not heard of Worcester sauce, it is a condiment that originates from Worcestershire in England. It is similar to soy sauce in the sense that it will add a deep, salty flavour to your soup.

How to Add Flavour to Soup Recipes on Super Souper Ed

As you read through the easy soup recipes on Super Souper Ed, you will notice that we have given plenty of hints and tips to adapt the flavour of a soup using herbs, spices, condiments, and other ingredients. You will see many of the ingredients included in this list of herbs and spices used as a way of altering the flavour profile of the soups. Experiment with different ways to add flavour to soup to find your favourite combinations.

Article updated on 06/08/2022