How to Thicken Soup

If the soup is too thin, the enjoyment suffers. Consistency is just as important here as taste. Creamy soups like fall pumpkin soup are at their best when they melt in your mouth with a rich texture. By reducing the liquid, the aromas are also concentrated, and a creamy soup tastes nice and strong. There are a number of ways to thicken a soup – these also work if you want to thicken sauces. A common method recommended in many soup recipes is to use a roux to thicken the soup. It consists of equal parts butter or vegetable margarine and flour. To make it, melt the fat in a medium-hot saucepan and add the flour. Stir vigorously until the mixture is golden brown. Now add some soup liquid and stir the roux until smooth – done. With about two tablespoons you can thicken about a liter of soup.

Thick soup without flour

If you don’t want to thicken your soup with flour, you can use other starchy foods. A soup can be thickened well with potatoes – preferably with floury varieties. You can find out how this works in the recipe for our mushroom cream soup. If the soup that has already been made is too runny, potato flakes or instant mashed potatoes can be used quickly. Alternatively, you can use cooked, pureed vegetables, fruit or legumes, tomato paste, bread, breadcrumbs or oatmeal. With these starch alternatives, it is important to consider their own taste and select them to match the soup.

Bind soup with creamy ingredients

Those who follow the low-carb diet or prefer creamy ingredients can thicken soup without carbohydrates. Cream, coconut or soy cream, butter, eggs, finely grated nuts or peanut butter, cream cheese or processed cheese are suitable. These binders can simply be stirred into the soup towards the end of the cooking time. With the eggs, it is advisable to first break them open in a separate bowl, then mix them with a little hot soup liquid and only then add them to the soup. As a result, the mass remains homogeneous and does not coagulate.

Reduce soup to thicken

If you don’t want to use starch or fat to thicken your soup, the creamy consistency can also be achieved by boiling it down. To do this, let the meal simmer uncovered until it is the desired thickness. Be sure to stir in between so nothing burns. Tip for those in a hurry: divide the soup into several pots so that the liquid evaporates more quickly.