Soups

Soups Recipes

440 recipes. Page 1 of 19

Warm Korean soup recipes

Amami Keihan Chicken Broth Rice

A modest scoop of rice gets its toppings arranged to taste: shredded chicken, thin egg strips, simmered shiitake, green beans, miso-pickled papaya, scallion, citrus peel, and nori. Hot chicken-bone broth is then poured over generously, and the bowl is eaten lightly, almost like soup. On Amami, the earliest form resembled seasoned chicken rice, and the custom of pouring broth over it spread in the Showa era and became standard. The bones simmer with ginger for an hour, and the tenderloin is poached in that same broth, which ties the meat and the soup together.

Prep 40min Cook 90min 4 servings

Street food Easy

Korean Skewered Fish Cake Soup

Zigzag-folded fish cake skewers simmer in a clear broth of radish, dried anchovy and kelp, and the hot broth served alongside matters as much as the skewers. Radish sweetness and anchovy savoriness carry the flavor, with only a light seasoning of soy sauce and garlic.

Prep 10min Cook 20min 2 servings

Soups Easy

Korean Zucchini Soybean Paste Soup

The zucchini is cut into thick half-moons, so it keeps its shape in the soup and releases a little sweetness when you bite into it. For more of a kick, slice in a cheongyang chili, a sharp Korean green pepper.

🏠 Everyday

Prep 10min Cook 15min 2 servings

Stews Medium

Korean Monkfish Spicy Stew

This monkfish stew lands between a clear soup and a heavily seasoned jjigae, with a cloudier, bolder broth than either and large pieces of firm fish. A small spoonful of doenjang tames the fish's odor, and gelatin from under the monkfish skin melts into the pot and thickens the broth with no starch.

Prep 20min Cook 30min 4 servings

Noodles Easy

Korean Anchovy Broth Thin Noodle Soup

With dried anchovies, kelp and somyeon noodles on hand, this bowl comes together even when the fridge is nearly empty. There is no chili and no fermented paste; the clear anchovy broth simmers for 15 minutes and is seasoned with soup soy sauce and salt. The thin wheat noodles cook in a separate pot and are rinsed, so their starch does not cloud the broth.

Prep 10min Cook 15min 2 servings

Pasta Easy

Danza Noodle Soup (Tomato Chickpea Pasta Soup)

Because thin pasta cooks straight in a tomato and chickpea broth, there is only one pot to wash and the noodles take on the oregano-scented base. The catch is timing: the pasta keeps drinking the broth after the heat is off, and a pot left standing turns into soft, swollen noodles with little soup. Parsley is stirred through once at the very end to keep it fresh.

Prep 12min Cook 18min 2 servings

Rice Hard

Korean Pork Soup with Rice

Pork shoulder simmered for about an hour in beef bone broth turns the soup milky and full-bodied. Salted shrimp (saeujeot) and salt come on the side so each person seasons their own bowl, which is how it is eaten in Busan.

Prep 20min Cook 80min 2 servings

Street food Easy

Korean Soupy Tteokbokki (Rice Cakes in Spicy Gochujang Broth)

Kelp-steeped water carries the gochujang and chili flakes, and the rice cakes simmer in it long enough to soak up the sauce rather than just wear it. Unlike stir-fried versions, this one should still have plenty of broth in the pot when the heat is turned off.

Prep 10min Cook 20min 2 servings

Soups Medium

Korean Monkfish Soup (Spicy Southern Coastal Fish Broth)

This is the spicy monkfish soup Koreans go looking for the morning after, made at home. Monkfish flesh is soft and breaks apart easily, so once it is in the pot it barely gets stirred. If you can get the liver, adding it separately makes the broth deeper.

🏠 Everyday

Prep 25min Cook 35min 2 servings

Noodles Medium

Korean Andong Guksi (Clear Beef Broth Celebration Noodles)

Packaged wheat noodles, cooked separately and laid in a clear broth of brisket and beef bones, make this a home version rather than a re-creation of traditional geonjin guksu, whose noodles are kneaded with soybean flour. The broth is not meant to turn milky and gelatinous like a long-boiled bone stock; about 70 minutes of gentle simmering, or longer if the brisket is still tough, is enough. Soaking, blanching, and boiling the noodles add time on top of that. Each bowl is topped with shredded brisket, zucchini, and separate strips of yolk and white omelet.

Prep 25min Cook 90min 4 servings

Pasta Easy

Hearty Minestrone Soup

Onion, carrot, celery and zucchini are all cut to about 1 cm so a single spoonful catches vegetables, kidney beans and small pasta together. Size matters more than it looks: an oversized carrot stays firm while smaller zucchini pieces collapse in the same simmer.

Prep 20min Cook 30min 4 servings

Rice Easy

Fukagawa Meshi

Shucked clams and thick-cut scallion simmer briefly in miso broth, and the whole pot, liquid included, is poured over hot rice to be eaten while the broth runs between the grains. In the Edo period, Fukagawa was a tidal fishing settlement full of clams, and vendors sold the meat already out of the shell, so fishers could cook it fast and eat between jobs.

⚡ 20-Minute Recipes

Prep 10min Cook 8min 1 serving

Soups Easy

Ajo Blanco (Chilled Spanish Almond and Garlic Soup)

Almonds, garlic and soaked white bread are blended smooth, then olive oil is drizzled in as a thin stream until the soup turns white and creamy. Raw garlic gives it a sharp bite. It chills for at least an hour and is topped with green grapes or sliced almonds.

🏠 Everyday

Prep 15min 0 2 servings

Noodles Medium

Asam Laksa (Tamarind Fish Noodle Soup)

Tamarind gives this fish broth its sour backbone, with flaked mackerel and rice noodles underneath and cucumber and mint on top. A finely blended paste of onion, garlic, and ginger forms the base and carries the chili heat. The mackerel is cooked and boned before it goes into the soup, so the bowl is easy to eat. Cucumber and mint add a cool, fresh finish to the hot, sour broth.

Prep 25min Cook 35min 4 servings

Pasta Easy

Lasagna Soup

Instead of baking layers, this soup puts the flavors of lasagna into a bowl: sausage and tomato broth, broken pasta sheets, and a soft cheese topping. The broth gets its base from raw pork sausage, skinned and crumbled as it browns, with tomato paste cooked in alongside. The noodles are broken into 3 to 4 cm pieces and boiled in a separate pot, then placed in the bowls before the soup is ladled over. That way they never sit in the pot soaking up broth. The ricotta, mozzarella, and Parmesan mixture warms on top and loosens into the broth as you eat. With salt coming from both sausage and cheese, the soup is seasoned last, a little at a time.

Prep 10min Cook 35min 4 servings

Rice Medium

Funa-Meshi (Okayama Minced Crucian Carp Rice Bowl)

Minced crucian carp and root vegetables simmer in a sweet-salty dashi with two kinds of soy sauce, and the hot soup is ladled generously over rice, then topped with sliced green onion and torn nori. The dish grew up around the reclaimed land of Kojima Bay in southern Okayama, where rice paddies, canals, rivers, and Kojima Lake held plenty of winter carp. Its other names, tontoko-jiru and tontoko-meshi, echo the rhythmic chopping of fish on a board.

Prep 25min Cook 30min 4 servings

Soups Medium

Korean Spicy Fish Roe Stew

Altang uses fresh, unsalted pollock roe. Make it with cured myeongran and the broth turns salty on the same amount of soy sauce, so check the label for unsalted when you shop.

🏠 Everyday

Prep 12min Cook 18min 2 servings

Noodles Medium

Korean Clam Kalguksu (Hand-Cut Noodles in Clam Broth)

Hard clams, not anchovies, give this broth its base, and their clean sea flavor soaks into every strand of hand-cut noodle. Radish, zucchini, and onion add sweetness, while starch released by the noodles thickens the soup slightly without any added thickener. Shaking the loose flour off the noodles first keeps that thickening from turning the broth cloudy. The clams come out as soon as their shells open and return only at the end, keeping the meat from turning rubbery. This style has long been eaten along the coasts of South Chungcheong and Jeolla, and it tastes best when clams are in season.

Prep 20min Cook 25min 2 servings

Pasta Easy

Minestrone

Any vegetables left in the fridge can go into this soup, as long as the order holds: firm ones like carrot and celery soften in oil first, quick-cooking zucchini and beans come later. Ditalini cook directly in the pot, and their starch thickens the broth; if it turns too heavy, hot vegetable stock loosens it without cooling the soup down. Fresh basil and a drizzle of olive oil are added after the heat is off.

Prep 20min Cook 40min 6 servings

Rice Hard

Hiyajiru (Cold Fish and Miso Soup over Barley Rice)

Toasted iriko (dried sardines), sesame and peanuts are pounded with miso, browned under the grill, then whisked into cold bonito stock until it is stronger than everyday miso soup. Torn tofu, cucumber, shiso, myoga and ginger float in it, and it is ladled over freshly cooked, hot barley rice. In Miyazaki it is said to have grown out of a farmhouse habit of putting raw miso and water on barley rice on hot days.

Prep 30min Cook 15min 6 servings

Soups Medium

Korean Mallow Clam Soup (Doenjang Mallow and Clam Broth)

Along Korea's west and south coasts, where mallow and clams are both easy to find, the two have long shared a pot of doenjang soup. The mallow is rubbed between the hands as it is washed, which gives the broth a little body, and the finished soup is usually eaten with rice stirred in.

🏠 Everyday

Prep 20min Cook 20min 4 servings

Noodles Easy

Korean Manila Clam Knife-Cut Noodle Soup

Manila clam broth is naturally salty, so a little soup soy sauce is enough, and more would bury the clean, mineral sea flavor. For a stronger soup, the answer is more clams rather than more seasoning.

Prep 35min Cook 20min 2 servings

Pasta Easy

Pasta e Fagioli (Italian Rustic Bean and Pasta Soup)

Mashed beans and pasta starch do the thickening that cream would do elsewhere. About a third of the cannellini get crushed with a fork and stirred back, turning the broth cloudy and smooth, and the ditalini then cooks in the same pot, releasing more starch as it swells. The aroma comes from garlic and a sprig of fresh rosemary; the crushed tomatoes are poured in before the garlic browns, and scraping the pot then lifts the cooked-on bits into the soup. Because the pasta keeps drinking broth, the soup tightens quickly; small splashes of water bring it back to something you eat with a spoon rather than a fork.

Prep 15min Cook 40min 4 servings

Rice Easy

Dried Pollock and Bean Sprout Rice Soup

Hwangtae (dried pollock) is toasted in sesame oil before the water goes in, which turns the broth milky and savory. There is no chili here, so it is not spicy, and the bean sprouts and radish give it a clean, refreshing taste.

Prep 10min Cook 25min 2 servings