Best Vegetables for Making Soup
Soup is one of the most versatile dishes that offer complete freedom when choosing ingredients. Meats, seafood, noodles, rice, vegetables – they are all common ingredients for soups.
Though you can put any vegetable in your soup, some are more popular than others in various recipes. These vegetables can hold their own when it comes to preparing a filling soup that can be a meal on itself, with or without adding meats and other proteins.
List of Vegetables That Go Best in a Soup
Mentioned below are 22 vegetables typically used for making soups. Some recipes, such as French onion soup, broccoli cheddar soup, and borscht, predominantly feature a single vegetable. Then, there are numerous delightful mixed vegetable soups where all the vegetables can go together. Though there are no rules or limitations in combining vegetables, some may complement each other better.
Knowing their carbohydrate content helps you pick the suitable vegetables to suit your diet.
| Name | Carbs per 100g | Best Together With |
|---|---|---|
| Onion | 9.3g | Carrot, Celery, Garlic |
| Carrot | 9.6g | Onion, Celery, Potato |
| Broccoli | 6.64g | Carrot, Potato, Onion |
| Celery | 2.97g | Onion, Carrot, Potato |
| Tomato | 3.89g | Garlic, Bell Pepper, Onion |
| Green Beans | 7.13g | Tomato, Garlic, Onion |
| Bell Pepper | 6g | Onion, Tomato, Garlic |
| Leek | 14.15g | Potato, Carrot, Onion |
| Spinach | 3.63g | Onion, Garlic, Mushrooms |
| Kale | 8.75g | Potato, Carrot, Onion |
| Cabbage | 5.8g | Carrot, Potato, Onion |
| Corn | 19.02g | Bell Pepper, Tomato, Onion |
| Zucchini | 3.11g | Tomato, Garlic, Bell Pepper |
| Mushrooms | 3.26g | Onion, Garlic, Spinach |
| Sweet Potato | 20.71g | Carrot, Celery, Onion |
| Cauliflower | 5.3g | Carrot, Potato, Onion |
| Garlic | 23.9g | Onion, Tomato, Bell Pepper |
| Potato | 17.49g | Carrot, Celery, Leek |
| Butternut Squash | 11.69g | Carrot, Onion, Celery |
| Cucumber | 3.63g | Tomato, Bell Pepper, Onion |
| Asparagus | 3.88g | Potato, Leek, Onion |
| Beet | 8.53g | Carrot, Potato, Onion |
Okra is another vegetable that deserves a mention here. Its unique, slimy, gummy texture makes it useful for thickening soups and stews. And that is why okra is a primary ingredient in gumbo, the famous stew dish from French Louisiana.
FAQ
When cooked, vegetables can lose certain nutrients, especially water-soluble ones like vitamin C. In the case of boiled vegetables, these nutrients may leach into the water and be discarded. However, using the same water to make a soup or stew is an excellent way to ensure those nutrients are consumed. Therefore, vegetables in a soup can retain their nutritional value as long as the water in which they are boiled is used in the soup.