Unless you live in Southern California, where it’s approximately 100 degrees outside until November, soup season is nigh. It’s almost time for big bowls of hearty soup to keep you warm and fill you up. But if you’re vegan, the soup aisle at the grocery store can be a bit tough to navigate. So many soups—even vegetable soups—contain animal-based broth, cream, or cheese. We can help!
Over the course of our many soup taste tests, we’ve come across some really excellent veg soup, from the vegan lentil soup to vegan tomato soup—and even a totally vegan chicken noodle soup. So if you’re strictly vegan or even if you’re not vegan but like to incorporate plant-based foods into your diet, it’s officially time to celebrate soup season with the best vegan soups.
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The best lentil soup we found in our taste test also happens to be the best vegan lentil soup. We love when that happens. Bare Bones Lentil Curry soup is packed with lentils, veggies, and wonderful aromatics. It’s super warm and inviting, but lemongrass adds a pop of brightness. The lentils are nice and creamy, too. Pair this with some crusty bread and this best vegan soup becomes a satisfying dinner.
If thom kha is always part of your Thai takeout order, try this vegan soup from Amy’s Kitchen. All of Amy’s soups are plant-based, but we love that this one scratches that itch for a creamy soup, which can be hard to find in vegan soups. It combines tofu, mushrooms, coconut milk, lime leaf, and lemongrass to create a soup that’s simultaneously light and filling, especially if you serve it over some white rice.
If you’re vegan, you’ve probably consumed a lot of Campbell’s Tomato Soup in your day. So, yeah, this suggestion isn’t exactly revelatory, but, if it’s been a while since you’ve had it, perhaps this will serve as a reminder that this stuff is really good—sweet, salty, and umami. Buy the best vegan cheese, and pair this vegan soup with a vegan grilled cheese sandwich.
If you’re looking for the best vegan soup to really fill you up, this split pea soup is a good candidate. It’s packed with protein (15 grams), it’s gluten free, and it’s totally plant based, which we found surprising given that this soup has a nice smoky flavor that tastes bacon-adjacent. Plus, this vegan split pea soup comes in a little cup you can just pop in the microwave, which makes it a fast and filling work lunch.
Campbell’s Well Yes! line has several vegan soup options, but we particularly love this vegan minestrone soup. For such a light healthy veggie soup, it’s surprisingly flavorful—Sporked taste tester Jordan Myrick even detected the flavor of cheese. Of course, it’s totally dairy free, but we love this vegan soup’s nutty, umami flavor all the same.
Amy’s had us at “fire roasted” with this one. If chicken tortilla soup minus the chicken sounds good to you, you’re going to be into this. The corn, peppers, tomatoes, and other veggies are kissed with a roastiness that really amps up the overall flavor of the soup. Add a squirt of fresh lime juice, some vegan shredded cheese, and a dollop of vegan sour cream to make it a meal
We love Gardein meats (their plant-based Chick’n Strips made our list of the best vegan chicken), so it wasn’t a huge surprise that this vegan chicken noodle soup was a hit for us. What was a surprise? That it ranked so highly among chicken-based chicken noodle soups—#3! Our taste tester thought it was way more flavorful than so many of the actual chicken noodle soups we tried. Why? MSG, baby! It’s a shortcut to big flavor in vegan soup, and it rules.
If none of the premade vegan soups on our list are ringing your bell, you can make your own at home with this veggie broth from Trader Joe’s. It’s incredibly savory and delicious, despite being quite low in sodium, unlike most veggie broth. This isn’t classified as a vegan soup on Trader Joe’s website, but the ingredients are all plant based, so we’re adding it to the list. We’ll let you use your own discretion!
Gwynedd Stuart, Sporked’s managing editor, is an L.A.-based writer and editor who spends way, way too much time at the grocery store. She’s never met an Old El Paso taco or mozzarella stick she didn’t like.
Thoughts? Questions? Complete disagreement? Leave a comment!
Thoughts? Questions? Complete disagreement? Leave a comment!