The Unexpected Way to Quickly Thicken Your Soup (With No Extra Ingredients!) (2024)

We are in peak soup season and I couldn't be happier. From bisques and broths to chowders, curries and chicken noodle soups, I'm cooking a different pot of soup nearly every weekend to enjoy throughout the week. And while we have no shortage of soup recipes at Allrecipes, I'm always on the hunt for the simple tips and tricks to make each batch *that much* better.

You loved my tip for swapping leeks in for onions to make a more flavorful and generally luxurious soup, and now I have another tip. This one isn't for the flavor so much as the texture, and it's one simple step that transforms a soup into something heartier and more delicious. And no—it's not adding oats or leftover French fries. This is my trick for thickening soups without adding any extra ingredients.

The Easiest Way to Quickly Thicken Any Soup

Unlike most of the techniques for thickening soups and stews, this one doesn't employ extra ingredients. I first learned this trick from Alison Roman's chickpea stew, a delicious mix of coconut and chickpeas and warm spices. Halfway through cooking the stew, you crush some of the chickpeas in the pot, which thickens the soup base as it simmers. Here's why.

Legumes like chickpeas, beans, and lentils are high in starch, but the starches are in the center, contained within an outer shell. When you crush or purée some of the legumes you release their starches. And starches are the most common and effective thickening agents in cooking—think of corn starch, the flour in a roux, or how grains like oats, rice, and porridge thicken when cooked in water.

Typically, this process happens over time when you cook something long enough; the starches break down and naturally release into the soup. But not everyone has the time to simmer a pot of soup for hours! This step cuts down on the time by helping that process along manually.

So all you have to do is develop a little crush. And by that I mean, smush some of the starchy elements in your soup. While I usually use this technique with legumes in soups like lentil soup, chickpea stew, chili, or bean soups, you can also use it for soups containing other starches including rice or potatoes.

The easiest way to do it is to scoop out a portion of the soup into a smaller bowl, use a fork or spoon to carefully crush the starchy components, then return it to the batch. Within minutes, you'll notice a change in the texture of your soup or stew. It becomes visibly thicker and heartier, and the soup's texture and flavor are noticeably improved.

I love using this technique to cut down on time on weeknights—and tricking my dinner guests into thinking I labored over a simmering pot all day. Now my secret's out!