How to thicken soup (2024)

FAQs

How do you thicken the soup? ›

Add flour or cornflour

Put a tablespoon of either into a small bowl and stir in 2-3 tbsp of the soup until you have a smooth mixture. Stir this back into the soup and bring it to a simmer. Cook for a few minutes to allow the starch granules to burst to thicken, and to cook out any flour flavour.

Add Flour Or Cornstarch

You can thicken soup by adding flour, cornstarch, or another starchy substitute. For the best results, never add flour or cornstarch directly to your soup. If you do, it will clump up on top. Instead, ladle a small amount of broth into a separate bowl and let it cool.

One simple way to thicken soup is to add potatoes or beans. These ingredients will absorb the broth and thicken it up. Rice, beans, and lentils also release starch which thickens soup. You can either mash these ingredients before adding it to the soup or blend it in for a smoother texture.

The most readily available sauce-thickener is flour. For a too-thin sauce, try adding a slurry (equal parts flour and water, whisked together) or beurre manie (equal parts softened butter and flour, kneaded together to form a paste)—both are ideal thickeners for rich and creamy sauces, such as steak sauce recipes.

Use one tablespoon cornstarch mixed with one tablespoon cold water (aka a cornstarch slurry) for each cup of medium-thick sauce. thoroughly mix the cornstarch and water together, then pour into your sauce. Cook and stir over medium heat until thickened and bubbly.

A handful of uncooked rice. That's all folks, just a handful of white rice. Any kind will do: jasmine, basmati, short grain, long grain. When added to a brothy (or watery, even) soup, and left to simmer for 20-30 minutes, the rice breaks down, releasing its starch and thickening the liquid that it's cooking in.

Creamy soup contains dairy products to make a thick, velvety texture. Cream soups often have heavy cream, half and half, cheese, or butter. You can also use coconut milk or other milk alternatives to make creamy vegan soups. Puréed potato, cauliflower, chickpeas, and lentils will also yield a creamy texture.

Allowing your soup to simmer can help it thicken, since it will help some of the liquid evaporate away. This will work better if you've added a thickening agent, such as cornstarch.

Does boiling or simmering thicken sauce? ›

Uses: Simmering helps thicken sauces or make reductions. You typically use boiling for softening hard grains like pasta and rice.

Thick water contains an odorless, flavorless thickener, such as xanthan gum, which gives the water a thicker consistency.

The most commonly used natural-based thickener is Xanthan gum. Xanthan has excellent salt, low/high pH tolerance, good suspending properties, and provides dependable product stability by maintaining its viscosity profile at elevated temperature.

All natural, aqueous-based polymeric thickeners are derived from polysaccharides with the most common being sourced from cellulose (wood, cotton) and starch (corn, potato). Other important polysaccharide sources include seaweed, plant seeds/roots, and those derived from fermentation.

Reducing – reducing liquid to thicken it simply involves letting excess water boil out of the dish. Bring dish and liquid to a low to medium boil and watch carefully, stirring as needed to let excess liquid evaporate. Cornstarch – using cornstarch is an excellent way to thicken a sauce in a pinch.

Tomatoes naturally contain lots of water, so cooking any sauce for a long period of time will help eliminate some of the water content. During this time, the water will slowly but surely evaporate, leaving behind a thickened, full-bodied sauce with lots of flavor.

So long as you're not gluten-free, flour is an excellent option that you'll likely always have on hand. Not only can you use it to thicken sauces, but it makes an excellent thickener for gravies and soups as well. When added to liquid, the starches in the flour expand, helping to thicken whatever you add it to.

How do you thicken stew quickly? ›

A slurry is a mixture of some type of starch, usually cornstarch, and water—use cold water, hot water, or the hot liquid from the stew. Mix the starch and liquid together, add it to the stew, and bring everything to a boil. The stew will start to thicken almost immediately without much impact to the total cooking time.

Alternative Starches

If you'd like a roux but want to experiment with something other than wheat flour, give tapioca starch, rice flour, or almond flour a whirl. Mix these with an oil to make a roux and add it when your dish is almost done cooking.

Roux. A roux (ROO) is a mixture of flour and fat—such as cooking oil, butter, or chicken fat—that is cooked, then used to thicken soup, sauce, or gravy. A common roux recipe calls for equal amounts of butter and flour cooked in a saucepan over medium heat until the flour is absorbed by the melted butter.

Add Flour, Cornstarch, or Other Thickener: Starches thicken soup and give it body. Whisk a few tablespoons of starch into a little of the broth in a separate bowl before whisking it into the main pot. This prevents the starch from clumping and helps it dissolve into the soup evenly.

Unlike thin soups, thick soups are opaque rather than transparent. They are thickened either by adding a thickening agent, such as a roux, or by puréeing one or more of their ingredients to provide a heavier consistency. The difference between thick soup and unpassed soup is that thick soup is viscous in nature.

There is no right or wrong way to simmer. It all depends on what you're making and how you plan to serve the dish. So, if you're wondering whether to put the lid on or off when simmering, the answer is: it depends.

How to Make A Slurry. To make a slurry, just measure out the flour into a small bowl – use one tablespoon to thicken a small amount of sauce or up to four tablespoons for a big bowl of soup. Add a cup or so of the hot cooking broth to the flour and whisk until they're completely combined.

Add the cornstarch slurry into the sauce and bring the mixture to a boil, constantly whisking until fully incorporated. Boil for 1 to 2 minutes until the mixture has thickened.

What is the 4 other thickening agents for soup? ›

It's important to note that cornstarch has twice the thickening power of flour. If you need to substitute cornstarch in a gravy recipe that calls for ¼ cup (four tablespoons) flour, you would only need to use two tablespoons cornstarch.

In a bowl, mix ¼ cup flour with a single cup of cold water. Mix until smooth. Add approximately two tablespoons of the mix to the soup while stirring. Wait until your soup is simmering once more so you can check the thickness.

Potato starch is the most potent of the bunch, with long starch molecules that quickly tangle with each other and thicken a liquid.

All natural, aqueous-based polymeric thickeners are derived from polysaccharides with the most common being sourced from cellulose (wood, cotton) and starch (corn, potato). Other important polysaccharide sources include seaweed, plant seeds/roots, and those derived from fermentation.

They provide body, increase stability, and improve suspension of added ingredients. Examples of thickening agents include: polysaccharides (starches, vegetable gums, and pectin), proteins (eggs, collagen, gelatin, blood albumin) and fats (butter, oil and lards).

Cooking a soup, stew, or sauce uncovered allows water to evaporate, so if your goal is to reduce a sauce or thicken a soup, skip the lid. The longer you cook your dish, the more water that will evaporate and the thicker the liquid becomes—that means the flavors become more concentrated, too.

The most classic and surefire way to thicken a broth-based soup is with a cornstarch slurry. Whisk together equal parts cornstarch (or arrowroot) and water or broth, then whisk it into the pot of soup. A good ratio to get to a pleasant thickness without your soup tasting goopy or heavy is one tablespoon.

Cornstarch can be subbed in for wheat flour at a 1:2 ratio. Because it's a durable thickener, you only need half the amount of cornstarch to create the same effect. Also, adding cornstarch to a gluten free recipe is a great way to add softness and texture to baked goods while keeping them grain free!

It can be various things that cause your soup to thicken in the cold refrigerator. Starches found in a roux used to thicken or found in noodles or beans will make it get much thicker. A good homemade meat broth will have proteins that congeal as they cool, just like gelatin.