Soup is delicious and comforting, but it’s not known for being exciting. So often, soup recipes end up feeling like a thrown-together meal of meat, vegetables, beans, noodles, all hanging out in a hot tub of broth. (That sounds like a weird episode of The Bachelor.) But with a few toppings and swirl-ins, it can be zhuzhed up into a beautiful, extra flavorful bowl that is ready for the spotlight, transforming in front of your eyes like Mia Thermopolis in The Princess Diaries.
But where do you start? There are a handful of categories that you can pull from: crunchy, creamy, rich, or fresh and herby—or all four. Take our new black bean soup recipe, for example. We topped that with a handful of Fritos corn chips, a dollop of chile-lime crema, diced avocado, red onion, and cilantro. Maybe that was overachieving, but just look at it. It is a whole lot more appetizing than a bowl of murky black beans, and now all those flavors can dance on your tastebuds as if you’re having a full-on Taco Tuesday in one bowl of soup.
With that beautiful watercolor portrait of fully-loaded black bean soup in mind, here are our pillars of soup toppings, with some ideas to soup up your soup night.
Crunchy
We’ve already discussed Fritos, but any tortilla chip will do, especially for bean soups or, well, tortilla soup. Crushed up potato chips on top of potato soup would be a potato inception, corn nuts could complement a corn chowder, or good ol’ crackers (oyster, buttery Ritz, saltines) are a good standby. Some spiced nuts (like these sambal cashews!) or toasted breacrumbs would be nice on a creamy soup, or even some crispy grains like buckwheat on top of cauliflower soup. To take things to the next level, you could make bacon croutons for your split pea soup, cheesy toast on French onion soup, or grilled cheese croutons for tomato soup.
