Famed soups from around the world

Few dishes carry a country’s identity quite like its national soup. Built from local staples and refined over generations, these bowls tell stories of climate, history, and trade. Here are ten of the world’s most celebrated soups, one from each of ten countries.

1. Pho  ·  Vietnam
Perhaps Vietnam’s most famous export, pho is a fragrant noodle soup built on a clear broth simmered for hours with beef or chicken bones, charred onion, ginger, and warm spices such as star anise and cinnamon. Served with flat rice noodles and finished at the table with fresh herbs, lime, chilli, and bean sprouts, it began as a northern breakfast dish and is now eaten across the country at all hours.

2. Tom Yum Goong  ·  Thailand
This hot-and-sour shrimp soup is a defining taste of Thai cuisine, balancing lemongrass, galangal, kaffir lime leaves, chilli, and lime juice into a broth that is at once bright, spicy, and aromatic. Often enriched with a spoon of chilli paste and evaporated milk, it is prized as much for its fragrance as its fiery kick.

3. Ramen  ·  Japan
A Japanese adaptation of Chinese wheat noodles, ramen has grown into a national obsession with fiercely defended regional styles. Wheat noodles sit in a broth that may be soy-based (shoyu), salt-based (shio), miso, or the rich, milky pork-bone tonkotsu, and are topped with sliced pork, soft-boiled egg, spring onion, and seaweed.

4. Borscht  ·  Ukraine
A beetroot soup that lends its deep crimson colour to the whole bowl, borscht is a cornerstone of Ukrainian cooking, typically built on beets, cabbage, and root vegetables, often with beef, and served with a dollop of sour cream and a hunk of bread. In 2022, UNESCO added Ukrainian borscht culture to its list of intangible cultural heritage in need of urgent safeguarding.

5. Gazpacho  ·  Spain
A chilled, uncooked soup from the southern region of Andalusia, gazpacho is made by blending ripe tomatoes with cucumber, pepper, garlic, olive oil, vinegar, and bread. Served cold, it is the quintessential dish of a Spanish summer — refreshing, tangy, and vividly red.

6. Minestrone  ·  Italy
The archetypal Italian vegetable soup, minestrone is less a fixed recipe than a hearty, thrifty tradition that changes with the season and whatever is on hand. It usually brings together beans, tomatoes, onions, carrots, celery, and greens, often bulked out with pasta or rice, and finished with olive oil and grated cheese.

7. French Onion Soup  ·  France
A bistro classic, French onion soup is built on onions cooked slowly until deeply caramelised, then simmered in a rich beef broth laced with wine. It is famously served topped with a slice of toasted baguette and a blanket of melted Gruyère, browned until bubbling under the grill.

8. Harira  ·  Morocco
A thick, comforting soup of tomatoes, lentils, and chickpeas seasoned with ginger, turmeric, cinnamon, and fresh herbs, harira is a staple of Moroccan tables — especially during Ramadan, when it is traditionally eaten to break the daily fast, often alongside dates and sweet pastries.

9. Caldo Verde  ·  Portugal
Portugal’s beloved ‘green broth’ is a simple, soulful soup of potatoes and finely shredded kale or collard greens, enriched with slices of smoky cured sausage such as chouriço and a generous drizzle of olive oil. Once a dish of the northern countryside, it is now eaten nationwide and at festive gatherings.

10. Mulligatawny  ·  India
Born of the colonial encounter between British tastes and South Indian cooking, mulligatawny — from Tamil words meaning ‘pepper water’ — is a spiced soup thickened with lentils and flavoured with curry spices, often including chicken, rice, and a touch of coconut or apple. It remains a distinctive fusion dish enjoyed well beyond the subcontinent.