Who doesn’t love vegetable soup? Not only is it delicious and comforting, but it’s also packed with nutrients, making it a great way to boost your health.
Vegetable soup is also versatile. You can serve it as an entree to a large meal or on its own as a small light meal. You can also experiment with the types of vegetables and seasoning ingredients you choose. Doing so allows you to make the dish truly your own.
Still… deciding what to serve with vegetable soup is a little tricky. The most popular vegetable soup sides include freshly baked bread or perhaps garlic bread, which work well, but can leave the meal a little satisfying. You’ll often want a more filling side instead, such as a roast beef sandwich, a chickpea salad, or even a full meal of meat and potatoes.
Timing plays a role too. In particular, if the soup is being served as a light lunch or perhaps a snack, a bread-based side should be more than enough. But, if you’re serving it for dinner after a hard working day, look for more filling sides instead.
What To Serve With Vegetable Soup (12 Sides To Try)
Delicious Fresh Bread
Where better to begin than bread? It’s one of the most famous sides for soup and an obvious choice in most situations. The softness of the bread is perfect with the texture of your soup, while you also dip the bread in the soup directly, allowing you to enjoy all the flavors.
Bread is also high in carbs, which makes your meal much more satisfying. Serving bread alongside soup is a tradition too, which is why you’ll see this combo in countless restaurants.
Then there’s the versatility to consider. Bread can be varied in countless ways. You can change the loaf style, the type of flour, the flavor ingredients, the shape, and more. You might even follow Panera’s style and serve your soup in a bread bowl.
No Knead Seeded Oat Bread
If you like complexity in your bread, this No Knead Seeded Oat Bread is a fantastic option. It has a soft chewy interior, a crusty exterior, and plenty of crunch from the seeds.
The heartiness of the loaf means it should pair well with most types of vegetable soup, including thin broth-focused soups and those that are richer and chunkier. Also, because this is a no knead recipe, it’s easy to make and great for beginners. You don’t need any special equipment either – not even a mixer.
The recipe includes step-by-step photos to guide you. This shows you what the bread should look like every step of the way and makes everything much easier.
Garlic Bread
We’re still on the topic of bread, mainly because garlic bread is too important and distinct to miss. I mean, seriously, can you think of a meal that isn’t made better by serving it with garlic bread?
Not surprisingly, garlic bread is exceptional with soup. The garlic adds delicious aromatic notes, while the butter provides the perfect amount of richness, bringing your meal up to a whole new level.
Korean Garlic Cream Cheese Bread
This Korean Cream Cheese Garlic Bread recipe shows there’s no end of creativity when it comes to garlic bread. You’re basically making moderate-sized garlic rolls, ones that are filled with a type of sweetened cream cheese.
The cream cheese filling provides an interesting flavor and texture contrast, making the garlic bread more interesting than normal. Imagine dunking pieces of this garlic bread into your soup. You’d get a fantastic flavor balance, plus a novel creaminess. This might even become your new favorite version of garlic bread.
Roast Beef Sandwich
You’re going to need more than just bread and vegetable soup to create a filling meal. The easiest way to do so is to add fillings to the bread – creating a delicious sandwich.
This works well, as sandwiches are incredibly versatile. There are plenty of different types and flavor combos, so it shouldn’t be hard to find a version that matches the flavors in your soup.
Roast beef sandwiches are especially good. Not only do the flavors of the beef work well with the vegetables in your soup, but you’re now getting plenty of protein. Between the veggies in the soup, the beef, and the sandwich bread, you end up with a well-balanced meal.
Mississippi Pot Roast Sandwiches
These Mississippi Pot Roast Sandwiches really take things to the next level. The beef is prepared in the slow cooker, giving you delicious and tender meat that requires little prep work.
In fact, you simply dump most of the ingredients in the slow cooker and allow it to slowly cook for 8 hours. Once the meat is ready, you can easily add it to your sandwiches, along with any other ingredients you want to create the perfect flavor profile.
Tuna Melts
Tuna melts are another great side to try. As with beef sandwiches, they’re a great source of protein, giving you a filling meal.
The hot and cheesy nature of tuna melts makes them very comforting. This is perfect on a cold winter’s day or any time when you just need some comforting feel-good food.
10-Minute Tuna Quesadilla
This 10-Minute Tuna Quesadilla is an excellent alternative to a traditional tuna melt. It uses a combination of canned tuna, cream cheese, and sriracha sauce, plus a few extra ingredients for flavor and texture.
The quesadillas live up to their name and just take 10 minutes to prepare. This means you could easily whip them up at the last minute. You might even serve them alongside vegetable soup that you’ve pulled out of the freezer.
Charcuterie
A charcuterie board is an interesting and unusual side for soup. It provides you with extra flavors and textures while giving you the chance to pick and choose which ingredients to eat.
This type of board could work particularly well if you’re serving soup for a group, as each guest is likely to have slightly different preferences.
When doing so, you’ll need to balance the board with the flavors and textures of your soup. For example, you might need to choose mild flavored cheese to avoid overpowering the flavor of your soup. Or, if the soup is fairly intense, then a pungent cheese could work well. Similar considerations are true for other ingredients on the board too, like cured meat and olives.
Antipasto Skewers
If you don’t want to serve a full charcuterie board, these Antipasto Skewers could be a nice alternative. They rely on a combination of grape tomatoes, olives, prosciutto, mozzarella, and marinated artichoke hearts, complemented by balsamic glaze and Italian seasoning.
Of course, that’s just one combination of ingredients. You can easily swap out any items you don’t like and create your own version of the skewers.
Grilled Cheese Sandwich
Grilled cheese sandwiches are most often served alongside fresh tomato soup. The combo offers a fantastic flavor contrast and plenty of cheesiness from the sandwich.
Why not extend the idea and serve a grilled cheese sandwich with vegetable soup instead? The cheese adds richness to the meal, making your soup seem even more hearty and decadent.
You could stick with a simple grilled cheese sandwich here or go with something a bit more complex. Some recipes add complexity by using multiple types of cheese and perhaps some fresh herbs. Others add extra ingredients, like thinly sliced apples, caramelized onions, or roasted peppers.
Gourmet Grilled Cheese Sandwich
This Gourmet Grilled Cheese Sandwich takes the classic comfort food and turns it into something much more impressive. To do so, the recipe uses a few unexpected ingredients, including fresh thyme, lemon zest, apple slices, aged cheddar, and camembert cheese.
That’s not all. The recipe also includes detailed information about making the sandwich, including how you can get the best flavor and texture. These steps are stunning in their own right and could be used for countless grilled cheese recipes.
Meat And Potatoes
Vegetable soups are typically high in veggies and low in protein and carbs, so meat and potatoes are an easy way to make up this gap.
The classic approach is something like steak and roast potatoes. Here, you might serve the vegetable soup as an appetizer, followed by the heartier meat and potatoes meal.
Alternatively, you might create a side dish that includes meat and potatoes elements. Even a potato salad with ham might work well.
The trick is to find the right balance of flavors and textures for your meal. For example, if you’re serving a light vegetable soup, you could easily follow it with a hearty meal like roast lamb and potatoes. If the vegetable soup is heartier, you might want a lighter side dish, like potato skins with sliced sausages.
Garlic Steak Bites And Potatoes
These Garlic Steak Bites and Potatoes would be perfect in countless situations. They’re the perfect balance of protein and carbs, with plenty of flavorful ingredients that bring the entire meal to life.
This is also a surprisingly easy recipe, with familiar ingredients. You simply need the potatoes and steak, plus olive oil and butter, and a selection of seasoning ingredients.
The power of the recipe is in the instructions, as the author provides detailed information about every step in the recipe. There are plenty of images too, showing you how everything comes together.
Beans
There are two angles to consider with beans. First, you could serve a bean-based side dish, like a white bean salad, black bean salsa, or baked beans. You could even branch out to other legumes, like serving roasted chickpeas.
Alternatively, you could use beans within your vegetable soup itself. The beans provide an interesting texture, while also making the soup much more filling.
Kicked Up Black Beans
If you’re looking for something spicy, these Kicked Up Black Beans are a fun option. They’re also incredibly easy to prepare, as they rely on canned black beans, seasonings, and a few chopped vegetables. What could be simpler?
It’s also a great recipe to learn, as you can use it in so many different situations. You might serve the beans as a side for your soup, as a filling for tacos, or in some completely different way.
Regardless, the choice of ingredients means that these beans are absolutely packed with flavor. They’re a side you won’t quickly forget. Who knows? You might even enjoy them more than your soup.
Loaded Baked Potato
Potatoes are a fantastic side for countless situations. But, they’re a bit bland and boring on their own, which is where loaded baked potatoes come in.
These potatoes have a delicious creamy filling, with ingredients like bacon, cheese, onion, and chives to provide flavor and texture. The heartiness of these potatoes is perfect alongside a light vegetable soup and you even get some interesting texture contrasts.
Loaded baked potatoes also shine because they’re highly customizable. You can easily mix and match the fillings to your heart’s content.
Cowboy Loaded Baked Potatoes
Looking for a filling side? If so, these Cowboy Loaded Baked Potatoes are tough to beat. They’re a little different from regular loaded potatoes, as they rely on pulled pork and BBQ sauce as some of the main ingredients.
The pulled pork is a great source of flavor, while also offering plenty of protein. You could follow the pulled pork recipe in the linked post or use your own pulled pork. Either way, you’re certain to get a delicious and satisfying potato side.
Mediterranean Chickpea Salad
Why not mix things up a little and serve a chickpea salad alongside your vegetable soup? This type of side has some of the refreshing properties you see with a lettuce salad, but also offers plenty of protein from the chickpeas.
Now, there are plenty of chickpea salads out there, but the Mediterranean version stands out. Most such recipes focus on fresh vegetables common to Mediterranean cuisine, like cucumber and tomatoes, you’ll often see fresh herbs as well, plus ingredients like feta cheese and sundried tomatoes.
Some of these ingredients offer a vibrant burst of flavor – creating an excellent contrast between the salad and your vegetable soup.
Mediterranean Cucumber Chickpea Salad
This Mediterranean Cucumber Chickpea Salad is a fantastic place to get started. The base of the salad includes chickpeas, cherry tomatoes, Persian cucumbers, red onion, sweet peppers, feta cheese, and some fresh herbs.
These ingredients are complemented by a light dressing that includes extra virgin olive oil, vinegar, lemon juice, and a few more ingredients. The dressing brings the salad together, offering an excellent flavor profile.
Quinoa Salad
You could also experiment with a quinoa salad. The quinoa grains here provide some protein and nutrients, plus an interesting texture.
This salad doesn’t contain as much protein as a chickpea salad, but you could easily boost the protein content with ingredients like nuts, seeds, or tofu. There are many other ways to vary it too, depending on the flavor profile you’re looking for.
Lemon Quinoa And Chickpea Salad
This Lemon Quinoa and Chickpea Salad is powerful, giving you the features of quinoa and chickpeas in a single dish. There are other healthy ingredients as well, including bell peppers, cucumbers, carrots, and tomatoes.
It’s also an easy salad to customize. Most combinations of salad veggies will work well here, so you can easily choose your favorites.
Avocado Toast
Earlier, we talked about serving sandwiches as a side to vegetable soup. Avocado toast offers many of the same features but may be even better. After all, this side gives you a delicious creaminess from the avocado, plus plenty of healthy fats.
This is also an excellent choice if you want a little extra oomph to your meal, but not too much. To make it even better, try making this side using fresh avocados and delicious homemade bread.
Avocado Toast With Egg
If you need a little more protein, this Avocado Toast With Egg is the way to go. It’s also a slightly unusual version, as the eggs are in the form of egg salad, rather than being scrambled or poached.
The egg salad itself relies on the classic ingredients, plus a bit of sriracha for extra heat. You can easily tailor the amount of sriracha to match your preferences, making this side as hot or mild as you would like.
Can You Eat Tofu Raw?