100 Ways to Thicken Homemade Vegan Soup

 

Discover 100 vegan ways to thicken watery soups without flour,
plus tips to adjust flavors, reduce liquid, and achieve perfect consistency!

Perhaps you have followed a delicious-looking recipe for homemade soup and found, after the prescribed cooking time and more, that the soup is still very watery. While you were not necessarily in quest of a cream soup, did you want something more... substantial? Well, with a better ratio of chunkiness to liquids? And if you are against using wheat flour, whatever the reason might be, what can you do?

If you have potatoes or carrots in your soup, you can separate them, cooked soft, and blend them up to return to the soup-- that will help thicken. Same with other starchy vegetables-- blend up at least a portion of the cooked soup and you will see the results you are looking for. 

Cooking down the soup over a longer period of time-- say, an hour or so on simmer-- will also reduce the fluid levels. Keep an eye on the soup so that the pan does not burn. Leaving the lid off while reducing a soup will work better than cooking with a lid on.

Be sure to taste and adjust seasonings after adding in more ingredients to get the flavor intensity you want.  

While we might not like a soup that is "so watery", it is interesting to note that soup is traditionally mostly liquid while vegetable stews are thicker. My son, a pretty good vegan cook, prefers a stew to a soup. Perhaps you do as well.

If you are cooking a less starchy soup, say celery soup or even mushroom soup, you might find that blending the veggies just results in a sort of stringy mass that isn't what you are looking for. Well, if you are experimental in your cooking (all good cooks are), you might want to add in some ingredients that you have on hand already to help bulk up the creaminess. Start with a small amount of potential thickener, because you will usually not need large quantities \ get the results you are looking for. 

Here’s an alphabetical list of 100 ways to thicken watery vegan soups

without using wheat flours:

Almond butter

Arrowroot powder

Avocado

Banana (in sweet soups)

Beans (pureed)

Beet puree

Black beans (mashed or blended)

Bread, gluten free (soaked and blended)

Butternut squash puree

Cabbage (blended)

Carrot puree

Cauliflower (blended or mashed)

Cashew cream

Cashew nuts (soaked and blended)

Celery root (pureed)

Chia seeds (soaked)

Chickpeas (blended)

Coconut cream

Coconut milk (reduced)

Coconut yogurt

Corn (blended)

Cornmeal (in small amounts)

Cornstarch (mixed with water)

Creamy nut cheeses

Dates (blended, for sweet soups)

Eggplant (roasted and pureed)

Flaxseeds (ground and soaked)

Frozen peas (blended)

Garbanzo bean puree

Green banana flour

Hemp hearts (blended)

Hummus

Kidney beans (blended)

Kohlrabi (blended)

Lentils (blended or cooked down)

Lima beans (blended)

Millet (cooked and pureed)

Miso paste

Mushrooms (blended or cooked down)

Navy beans (blended)

Nutritional yeast (adds slight thickness)

Oat milk (reduced)

Oats (soaked and blended)

Okra (cooked and blended)

Olive tapenade (small amounts)

Parsnip puree

Peanut butter

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Peas (pureed)

Plantain (boiled and blended)

Polenta (small amounts)

Potato (blended)

Potato flakes

Potato starch (mixed with water)

Pumpkin puree

Quinoa (cooked and blended)

Quinoa flakes (blended)

Red lentils (cooked and pureed)

Rice (blended or cooked down)

Rice milk (reduced)

Rice noodles (blended)

Rice porridge (blended)

Roasted vegetables (pureed)

Rutabaga (blended)

Sauerkraut (blended)

Sesame tahini

Silken tofu

Smoked tofu (blended)

Soy milk (reduced)

Split peas (cooked and blended)

Squash (pureed)

Sunflower seed butter

Sweet potato (pureed)

Tahini

Tapioca pearls (cooked and blended)

Tapioca starch (mixed with water)

Tempeh (blended)

Tofu (blended)

Tomato paste

Turnip (blended)

Vegetable puree

Walnuts (soaked and blended)

Water chestnuts (blended)

White beans (blended)

Yam (pureed)

Yellow split peas (blended)

Yogurt (vegan)

Zucchini (blended)

Almond milk (reduced)

Barley (cooked and blended)

Caramelized onions (blended)

Coconut meat (blended)

Edamame (blended)

Fava beans (pureed)

Leeks (blended)

Parsnip (roasted and blended)

Roasted garlic (blended)

Seitan (blended or shredded)

Soy yogurt

Spinach (blended)

Vegan sour cream

*Ideas in this post derived from a thread on the FB group "Best Adventist Recipe Swap".

*Contributions and edits from chatgpt and Firefly.Abobe

*Do you have a vegan ''thickener" not mentioned above that you have had success in using in soup? 

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🥤 Recipe and photos © 2026 Cynthia Zirkwitz | Veggie School
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