Do you eat it on breakfast, lunch or dinner? Is it a standalone meal or is it paired with another dish? If it is paired with another dish, is the soup/stew eaten before or after? How often are soups/stews found in restaurants, bistros, cafeterias etc.? If you have any other remarks about soup culture in usa, I am all ears
22 comments
I gotta be honest, almost never. That’s just a personal preference, though. The “soup” I have most often is probably the broth that comes with various kinds of noodles: ramen, pho, etc.
But just tomato soup, French onion, gazpacho, whatever: almost never. I wouldn’t consider this representative of Americans, though.
I had broccoli and cheese soup that my wife made for dinner. I ate it with a slice of sourdough bread.
I eat soup when its cold all the time.
She crab soup is a staple appetizer around here. Asian soups are meals. I eat pho, Korean kimchi soup and miso soup regularly.
But soups are always on the menu, usually as an appetizer. Most places have something.
Stews are less common. You won’t find them in many restaurants because they take a lot of preparation to cook.
Sometimes I have soup as a precursor to a meal, if it’s a lighter soup. If it’s a heavier soup or stew, it’s usually the meal itself. I’d say I have soup about once a week, more in the fall and winter.
It’s super common to find both on restaurant menus, both for lunch and dinner. There’s not much of a soup for breakfast culture on the whole, but there are always folks who do have it then.
It is soup season
Tomorrow is pozole making day where I make a 20 quart batch. Neighbors and friends will be distributed pozole and I shall eat my remaining quarts for probably two weeks.
I made a pot of soup last night, so I’ll be eating it for lunch and/or dinner for the next little while. Usually I’ll eat it with a bit of bread.
I’m from a dual immigrant family so soups and stews were common, as I imagine is true for other immigrant families or families who maintain non-American cooking in their household. American cuisine mostly favors chilis, bean soups, and chowders – thick things – plus chicken noodle soup. So not many brothy or braised things other than, like, pot roast. Which isn’t the same thing as the veg-and-meat braises so common around the world. Other American favorites are consciously borrowed from other ethnic traditions.
Multigenerational Americans are unusual in that soup is more of compartmentalized genre or course rather than a class of main dish so major that doesn’t even bear categorizing. In the US, this compartmentalization is reflected in the difficulty in finding soups as a main course in any kind of restaurant, even non-American. Like, if you want a salad or a sandwich you can google and all kinds of places will pop up, from Italian to Mexican to Vietnamese. Not so easy if you want a brothy soup or a stew that can be eaten with a starch. One of my ethnicities has a ton of soups in its repertoire of major staples and favorites, but in spite of the myriad restaurants for that cuisine here, it’s rare to find any those soups and stews on the menu because American’s don’t want that. Soups and stews are such a major part of my cuisine that it feels like a misrepresentation of the cuisine to not include them, especially when so many from outside the culture are going to the restaurant because they’re curious about our food. Part of it is that Americans don’t really eat family style unless specifically instructed, but more generally it’s because soup just occupies a different space in the American culinary lexicon. Americans also have a concept of “soup season” in the colder months, which isn’t really a thing in cultures where so many dishes are boiled, or where the original country doesn’t have cold seasons.
In my household both growing up and now, we don’t really eat according to “course” other than breakfast; we make a big ol thing and then eat it for several days by reheating. Aside, we didn’t really have “snack food” either. We just ate smaller portions of leftovers.
I make homemade soups and stews regularly throughout the cool and cold months as a stand-alone meal.
I looooove soup, so my ratio would not be representative of most.
Americans do *not* eat soup for breakfast.
Grilled cheese with tomato soup is an absolute staple. You can do $1 white bread with cheap American cheese and Campbell’s soup. You can also find any number of elevated versions at restaurants.
It generally won’t be eaten on its own. it will often be paired with salad, a sandwich, break, cornbread. If it’s chili or another hearty soup it may have no sides but I’d say that’s uncommon. If it’s served as a course it will be an early course for most. In general gazpachos/cold soups are very uncommon.
Tons of chains restaurants (Panera may be the most popular) offer primarily sandwiches, salads and soups and choosing two of those as a pair is very common. In general is more commonly the lunch meal. Coffee shops, bistros, diners, etc will also offer soups. Broadly speaking these are firmly “okay” in terms of quality. Some of these places claim that their soups are made from scratch, but for many that means made in another location, frozen, and only heated at the restaurant. It’s understood that these are not high-end soups, but just like other fast food the appeal is in the familiar and reliable taste. Chicken noodle, broccoli & cheese, tomato are very common. Often a relatively spicy soup will be offered – chicken tortilla, southwest vegetable, etc.
High end restaurants will offer soup as a course. A sit-down low-level restaurant like Applebees will usually offer soup but I think it’d be fairly unusual to order that.
Chili is an entire culture in the US with an enormous amount of variety in quality, cost, and even flavor profile. Cincinnati is famous for chili and has a fast food restaurant called Skyline that offers chili – the hook is a pinch of cinnamon. Wendy’s chili is the most common fast food soup that’s available nationwide but again, this is seen as cheap and familiar more than good – and to some it’s seen as quite awful and disgusting.
Chili contests are a big thing in some areas. People are passionate about spice level, if beans should be included, etc.
At home, many people have “family recipe” soups. A lot of these were born because they’re simple to make and relatively cheap. Chowders, cheeseburger soup, potato soup, etc – warm hearty meals on a cold night.
Beef stew is less common, but very much a thing. Making soups from bones and stuff like that is typical for some and unheard of for others.
Once a year? Florida is hot.
weekly, first for dinner and then leftover for a lunch or two.
As little as possible. It’s usually 90+ degrees and I’m not looking to slurp on any hot flavored water.
Multiple times a week on average. It is very common, albeit far more in winter than summer, for us to make a large pot of stew or soup and eat it for multiple meals.
A common stew that is extremely popular in the US is chili. I am making some tonight and I am stoked. [Here is a basic recipe.](https://www.thewholesomedish.com/the-best-classic-chili/)
I have it more when it’s cold during the winter. My favorite is tomato soup with a grilled cheese sandwich.
I just made a big pot of beef stew yesterday for this week’s lunches. Technically I guess it’s more of a soup, because I don’t bother thickening the broth. It’s pretty hearty though, so it’s definitely a good meal (I did make some cornbread muffins to go with it).
I eat soups and stews a lot between October and March. Our winters are cold and gloomy and a good soup is just so cozy.
hah, this was a stew weekend for us. Hearty beef stew, paired with biscuits.
It’s more of a fall/winter thing. Maybe every few weeks.
I make soups, stews, or chili at least once a week during the fall/winter. It is only my daughter and I here, so when I make a large batch, we have leftovers for lunch the next day or two.
We will often have some type of bread with our soup type meal, a different type of bread with the different type of soup. Minestrone requires a nice crusty French bread. Tomato soup requires grilled cheese.
Now, when I’m feeling particularly feisty, I make cornbread in the waffle iron. I then ladle chili over the cornbread and adorn with cheese and onions. But it is not a breakfast item, even though the waffle iron is used. Soup is never for breakfast unless I’m sick and can only manage broth.
Most often, you can find soup on a menu at restaurants. Not fast food restaurants usually, but traditional sit-down style. Panera Bread has takeout soup, though, and it is delicious.
Soup culture…I think that a lot of people in the US view some type of soup as a comfort food. In my family, it is turkey and rice. That is the “when you’re sick” soup. For a lot of people, if you even say “chicken noodle,” they immediately conjure up days speny watching The Price Is Right, nasty cherry flavored cough syrup, and Vicks Vaporub.
There times a week in the winter. Once a week, something cold, in the summer.
We have soup for dinner at least weekly except during summer months. I have split pea soup and white bean + kale soup planned for this week. Beef-vegetable, lentil, cabbage + kielbasa, and chicken soups and chili are also favorites.
We have stew less often, but we’ll have beef stew, beef bourguignon, and gumbo a few times during the winter. If things like masoor dal, chana masala, or a big pot of seasoned beans count, we have something like that with rice a few times per month.
My girlfriend likes to make different stews/soups weekly when the weather starts to get chilly, so we had some classic chicken noodle soup last week and she also made bangin garlic bread to go with it. I normally just eat it with her for dinner but she will sometimes eat it for lunch. I would say tho most people pair their soups with other things like vegetables or bread. I think it’s pretty common to find some sort of soup or stew at restaurants, some places even have a “soup of the day”
Mostly for lunch or dinner during cooler weather.
If I’m having stew that’s usually a heavy dish that doesn’t require anything else besides a roll, cornbread, or another bread accompaniment. Soups are generally lighter fare and could be paired with a sandwich or salad.
It’s extremely normal for restaurants (especially diners, family-style “everyday” restaurants) to have soups on their menu, frequently they have a rotating menu of soups throughout the week. Chili might be offered daily too. Stews are a bit less popular but not hard to find either.
Around once a week for dinner in the cold months. Rarely in the summer.