The Umami-Rich Condiment Your Favorite Soup Deserves

To give them some flavor, homemade or store-bought soups often need to be spiced up a bit. While it's possible to overseason it — and to fix oversalted soup if you do – underseasoning it can leave you with a disappointing bowl of blandness. Jessica Merchant, who blogs about recipes at How Sweet Eats, offered a suggestion for adding a controlled amount of salt while also amplifying the taste. "Fish sauce is a fantastic add-in to soup because of its savory, umami flavor," she told The Takeout. "Most times, soup requires more seasoning than we think, so fish sauce is an excellent choice."

Merchant's advice is to save the fish sauce to add right at the end of the cooking process, and to do so only after you've tasted the soup. This applies to both homemade and store-bought soups, since tasting will give you an idea of just how much of a flavor boost the soup is likely to need. 

Don't worry that replacing salt with this ingredient will lead to a fish-flavored soup, though, since fish sauce is capable of lending a subtle accent to your cooking. "While the scent can be a bit fishy, the overall flavor when added to other ingredients is earthy, briny, and very savory," Merchant explained. "Sometimes it can even add a touch of sweetness."

Jessica Merchant has another favorite addition she likes to use when making homemade soup — she sautes anchovies as the first step. "Like fish sauce, they add that rich, savory flavor that is hard to find anywhere else," she said. What if you can't use fish sauce due to a fish allergy, though, or because you're following a vegetarian or vegan diet? There are several unfinny alternatives that will lend your soup a similar savor. Merchant is a fan of miso paste. "It's such a simple ingredient but adds so much flavor," she said. As miso paste is made from fermented soybeans and rice, it is entirely plant-based. (Well, technically plant and mineral, since it also contains salt.)

Soy sauce, too, makes a great fish sauce alternative for vegans. So does tamari, which has the added bonus of being typically gluten-free. (Some brands may contain traces of wheat, though, so as always, it's best to read the list of ingredients.) If you want to add a hint of brine to your soup to deepen the flavor, you can also supplement any of these condiments with a sprinkling of dried seaweed.