How Can You Turn Leftover Soup into Another Dish?

As soup cools, its starches bind together and thicken the liquid; water that evaporates as it cools also contributes to this thickening. That is why soups thickened with lentils, flour, or potatoes can be firm enough to cut with a spoon the next day. You do not always need to thin this consistency with water. Thickened soup brings cooked vegetables, legumes, and the flavor of the broth together, ready to serve as the base of a new dish. The type of soup determines what it can become; soup made with meat broth works in more dishes than soup made with plain water.

Lentil soup is the easiest to repurpose. Thin the thickened soup with a little hot water and use it as the cooking liquid for bulgur pilaf; the pilaf takes on the flavor and color of the lentils and comes out richer than pilaf cooked with plain water. Heat the same soup in a pan with a little butter and red pepper flakes, then pour it over boiled pasta to make a thick pasta sauce. If you mix it with fine bulgur and let it stand, it makes a mixture similar to lentil patties; add bulgur until the mixture holds its shape in your hand.

Vegetable soup can become a purée. Strain chunky vegetable soup, mash the vegetables or process them in a blender, and gradually add some of the broth to make a thick purée. Spread it on the bottom of a baking dish and top it with meatballs, vegetables, or eggs to make a baked dish; the purée serves as both sauce and base. If it gets too thick, add a little milk. Do not discard the remaining broth; use it as the cooking liquid for pilaf. Potato soups work especially well for this because the purée thickens as the potatoes are mashed and does not run in the oven.

A small amount of soup left at the bottom of the pot can become the base for the next day’s meal. While cooking a stew with chickpeas, beans, or vegetables, replace some of its liquid with leftover soup; the dish gains flavor from the start. White bean and chickpea stews develop a thicker sauce when started with tarhana or tomato soup. Add yogurt-based and egg-thickened soups with caution: the yogurt and eggs can curdle at high heat or during a long boil, so add them to the dish in the final minutes over low heat.

Always check the salt only after adding leftover soup. The soup is already salty, and its salt becomes more concentrated as it thickens; taste the new dish before adding salt. Balance the acidity too: a few drops of lemon can brighten soup that has been sitting. Also account for the ingredients already in the soup; do not add extra lentils to pilaf made with lentil soup. The soup being repurposed must have been cooled properly and refrigerated; reheating is a separate topic. Do not turn soup that smells sour, is foaming, or has bubbles on its surface into any dish.