On a cold Friday in Lent, you definitely want to try one of these Soup Recipes For Lent. They’ll get you through those meatless Fridays.
For more Lenten dinner ideas, check out all of our vegetarian recipes.
Friday during Lent, if you’re Catholic, means no eating meat. That doesn’t mean you can’t have something delicious, though. Just keep it vegetarian.
And when it’s a cold day during Lent, you can go with soup.
Personally, I love making soup. I could eat it every day, regardless of the weather. But, most homemade soup recipes use chicken broth, which you can’t have on Fridays during Lent.
Traditional Catholics say you can’t eat land animals or products from a land animal on Fridays during Lent. So no meat, obviously, but also no chicken broth or beef stock. The exception is dairy (so milk, butter, and heavy cream are fine).
But, those who have a more modern take say that you’re allowed broth, stock, and seasonings made from animals.
So, can Christians have chicken broth on Fridays during Lent? It depends on how traditional you are. Personally, I follow the spirit of the season, which is about sacrifice and abstaining. I feel like if you bend the rule to allow chicken broth, you’re making Lent easier on yourself. And that’s not really the point.
But, with that being said, this list is broken into two sections. The top section are soups that are vegetarian as is. You don’t have to make any tweaks to them. The bottom section are soups that use chicken or beef broth, but can be made completely vegetarian if you swap the broth.
For more meals you can eat during the Lenten season, check out our list of 40+ Meatless Meals For Ash Wednesday & Fridays During Lent.
Soup Recipes For Lent
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Quick note: I make all of our homemade soup recipes in a large Dutch oven (with the exception of the one in a slow cooker). If you don’t have a Dutch oven, any large pot will do. I prefer the Dutch oven because it holds a lot of soup, so it’s enough to feed a whole family, and cooks everything really evenly. But, they’re expensive, so if you don’t have one, use whatever you have.
Vegetarian Soups Recipes
Mexican Street Corn Soup
Most soups use chicken broth to add flavor to the broth, but not this Mexican Street Corn Soup. It uses vegetable broth, which keeps it vegetarian, and then gets some extra flavor from stripped corn cobs.
It has the taste of Mexican Street Corn, but in soup form, so you can eat that deliciousness during Lent (which is usually not street corn season).
Vegan Kale & Bean Soup
This hearty Vegan Kale & Bean Soup is filled with cannellini and black beans, kale, and carrots to make a tasty and hearty soup. It’s vegan as is.
During Lent, you don’t need the soup to be vegan though, just vegetarian. So, if you want, you can add a sprinkle of parmesan cheese on top. It really enhances the flavors in this soup.
Soup Recipes That Can Be Made Vegetarian
There’s no soup made with any animal protein on this part of the list. Rather, these are recipes that are made as written with either beef or chicken broth. So, you can either make them as it (if you’re fine with the modern take we talked about above) or you can swap them for vegetable stock.
When changing the broth, consider these alternatives:
- Better Than Bouillon Vegetarian No Chicken Base (vegan substitute for chicken broth)
- Better Than Bouillon Vegetarian No Beef Base (vegan substitute for beef broth)
- Ocean’s Halo No Fish Broth (vegan substitute for fish broth)
- Those all come as a powder rather than pre-measured bouillon cubes. But one teaspoon equals one cube, so they’re easy to use. And have less packaging, which is better for the earth.
There are a bunch of vegetarian broths online, but we’ve heard good things about the specific ones above, which is why we recommend them.
Homemade Alphabet Soup
This Homemade Alphabet Soup is so much better than the canned version. It’s a vegetable soup with adorable letter-shaped pasta (which you can buy at Walmart).
You’ll just want to swap the broth for a vegetarian one if you’re making it for Lent.
Slow Cooker Potato Cheddar Soup
We get it, by Friday, you’re tired and don’t want to cook. And you don’t want to think about what dinner ideas have meat and what ones are meatless. So, the best part about this Slow Cooker Potato Cheddar Soup is its made in the slow cooker.
Set it before you leave for work. Then, at dinnertime, spoon the potato soup into bowls and top it with sour cream and green onions and you’re done.
Simple Homemade Tomato Soup
This is by far the best Homemade Tomato Soup recipe I’ve ever had. And it’s the easiest too. So much of this recipe’s flavor comes from cooking the soup on low heat to really build the flavors.
I usually pair it with our Cheddar Garlic Pull Apart Muffins or a regular grilled cheese sandwich, both of which are vegetarian as is, making them perfect for a meatless meal.
Feta and Mushroom Bisque
The Feta cheese is the star of this Feta and Mushroom Bisque, although the mushrooms add such a great taste and texture to the soup.
People usually slice mushrooms and add them to recipes as a meat substitute to make them for filling, so doing that in this vegetarian soup makes it filling. And you need that when you’re only having soup for dinner on a Friday night.
French Onion Soup
Onions, which are cooked down perfectly, are the main draw of this French Onion Soup, even though it has everyone’s favorite pair of ingredients: melted cheese and crusty bread.
So much of this soup’s flavor comes from beef broth, which you can’t have on a Friday during Lent, so you’ll need to compensate with a little bit of extra seasoning if you use vegetable broth. And actually, this is the only time I’m gonna say that you could benefit from using the Better Than Bouillon beef bouillon above rather than just using vegetable stock.
Broccoli Cheddar Soup
Broccoli Cheddar Soup was my favorite soup at a chain restaurant we had in New York. We moved to North Carolina and there wasn’t one here, so I had to learn to make it myself. This version tastes very similar to it, but it’s way more frugal to make it at home.
There is chicken stock in this version, so just swap it out so it works for Lent.
More Vegetarian Meals For Lent
If you’re not in the mood for soup, but you need some vegetarian meals for tonight, we have a bunch more. We have vegetarian breakfast ideas and lunch ideas, plus a long list of vegetarian sandwiches too.
If you’re okay with seafood, we have Shrimp Recipes, Shellfish Recipes, and Fish Recipes For Lent too.
Which of these meatless soup recipes for Lent are you going to try first? Let us know in the comments.
Mrs. B
Tuesday 12th of March 2019
Cradle Catholic here . . . Chicken broth is on the OK list.
drugstore diva lisa
Wednesday 13th of March 2019
I think you're right and that *technically* it's okay, but I personally am 100% vegetarian on Fridays (no poultry, meat, or fish, but I do allow dairy). I know a lot of others who were raised the same way, so that's why I called out the chicken broth. But again, you are correct. It's technically just abstaining from meat, so beef broth wouldn't be allowed but chicken broth could be.
Lori
Tuesday 28th of March 2017
Great recipes, even if you don't celebrate lent. Yum!
Audrey
Tuesday 21st of March 2017
I think we will be making the Kale and Bean Soup this Friday. I have a bunch of Kale from my CSA with more on the way.
Sara
Tuesday 23rd of February 2016
Great group of soups!
Life Loving
Tuesday 23rd of February 2016
A lovely list of super soups (pun intended). I've pinned this, and a couple of the recipes for future reference. I love making home made soup, especially vegetable ones, as these are so filling and good for you.