Soup

Thailand

Tom kha gai is Thailand's delicious national dish coming from the central part of the country and bearing the influence of neighbouring Laos. It is a soup whose name translates to boiled galangal chicken soup, consisting of coconut milk, chicken chunks or shreds, galangal (reddish-brown or pink woody plant related to ginger), lemongrass, garlic, bird's eye chili peppers, kaffir lime leaves, fish sauce, and shiitake mushrooms. Galangal's peppery, pungent, slightly sour and floral flavors provide an interesting contrast to the creaminess of coconut milk, creating a wonderfully aromatic dish in the process. Tom kha gai is highly nutritious with great medicinal properties, such as the ability to soothe the gastro-intestinal tract. Since the dish is very popular, there are also other versions of the soup - vegetarian, tofu, seafood, and pork tom kha are just some of its varieties. It is traditionally served with rice on the side, garnished with coriander leaves and diced tomatoes.

Tom kha gai

Often dubbed as the northern Thai version of the popular tom yum, this spicy and sour soup consist of a flavorful broth that is usually infused with kaffir lime leaves, Thai basil, lemongrass, and galangal. Although it is traditionally prepared with beef and beef offal, some variations may include pork or water buffalo. The soup is often additionally enriched with fish sauce, lime juice, or tamarind. It is usually served garnished with chili flakes or fresh chili peppers.

Tom saep

Tom Yum is one of the best known Thai dishes, a spicy, sour, and aromatic soup that is traditionally served with rice. It consists of shallots, lemongrass, fish sauce, minced fresh ginger or galangal, shrimps, mushrooms, kaffir lime leaves, lime juice, and minced Thai chili peppers. Usually served as an appetizer, tom yum is traditionally garnished with coriander leaves on top. Due to its popularity, different versions of the soup started to appear over the years, such as tom yum gai, with added chicken, and tom yum talay, with mixed seafood. There's also a version made with pork. Full of nutrients, flavorful, satiating, and healthy, tom yum is one of the most popular Thai dishes for a reason.

Tom yum

Tom yum boran is a traditional noodle soup originating from Central Thailand. The soup is based on pork and egg noodles. Other common ingredients used to prepare tom yum boran include lime juice, onions, crushed peanuts, garlic, galangal, lemongrass, bean sprouts, red chili flakes, hot chili peppers, kaffir lime leaves, tamarind water, and fish sauce (nam pla). The soup is simmered until the meat is tender, and the noodles are then divided between bowls with the soup poured over them. Tom yum boran is typically garnished with scallions, chili flakes, peanuts, and a squeeze of lime juice.

Tom yum boran

Toshikoshi soba is a simple and traditional Japanese noodle dish that's served on New Year's Eve. In its simplest form, it consists of buckwheat soba noodles in a hot dashi broth, topped with chopped scallions. However, the dish can be elevated by adding raw eggs, tempura, or fish cakes. The tradition of eating toshikoshi soba dates back to the 13th or 14th century, but it became popular during the Edo Period. These noodles are eaten on New Year's Eve as they symbolize a new beginning, provide strength and resilience, and bring fortune and a peaceful life.

Toshikoshi soba

France

This traditional southwestern French garlic soup consists of large amounts of garlic, onions, roux, and stock or water. Egg whites and yolks are often added to tourin to thicken it. As garlic is both delicious and believed to have serious health benefits, this dish has understandably gained in popularity in recent times. There is even a tourin cook-off each February in the town of Viller&eacute;al in the Lot-et-Garonne region, celebrating the expertise of local chefs in preparing this flavorful soup. In southern France, it is a tradition to serve the dish to newlyweds. Tourin is usually served over a piece of toasted bread and garnished with croutons and parsley. Another popular way of serving the soup is to cover it with a slice of Gruy&egrave;re cheese and place it under a broiler until the cheese melts.

Tourin

Toyga is a traditional soup made with a combination of chickpeas, d&ouml;vme (wheat berries), water, flour, yogurt, and butter. In order to prepare it, chickpeas and d&ouml;vme are cooked until tender, then gradually combined with a mixture of yogurt and flour. The combination is cooked for a few more minutes, seasoned with salt, and sprinkled with a mixture of melted butter, crushed mint, and red pepper flakes before serving. The soup is traditionally served piping hot.

Toyga

Greece

Tsouvras or ntomatosoupa is a humble soup from the small Greek island of Tilos, in the Aegean Sea. It is typically made with peeled and crushed ripe tomatoes, onions, water, salt, and pepper. After being saut&eacute;ed in olive oil, the finely chopped onions are combined with the tomatoes and rice, and everything&rsquo;s covered with water. The mixture is simmered until the rice and tomatoes are soft and cooked through, and the soup becomes slightly thickened and fragrant. There are variations on the soup that omit the use of onions, while others call for using bulgur instead of rice. This simple tomato soup can be enjoyed hot or chilled, and it's often garnished with fresh mint or other aromatic herbs. Another common topping for this traditional specialty is grated local cheese.

Tsouvras

This festive Korean soup that combines a flavorful broth and Korean tteok rice cakes is typically enjoyed on Korean New Year. The base of the soup can be prepared with various types of broths&mdash;known as guk&mdash;such as beef, seafood, or kelp broth, while the additional ingredients usually include garnishes such as pan-fried and sliced egg yolks and egg whites, scallions, seaweed (gim), and finely sliced meat. In Korean tradition, the soup symbolizes new beginnings, while sliced rice cakes, which are reminiscent of coins, represent wealth and prosperity.

Tteokguk

Germany

T&uuml;ften un plum is a traditional potato soup originating from northern Germany. The soup is usually made with a combination of potatoes, onions, carrots, celery, vegetable stock, prunes, bacon, oil, white wine vinegar, salt, and pepper. The onions are cooked until translucent, and then mixed with the potatoes, celery, and carrots. The ingredients are covered with the stock and simmered until the vegetables become soft. The bacon is saut&eacute;ed until crisp, and the chopped prunes are saut&eacute;ed in the remaining fat. The soup is pur&eacute;ed and the bacon bits and prunes are added to the pot. T&uuml;ften un plum is seasoned with salt, pepper, and a dash of vinegar, and the soup is then served while still hot.

Tüften un Plum

United States

Turtle soup is a traditional soup originating from Louisiana. This dark soup is so robust that it borders on a stew. It's typically made with turtle meat, a roux of butter and dark flour, sherry, tomatoes, stock, diced hard-boiled eggs, lemon juice, and a variety of herbs and spices such as parsley, paprika, cumin, coriander, and allspice. Once done, the soup is served in individual bowls, often with sherry, lemon wedges, or crusty bread on the side. The turtles used for the soup are alligator snapping turtles, but nowadays they come from farms, not from the wild because commercial collection of this species has been outlawed in Louisiana in 2004.

Turtle soup

This almost forgotten Turkish dish was described in an 11th-century lexicon as a soup made with noodles, lentils, and yogurt&mdash;a common combination in both T&uuml;rkiye and Kazakhstan, a Turkish-speaking Asian country where this soup is called kespe. Today, tutma&ccedil; &ccedil;orbası is typically made using homemade, square-cut egg noodles and it is most often prepared with the addition of lamb or mutton, but sometimes also beef, or even horsemeat. The soup is traditionally served in special bowls and it is typically accompanied by katık, a type of Turkish sour yogurt.

Tutmaç çorbası

Georgia

Tutmaji is a traditional noodle and yogurt soup originating from Meskheti. The dish is usually made with a combination of a few simple ingredients such as flour, water, butter, onions, yogurt, and salt. The flour and water are mixed in order to make a stiff dough that's divided into two pieces. The first piece of dough is worked into short noodles, while the other piece of dough is used to make thick and chunky noodles. The noodles are tossed in butter with chopped onions until golden brown, and the mixture is then placed into boiling water. When the noodles float up to the surface, the yogurt is stirred in and the soup is cooked for a few more minutes before it's served hot. Interestingly, tutmaji has a reputation of being a great hangover cure.

Tutmaji

Philippines

Easy to prepare and packed with healthy vegetables, utan is a famous Filipino soup which originated in Visayan Islands. This clear vegetable soup was originally a poor man&rsquo;s dish, which included any vegetables that were at hand. Nowadays, it can also include a wide variety of root vegetables and leafy greens which are merely cooked in salted water. Occasionally, this nutritious soup can be enriched with chunks of meat or pieces of fried fish. Even though it originated as a frugal dish, today it is regarded as an extremely healthy soup that is typically prepared in many Filipino households.

Utan

Chile

Valdiviano is one of the most famous and oldest Chilean soups. Since it is extremely popular throughout the country, it appears in numerous versions, but it typically consists of thin strips of beef jerky or charqui, onions, eggs various spices, and occasionally potatoes. It is believed to have originated in 1598 when the Spanish conquistadors suffered a significant defeat by the Mapuche people and had to withdraw to the secluded city Valdivia. Cut out from the main food supply routes, their diet relied heavily on beef jerky, which they used in many innovative ways, including this hearty soup that soon became a national favorite.

Valdiviano

Vellutata di zucca is a classic Italian pumpkin soup. It's usually made with a combination of chopped and peeled pumpkin, potatoes, vegetable stock, and olive oil. The ingredients are cooked until tender, then blended until the soup becomes velvety smooth. It can be enriched with a bit of cream, and it's usually seasoned only with a pinch of salt and pepper. When served, it is sometimes accompanied by pieces of toasted bread. The soup is especially popular in the fall.

Vellutata di zucca

Vermont corn chowder is a traditional dish made with a milk-based broth, corn, and other vegetables such as onions, peas, potatoes, and cabbage. The dish is usually enriched with strips of bacon and thickened with flour or Vermont cheddar cheese. Chowder can be traced back to the 16th century, when it was considered a poor man's meal. The word chowder is derived from the French word chaudiere, referring to a vessel used by the French fisherman who made hearty fish stews by cooking fish with vegetables and milk. Vermont corn chowder is praised as an ideal dish for late summer evenings when locally grown corn is at its peak.

Vermont Corn Chowder

This thick French soup is made with pur&eacute;ed leeks, onions, potatoes, cream, and chicken stock. There is an ongoing debate about its origin &ndash; some claim it has French roots, while others insist that the soup is an American invention. One group of food historians say that the soup was invented by French chef Jules Gouffe in 1859, while others believe the original creator to be Louis Diat, a French chef who worked at the New York Ritz-Carlton. Inspired by the potato and leek soup of his childhood, he named the soup cr&egrave;me Vichyssoise glac&eacute;e after his hometown of Vichy. Today, the soup is traditionally served cold and is often garnished with fresh chopped chives.

Vichyssoise

The Vietnamese version of hot pot is made by placing a large metal pot of simmering stock at the center of the table. Various ingredients are placed into the stock and cooked at the table, and the dish is especially popular after a night of heavy drinking. Typical ingredients for this hot pot type include chicken or pork, seafood, thinly sliced beef, tofu skins, wontons, mushrooms, fish cakes, vegetables, or egg dumplings. The pot is usually filled with fried garlic cloves, chili peppers, fish sauce, sugar, ginger, lemongrass, and tamarind paste before the stock is added. The more ingredients are placed in the pot, the more fragrant the hot pot will become. There are also vegetarian versions with ingredients such as herbs, rice, noodles, cabbage, bok choy, and mushrooms. After the food has been cooked in the pot, it&rsquo;s usually eaten with a dipping sauce that consists of chili peppers, garlic, salt, and lime juice, or the one made with soy sauce, sugar, sesame oil, chili peppers, and roasted sesame seeds.

Vietnamese Hot Pot

Slovenia

Vipavska jota is a traditional thick soup or stew originating from the Vipava area. It's usually made with a combination of beans, potatoes, sauerkraut, lard, garlic, flour, bay leaves, salt, and pepper. The sauerkraut is boiled in salted water and mixed with slightly mashed cooked potatoes and half of the beans. The other half of the beans is mashed and added to the soup with garlic saut&eacute;ed in lard and bay leaves. The sauerkraut mixture is added to the soup, it's seasoned to taste, and then simmered for a few more minutes. If desired, cured pork is added to the soup in order to improve the flavors. Vipavska jota is usually prepared and enjoyed after holidays as a hangover cure.