All-Purpose Soup Seasoning Recipe

TL;DR

Specific herbs and spices are reserved for seasoning soups. I realized this wasn't necessarily common knowledge as I traveled the world.

In central Europe, we season our soups with a combination of ingredients to prepare our clear broth soups (e.g., Vegetable Clear Soup).

This includes nutmeg, juniper berries, bay leaves, chervil, and lovage primarily. The spices are added as a whole to infuse the soup and are then taken out just before serving time.

I thought that a soup seasoning powder could do the trick instead, and so I created this soup herb and spice blend to flavor all types of soups.

It can be used to flavor clear soups, cream of soup, vegetable soups, meat soups, or whichever you fancy, because the ingredients in the blend will add typical broth flavors to your hot, comforting soup bowl.

Ingredient Notes

• Bay Leaf — A classic soup spice. Dried bay leaves are never sold ground, but as a whole only, so you'll have to grind it fine.
• Juniper Berries — Commonly used in central Europe to flavor soups. Dried berries need to be ground fine.
• Chives — Chives can be bought sliced dried. But for the purpose of the recipe, you will need to grind them fine as well.
• Nutmeg — Grate some nutmeg manually before adding it to the blend of spices.
• Black Pepper  — You can use ground pepper from the mill.
• Onion Powder — Regular onion powder, not toasted or flavored.
• Garlic Powder — Regular garlic powder, not toasted.
• Lovage — Your secret ingredient in this soup seasoning blend. This herb is also known as Maggie herb in parts of Europe because it tastes like bouillon cubes. Get dried lovage.
• Chervil or Parsley — Chervil is not that well known, but it's a great soup herb. It's related to parsley, so if you can't get chervil dried, use parsley instead.

Process Overview

Step 1

Place the bay leaf, juniper berries, and dried chive slices into a spice blender or grinder jar. Blend first to a fine consistency.

Step 2

Add all the remaining spices to that and blend briefly to combine them all.

Step 3

Store the seasoning blend in a spice jar.

Uses

Add a dash to your soup during the cooking process. Taste and adjust the quantity in case you need more flavors.

I use this blend to season various soups. Skip adding other common soup spices and herbs if you are using this spice blend. Here are some soup ideas to help you get creative in your kitchen.

• Cream of Broccoli, Potato, Cheese Soup
• Hoosier Stew
• Potato Leek Soup
• Nourish Me Soup
• Vegetable Wild Rice Soup
• Turnip Green Soup
• Green Sorrel Soup

Storing

I recommend sticking to the base recipe because a small quantity goes a long way.

Store the soup seasoning in a spice jar. Use a transparent glass jar with a tight lid to keep moisture out. Transparent jars are preferred so that you don't forget the blend at the bottom of your pantry.

Label the jar with the name and date. Place it on a shelf, away from direct sunlight and humidity.