Random Soup Generator
Get one to ten random soups from a list of 97, each with a photo and a one-sentence description to help you decide what to cook.More Food & Drink Generators
The Random Soup Generator picks one to ten soups from a list of 97 and shows each as a card with a photo, its name and a one- or two-sentence description of what it is like: "silky", "packed full of iron", "ready in under half an hour". It answers "what soup should I make tonight" faster than a recipe site's search box, and it is honest about what it is: a picker, not a cookbook. There are no ingredient lists or step-by-step recipes.
What you can set
One field: how many soups to draw, from 1 to 10. Press Generate Soup and the cards appear; press again to reshuffle. There is no filter by cuisine, diet or main ingredient. Draw five and you will usually have at least one vegetarian option and one with meat in it.
What kind of soups are in the list
The 97 entries read like the index of a British home-cooking magazine, and the spellings follow suit: courgette rather than zucchini, coriander rather than cilantro, beetroot, "five-a-day". Roughly, the list breaks down like this:
| Type | Examples from the list |
|---|---|
| Lentil, bean and chickpea | Spiced carrot & lentil, red lentil & coconut, Moroccan-style chickpea, chorizo & chickpea, spiced citrus bean, lentil Bolognese |
| Root and squash | Pumpkin, butternut squash, roasted sweet potato & carrot, carrot & ginger, curried parsnip, celeriac with hazelnut & truffle |
| Green vegetables | Kale, cabbage, celery, broccoli & stilton, cucumber pea & lettuce, easy green vegetable |
| Tomato and pepper | Creamy tomato, tomato & basil, roasted red pepper with sweet potato & smoked paprika, hot bloody mary soup |
| Chicken and meat | Jewish chicken soup, chicken & sweetcorn, beef goulash, oxtail, hearty lamb & barley, pork rib bortsch, slow cooker pea & ham |
| Fish and shellfish | Cullen skink, clam chowder, New England clam chowder, bouillabaisse, prawn & fennel bisque, haddock & sweetcorn, Thai shellfish pot |
| Noodle soups and Asian broths | Vegan ramen, chicken & sweetcorn ramen, Vietnamese chicken noodle, tom yum with prawns, satay chicken noodle with squash, miso & butternut |
| Cold soups | Green gazpacho, gazpacho with runner bean tempura, ajo blanco |
Mexican chicken tortilla soup and Mexican soup with chicken cover Latin America; three minestrones and a chunky Bolognese soup cover Italy. A couple of oddities survived the import: one entry is literally titled "How to make bone broth", and butternut squash soup appears twice under the same name. If either comes up, press again.
Ways people use it
- Weeknight dinner decisions. Draw three, cook the one whose description matches the vegetables in the fridge. For a full meal rather than a bowl, the Random Dinner Generator picks a dish.
- Meal-prep planning. Draw five on Sunday and you have a week of lunches; most of the list freezes well.
- Cooking-challenge prompts. Each person draws one and has to make it without looking up a recipe first.
- Menu inspiration for a café's soup of the day when the usual rotation has gone stale.
- Learning names. Cullen skink, ajo blanco and bortsch are in there; the description tells you what they are before you commit.
Related pickers: the Random Food Generator covers dishes of every kind, the Random Cuisine Generator picks a country's cooking to explore, and there are pickers for breakfast, dessert and snacks. All of them are under all food & drink generators.
Frequently asked questions
- Does the soup generator give me a recipe?
No. Each card has a photo, the soup's name and a short description. Search the name on your preferred recipe site for ingredients and steps.
- How many soups are in the list?
97, mostly British-style home-cooking soups with a set of Asian noodle soups, French and Spanish classics and two Mexican chicken soups.
- Can I filter for vegetarian or vegan soups?
Not with a setting. Many entries are vegetable-based and the descriptions usually say when a soup contains meat or fish, so draw several and pick.
- How many soups can I generate at once?
Between 1 and 10 per press. Press Generate Soup again for a fresh set.
- Why do some names look British?
The list was compiled from a British source, so you will see courgette, coriander and beetroot rather than zucchini, cilantro and beet. The soups are the same.