Halloween soups from around the world
Forget the plastic cauldron. The world's kitchens already have everything Halloween needs: pumpkins simmered until golden, soups as black as a moonless night, a few bowls made with real blood and the earthy soups of the autumn harvest. Pick a section, if you dare.
The pumpkin patch8 soups
Orange, velvety and as seasonal as a carved lantern.
Soup Joumou
Haiti8.6Haiti's golden pumpkin and beef soup, traditionally eaten on 1 January, Independence Day.
Read about Soup Joumou →Turkish Pumpkin Soup
Türkiye5.9Türkiye's smooth pumpkin soup, a popular autumn starter topped with toasted pumpkin seeds.
Read about Turkish Pumpkin Soup →Butternut Squash Soup
United States4.8Bright orange and one of the most searched autumn recipes in the United States.
Read about Butternut Squash Soup →Australian Pumpkin Soup
Australia4.9Perhaps Australia's most loved homemade soup, often made with grey-skinned Queensland blue pumpkin.
Read about Australian Pumpkin Soup →Hōtō
Japan6.9From the foot of Mount Fuji: thick noodles and big pieces of kabocha pumpkin that melt into the miso broth.
Read about Hōtō →Three Sisters Soup
United States7.1Corn, beans and squash, the three crops many Native American nations grew together, often made after the harvest.
Read about Three Sisters Soup →Locro
Argentina7.4A national dish of Argentina, where the squash breaks down and thickens the pot.
Read about Locro →Squash Blossom Soup
Mexico5.8A Mexican soup of bright orange squash blossoms, roasted poblano and sweet corn.
Read about Squash Blossom Soup →
Black as night7 soups
Inky, smoky and nearly black, without a drop of food colouring.
Rawon
Indonesia7.8East Java's black beef soup, coloured by keluak, the black nut of the kepayang tree.
Read about Rawon →Chirmole
Belize7.3Belizeans call it black dinner: chicken simmered with a recado of chillies charred until black.
Read about Chirmole →Tiyula Itum
Philippines7.0A Tausug soup turned inky black by coconut toasted until it is completely burnt.
Read about Tiyula Itum →Sopa Negra
Costa Rica6.2Its name simply means black soup: Costa Rican black beans with a hard-boiled egg in every bowl.
Read about Sopa Negra →Cuban Black Bean Soup
Cuba6.1Thick, dark and deeply savoury, with plenty of garlic, cumin and oregano.
Read about Cuban Black Bean Soup →Black Sesame Soup
China4.8A dark, sweet Chinese dessert soup of toasted black sesame and rice.
Read about Black Sesame Soup →Black Sea Collard Soup
Türkiye7.9Karalahana means black cabbage: the dark collard greens of Türkiye's Black Sea coast.
Read about Black Sea Collard Soup →
For vampires only6 soups
These are the real thing: traditional soups made with blood. Not for the faint-hearted, or for halal and kosher kitchens.
Czernina
Poland8.3Poland's sweet and sour duck blood soup, turned a deep chocolate brown.
Read about Czernina →Juka
Lithuania6.5A dark blood soup from Dzūkija in southern Lithuania, also called kruvinė.
Read about Juka →Prdelačka
Czech Republic6.2Made in Czech homes on the day of the pig slaughter, thickened and darkened with blood.
Read about Prdelačka →Rössypottu
Finland6.5From Oulu in Finland, with cubes of rössy, a dense black bread made from blood, beer and rye.
Read about Rössypottu →Yaguarlocro
Ecuador7.2An Ecuadorian potato soup crowned with crumbled, fried lamb blood.
Read about Yaguarlocro →Duck Blood and Vermicelli Soup
China7.2A famous Nanjing street snack with cubes of set duck blood in every bowl.
Read about Duck Blood and Vermicelli Soup →
Harvest moon6 soups
The soups of autumn: mushrooms, roots and deep red fruit.
Imoni
Japan7.1Taro and beef soup from Yamagata, a typical dish of the autumn harvest.
Read about Imoni →Dobin Mushi
Japan4.6A delicate Japanese autumn soup, steamed and served in a little clay teapot.
Read about Dobin Mushi →Kulajda
Czech Republic5.7Czech dill and mushroom soup, at its best in mushroom season in late summer and autumn.
Read about Kulajda →Polish Mushroom Soup
Poland6.8Dried wild mushrooms give this Polish soup its dark, earthy broth.
Read about Polish Mushroom Soup →Ash-e Anar
Iran7.9A ruby-red Persian pomegranate soup, often eaten in autumn when pomegranates are in season.
Read about Ash-e Anar →Borscht
Ukraine7.7Blood-red without any blood: beetroot gives Ukraine's most famous soup its deep crimson colour.
Read about Borscht →
Still hungry? Let fate pick your next bowl.
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