Adding An Umami Boost To Soup Is Simpler Than You Might Think

Winter is the time to make your own soup. When it's blustery and cold outside, nothing warms you up more than a pot of soup simmering on the stove. You can make chicken noodle soup, a rich beef stew, or a simple soup made of the veggies you have on hand in your fridge.

But your homemade soup may seem less flavorful than the canned soups you are used to eating. Is there an easy way to boost the flavor without emptying the salt shaker into the soup or adding tons of herbs and spices?

Try adding an umami boost. Umami isn't an ingredient; it isn't even a compound or a molecule. Umami is a description of the flavor that some foods provide. Insider calls it the fifth taste, in addition to sweet, sour, salty, and bitter. So how do you add an umami boost to your soup? Do you need to change your cooking technique? Or is there an easier way?

Umami was first discovered in the early 20th century by chemist Kikunae Ikeda, who noticed that soup stocks made with seaweed were very flavorful, per Britannica. The key to umami, according to MasterClass, is one amino acid: Glutamate. And yes, that molecule is part of monosodium glutamate, that unfairly vilified food additive, per Insider, which is why MSG makes food taste good. 

Glutamate acts with your tongue via a g-coupled protein receptor to trigger a taste sensation described as rich and meaty. Food Scientist Pat Polowsky told Insider, "Basically, umami is an evolutionary response signaling protein." In fact, umami ingredients make your mouth water. 

Adding umami to your soup is simple. Just choose from a list of ingredients that are high in that magic glutamate molecule, and your soup will automatically become more delicious and, literally, mouth-watering. The best foods to add to your soup to boost umami flavor include soy sauce, meats, mushrooms, garlic, spinach, celery, tomatoes, seaweed, miso paste, seafood, and Parmesan or other aged cheeses, according to Healthline and Sakata Vegetables. If your soup recipe already includes some of these foods, you're golden. You can add more according to taste. If not, choose from that list and add whatever ingredient strikes your fancy.

The umami ingredient you add to your soup depends on the recipe, but it doesn't have to be complicated. You should always think about the ingredients in your soup and their flavor and appearance before you add umami-boosting foods, so everything blends well together.

For instance, if you are making a delicate chicken soup, saute some mushrooms and add them, or add white soy sauce, per America's Test Kitchen, so you don't change the color of the broth. But if you make a hearty vegetable soup, add some seaweed, tomatoes, or celery. A rind of Parmesan cheese will do wonders for a pot of minestrone, and some caramelized onions would be good in just about any soup pot.

When you're ready to boost your soup's flavor, try adding a bit of umami to creamy tomato basil soup, homemade chicken noodle soup, Italian-style soup with turkey sausage, or smoky tomato and cannellini bean soup.