No matter where in the world you live, or what culture you were raised in, there is one universal truth most of us can agree on: Being sick is the worst. I’m sitting here with two sick kiddos home from school today (both for different illnesses) because, well, January. And it got me thinking about how quickly we spring into action when a loved one falls ill and needs our help.
Most days, if my boys ask for something—say, a snack—my typical response is, “You’ve got arms and legs, right?” But when sickness strikes, my nurturing-mama mode kicks in, pulling out sleeves of Saltines, ginger ale, cold washcloths, humidifiers, and of course, soup.
Growing up, my mom relied on reconstituted condensed soups to bring that sick-day comfort. A single, working mom of four, she couldn’t spend time fussing or doting—but that simple gesture, making a soup reserved only for sick days, was the best cure.
All these years later, my default act of care is to make soup—not because I researched it into oblivion, not because it’s doctor’s orders, but simply because it’s in my bones.
And I know I’m not alone in that instinct.
When I began talking about sick-day soups, the stories poured in—each one different in detail, but strikingly similar in spirit. Making soup for someone who’s fallen ill is one of the most enduring ways people show care across cultures and generations.
Here, writers share the soups that comforted them when they were sick: whether it’s an Italian nonna’s pastina soup, a great-grandmother’s Dominican beef-bone soup, or a Haitian grandmother’s cure-all stew. Each bowl is rooted in culturally familiar ingredients, but all are made with the same intention—love.
In some of these stories, soup does more than soothe a cold. It’s a father stirring soupy rice on sick days and Saturdays—until the same plain bowl becomes a way to hold onto him after he’s gone. It’s matzo ball soup as a family argument and a family archive, tracing two grandmothers, two textures, and the histories that shaped them. And it’s a simple broth in a London kitchen that arrives at exactly the right moment, turning illness into a lesson about letting yourself be loved.
Grace Martino / Grant Webster / Getty Images
Stirring My Father’s Soupy Rice
By Jami Nakamura Lin
The plainest dish my father made carried us through sickness, Saturdays, and eventually, goodbye.
Grace Martino / Courtney Kassel / Adobe Stock
What Floats, What Sinks, and What Endures in Matzo Ball Soup
By Courtney Kassel
How can such a simple mixture—matzo meal, eggs, water, and fat—yield such vastly different results?
Grace Martino / Ben Tansel / Adobe Stock
In London, I Got Sick. A Bowl of Broth Offered a Different Kind of Healing
By Ben Tansel
What I thought would be a lighthearted getaway became a lesson in love, loss, and the quiet power of being cooked for when you need it most.
And while nothing could ever replace the sentiment behind a parent’s or grandparent’s sick-day soup, sometimes it’s nice to have options—especially when you’re exhausted. For the days when you’re run-down (or caring for someone who is), we’ve rounded up 13 soothing soups for cold and flu season, our most-saved chicken noodle soup on the site, and chefs’ best advice on what to look for in a truly great sick-day soup.
There’s no single right way to do sick-day soup. Sometimes it’s the bowl you grew up with; other times, it’s something new that just happens to hit the spot. The recipes below are a few more well-loved soups from around the world—deeply comforting, widely shared, and worth returning to whenever you need something warm.
More Soup Recipes From Around the World
Credits
Editorial: Ariel Knutson, Tracey Minkin, Bridget Olson
Creative: Lindsey Hayes, Grace Martino, Kristina Pettersson, Ally Yorke
Community: Frances Crouter, Heather Oldenborg, Cally Rhine, Tori Soliz, Jenny Wentworth
