While I love a homemade minestrone, sometimes nothing beats the speed of vegan soups to buy for busy days. If you’re trying to eat plant-based, there are a few things to look out for.
Not all store-bought soups are vegan. Even seemingly innocent ones like tomato soup can contain milk powder or other animal products. That’s why it’s key to check the packaging to see if the soup is marked as suitable for vegans.
If it isn’t explicitly labelled as suitable for vegans, the next step is to check the ingredient list for animal products.
But don’t fret, I’ve done the heavy lifting for you! I’ve looked at the soups from the big supermarkets to tell you which ones are vegan. Easy Saturday lunch: sorted!
(Note: this blog post contains affiliate links to products I genuinely like. If you click a link and make a purchase, I may earn a commission at no cost to you. Thank you for supporting my work!)
Where to buy vegan soup
In supermarkets, vegan soups can often be found in different aisles:
- With other soups, in the canned foods section
- Near the fresh vegetables
- In the “free from” aisle, with the gluten-free, vegan, etc. alternatives
Not all the soups found there will be vegan though! So make sure you follow the guidelines below.
When shopping online, for example ordering groceries online, you can sometimes use filters to only show vegan-friendly soups. They’re not always accurate though, so it’s worth double-checking the product description!
But for the major food retailers, I’ve done the work for you! Go straight to what’s available in your local supermarket by clicking through the links below:
Is your local supermarket missing? Send me a DM and I’ll add it!
How to check if a soup is vegan
The first step when searching for vegan soup is to search the packaging (or the product description online) for an explicit “suitable for vegans” text. If it says “suitable for vegetarians”, it may be vegan, but it may also contain milk or egg.
The next step is to look for the Vegan Trademark. It looks like a sunflower with the word vegan under it and it means that the Vegan Society certifies that the product is vegan. You can follow this link to see what it looks like and for more info.
Depending on where you are, another symbol to look out for is the V-Label, with “VEGAN” written under it. See what it looks like here.
If you can’t find an explicit “suitable for vegans” mention or the Vegan Trademark, your next option is to scan the ingredients list for animal products. Helpfully in Europe, allergens such as milk and egg need to be bolded, so they’ll stand out easily. But other animal products could be lurking in there, so read through the ingredients list, and when in doubt: google it!
Vegan soups to buy at Tesco
The way I’ve labelled the soups is that the ones with a “green light” are the ones that are explicitly labelled as vegan. The ones with the “amber light” contain no obvious animal ingredients, but aren’t explicitly marketed as vegan.
Here’s a quick pro tip: mixing the first two soups on the list! We often mix two of the tomato one with one of the lentil one, and that’s enough for two adults and two toddlers. Tell me if you try it!
Vegan soups to buy at Sainsbury’s
Vegan soups to buy at Asda
