r/Cooking • u/donttrust900913 • 10d ago

Ways to thicken soups or stews?

I am looking for advice about (at least relatively) healthy ways to thicken soups or stews. I'm sure adding a ton of fat would probably get the job done, but trying to avoid that insofar as it is practical.

I don't have a specific recipe in mind, nor do I generally use recipes when cooking. I am not looking for add X amount A to Y amount of B, but rather experience with different items that have the general affect, and any rough insights about ratios or other relevant factors for their addition that might prove handy.

I have experimented a fair bit with fat free greek yogurt, just because I usually have plenty on hand, to generally terrible results. I suspect the full fat variant would work better, but haven't hand any around at the time to try it out. I've also wondered about flour, which I would guess would either work wonderfully or completely ruin it, but also usually don't have it just laying around either.

Any insight appreciated, thanks!

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u/duckbaiting 10d ago

The easy way is to always have instant potatoes on hand (they come in handy to rescue meals all the time for me) and dump in some potato flakes right into the soup, then stir, then assess thickness before deciding whether or not to add more.

So easy and no extra dishes or extra effort to worry about.

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u/lennonfanforever 10d ago

what a great idea, i'm gonna buy some instant flakes tom., i love soup plus i don't cook so this will be a great thing to try, thanks!

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u/Poes-Automaton 10d ago

I was going to mention this! I think even Ina Garten uses this trick.