Soup Base substitute

Best substitute

Bouillon Cubes or Granules

Use 1 tsp soup base = 1 bouillon cube, or 1 tsp granules, for every cup of water

Best for soups

Different taste

The most direct swap and almost certainly in your cupboard. Both are concentrated salt plus savoury flavouring, and both dissolve into broth. What changes is character: cubes and granules generally taste saltier, drier and more obviously seasoned, with a slightly powdery finish, while a good paste base tastes rounder and more genuinely roasted because it contains actual cooked meat solids. In a stew nobody notices; in a simple broth they do.

Other soup base substitutes

Ranked, with the exact amount to use

2Boxed or Canned Broth in Place of the Water
Different texture
Use 1 cup ready-to-use broth, and no base at all for every 1 tsp soup base + 1 cup water
The cleanest and best-tasting option, and the swap most people get wrong.
What changes
Ready-to-use broth is not concentrated, so it replaces the water rather than joining it. Do that and the dish tastes fuller and less salty, with more of a real simmered flavour. Add broth and the base together and you produce something that tastes like a salt lick. Boxed broth is also thinner in body, so a sauce will need a little more thickening.
Best for
soups, risotto and pilaf, pan sauces, braises, chowder
Check whether the carton says low-sodium. Regular broth is already seasoned, so taste before adding any salt.
3Homemade Stock, Reduced
Close match
Use 1 cup stock reduced to about ¼ cup, or simply use 1 cup stock in place of the water for every 1 tsp soup base
The best flavour available and the only option with real gelatin body, which is what makes a soup feel silky and a pan sauce cling to a spoon.
What changes
Reduced homemade stock tastes rounder, meatier and much less salty than any base, so the dish needs seasoning separately. If you have stock, do not bother reducing it for a soup; just use it as the liquid and season at the end.
Best for
clear soups, matzo ball soup, risotto, sauces, braises
Only reduce unsalted stock. Reducing a salted stock or a base solution concentrates the salt into something unusable.
4Miso Paste
Taste and texture differ
Use 2 tsp white or yellow miso for every 1 tsp soup base
The best vegetarian option and a genuinely good broth in its own right.
What changes
It brings salt and deep savouriness in the same spoonful, which is exactly the job soup base does. The differences are visible and tasteable: miso clouds the liquid so nothing will be clear, and it is noticeably sweeter, softer and slightly beany rather than meaty. White miso is mild enough to pass in most soups; red miso is much stronger and will take over.
Best for
vegetarian and vegan soups, noodle broth, vegetable stews, glazes
Whisk it with a ladle of hot liquid first, and stir it in near the end. Hard boiling dulls miso and makes it taste flat.
5Demi-Glace or Glace de Viande
Different texture
Use 1 tbsp demi-glace, plus about ¼ tsp salt for every 1 tsp soup base
For meat-based dishes this is the luxury version.
What changes
It has far more roasted depth and real gelatin, so a sauce made with it gleams and coats in a way base never manages. Two practical notes: it is much less salty, so you must season separately, and it is far less concentrated by volume, so a teaspoon of base needs a whole tablespoon of demi-glace. It is also only ever beef or veal flavoured, so it is wrong in a chicken or vegetable soup.
Best for
pan sauces, beef stews, gravy, onion soup, braises
Because it is a wet, jelly-like concentrate, deduct the added volume from another liquid in a thick sauce.
6Soy Sauce with Garlic and Onion Powder
Taste and texture differ
Use 2 tsp soy sauce + ⅛ tsp garlic powder + ⅛ tsp onion powder + a pinch of sugar for every 1 tsp soup base
The true nothing-in-the-house fallback, and it is more capable than it sounds because soy sauce provides both salt and glutamate savouriness.
What changes
The catch is that it tastes and looks like soy sauce: your broth turns brown and carries a clear fermented note. Perfectly good in a mushroom soup, a noodle broth or a gravy. Unconvincing in a chicken soup or a light vegetable soup, where it reads as out of place.
Best for
mushroom soup, noodle broth, gravy, stews, emergency substitution
Use light or reduced-sodium soy sauce if the soup needs to stay pale, and add no other salt until you taste it.

What is Soup Base?

Soup Base is Soup base is the concentrated salty paste, and sometimes powder, of cooked meat or vegetables and salt that you stir into hot water to make broth, sold in tubs under names like soup base, soup concentrate and soup starter.

Cooking tips

Keep this conversion table in your head and most substitution problems solve themselves. 1 teaspoon soup base plus 1 cup hot water equals 1 cup broth. 1 bouillon cube equals about 1 teaspoon soup base equals about 1 teaspoon bouillon granules. 1 cup of boxed or canned broth is already 1 cup of broth, so it replaces the water and the base together. One 10.5 ounce can of condensed consomme plus one can of water makes roughly 2 1/2 cups of strong broth.
Soup base is roughly comparable to salt in its seasoning effect, in the region of half a teaspoon of salt per teaspoon of base for many brands, so always season the dish last. The most common way this goes wrong is adding a substitute broth and the recipe's full salt.
Dissolve paste base in a little hot liquid before it joins the pot. Spooned in as a lump it clings to the bottom of the pan and scorches, and burnt base tastes acrid enough to ruin a soup.
Never reduce a base-made broth to concentrate the flavour. All you concentrate is the salt. If you want a more intense soup, reduce unsalted stock instead, or add more base to less water from the start.
For a dish where clarity is the whole point, such as matzo ball soup, pho or a consomme course, no paste or cube substitute will look right. They all cloud. If clarity matters, use real strained stock; if it does not, base is completely fine.

Frequently asked questions

How much soup base equals one bouillon cube?

About 1 teaspoon, and both make roughly 1 cup of broth when dissolved in 1 cup of water. Brands vary, so if your base looks like a thick dark paste it may be stronger than a light-coloured one. Mix it into the water first and taste the liquid before it goes into the dish.

Can I use broth instead of soup base?

Yes, and it usually tastes better, but replace the water rather than adding to it. If a recipe wants 1 teaspoon of base plus 1 cup of water, use 1 cup of broth and no base. Because ready-to-use broth is already seasoned and has less body than a base solution, taste before salting and expect a slightly thinner sauce.

What is the difference between soup base, bouillon and stock?

Stock is the finished liquid, simmered from bones and vegetables, and needs no water. Soup base and soup concentrate are thick pastes of cooked meat or vegetables and salt that you dilute, typically 1 teaspoon per cup. Bouillon is the dried version of the same idea, as a cube or granules, and tends to be the saltiest and simplest tasting of the three.

Can I just leave soup base out?

Only if you replace the liquid with something flavourful, because base is usually both the flavour and the seasoning of the dish. Water alone gives you a genuinely bland soup. In an emergency use water plus about 1/2 teaspoon of salt per cup and a pinch each of garlic and onion powder, and add a Parmesan rind, a splash of soy sauce or a spoonful of tomato paste for savoury depth.

What is a good vegetarian substitute for soup base?

White or yellow miso at 2 teaspoons per teaspoon of base is the best all-rounder, adding salt and savoury depth together. Vegetable bouillon cubes swap 1:1 with the base and are more neutral. For a clear vegetarian broth, a kombu and dried shiitake steep is the cleanest, since miso will always make the liquid cloudy.

Related substitutes

More soups substitutes

Soup Base substitute

Other soup base substitutes

2Boxed or Canned Broth in Place of the Water

3Homemade Stock, Reduced

4Miso Paste

5Demi-Glace or Glace de Viande

6Soy Sauce with Garlic and Onion Powder