12 Spicy Ingredients to Add a Kick to Your Soup

Hardly anyone complains about having soup, especially when knee-deep in soup season. On cold winter days, there’s nothing quite as comforting as a hot bowl of soup to do away with the chills. And sometimes it’s just about the only thing we crave when feeling a little under the weather, or even when we’re perfectly healthy, but want the feeling of an inviting, warm, cozy hug. 

With soups of all flavors and textures, there’s something for every palate. Plus, you can exercise as little or as much effort as you want and still get something delicious, from whipping up a speedy chunky vegetable soup with all your leftover produce in the fridge or turning it into a labor of love with an overnight bone broth for Vietnamese pho. Whatever your preferences, you can turn the heat up with a kick of something spicy. For people who love a little heat in their food, a spicy soup can be even more satisfying to warm up in winter or sweat it out in summer.

After all, soup is the perfect vessel for adding some chili, spicy pepper, or your favorite hot sauce. Whether you like just a mild kick or want your mouth to feel like it’s on fire, there are different options for every tolerance level. Here are some of the best spicy ingredients to make soup even hotter.

Sriracha has gone from being an unknown condiment in the United States to pretty much a common item in people’s pantries. This fiery sauce originates from Thailand and is usually made from ingredients like chilis, salt, sugar, garlic, and vinegar, among other things. It’s gained such huge popularity that you can find it almost anywhere and in all sorts of foods, from the obvious combination of Sriracha mayonnaise to the more surprising Sriracha donuts. This sauce is so delicious that it can go on just about anything, including eggs, fried rice, hot dogs, pizza, tuna salad, and, of course, soups! Sriracha is the perfect way to take your soup to the next level.

Sriracha not only adds the heat you may be after but also adds bags of flavor. It’s super tangy, savory, and even has a hint of sweetness, making it really well-rounded and a way to deepen the flavor of your soup, including egg drop soup. Plus, it couldn’t be easier to add it in. Simply squeeze a little Sriracha into your bowl of soup and mix it in. Nowadays, you can even find Sriracha with different levels of spice so that everyone can enjoy it, even those with lower spice tolerances. We love Sriracha for the convenience of buying it ready-made from the store, but if you like making things yourself, it’s also a relatively easy sauce to make with this homemade Sriracha recipe.

When looking for something to give soup a kick, there are plenty of options that people tend to reach for first, but there’s also the option of going straight to the source. Why not forego all the sauces, condiments, and mixes (which probably have additives and other flavors you might not necessarily want in your soup) and straight-up use some fresh chili peppers? In their fresh forms, they have all their natural heat, plus you can choose which types you prefer the flavors of, whether it’s a specific type of aji or just simple jalapeños. If you’re a chili aficionado and can handle a lot of fire, you can even use some fresh habaneros and really give your soup an out-of-this-world kick.

If you’re unsure how to incorporate these fresh ingredients into your soup, you can cook your broth with some chili peppers in it, like in this creamy taco soup recipe. Or, a much quicker way is to simply slice them up and add them at the end of cooking or straight into your bowl of soup before you eat as garnish. You can give it a good stir for some delicious, chili-spiked meal. This spicy coconut peanut soup recipe uses both incorporation methods. 

When handling fresh chili peppers, remember to take some precautions, like wearing gloves and absolutely not touching your eyes. You can also remove the pith if you want to make the peppers slightly milder, as the pith holds a lot of heat.

Piri-piri sauce (also called peri-peri or pili-pili) is a unique chili sauce that hails from African countries (especially those previously colonized by Portugal) like Mozambique and Angola. Piri-piri is both the name of the chili pepper itself and the sauce that’s made using it. The sauce is always made slightly differently depending on the preference of the household but often incorporates a number of ingredients like crushed fresh chilis with garlic, vinegar, oil, salt, onions, bay leaves, and lemon juice. Together, they make a spicy condiment that’s packed full of flavor and can instantly lift any dish you’re eating, making it great for adding to soup. 

The best part is that it’s a ready-to-eat sauce, and all you have to do is add a spoon or two to your bowl. The more kick you want, the more piri-piri you add. You can find bottles of piri-piri at African or Portuguese specialty food stores, but it’s also super simple to make yourself. You can use any chili pepper you find, though piri-piri or Thai chilis are recommended. Then, blend or process them with lemon juice, olive oil, garlic, onions, vinegar, and salt. Store it in a jar and throw it on anything you like when craving something spicy.

Sambal oelek is Indonesia’s version of a concocted hot sauce/paste that is always on the table. Different sambal variations might include spices, garlic, shrimp paste, and other flavor ingredients, but sambal oelek tends to be the simplest version. The term “oelek” refers to the pounding of chilis in the mortar, which is how many homes prepare a traditional sambal oelek.

You can find jars or bottles of sambal oelek in the international aisle of many large grocery stores, which will be the easiest way to add the condiment to your soup. Take note, however, that these store-bought versions do tend to be a little bit watered down. This may be perfectly fine for you as an introduction, but if you prefer to have a real kick, don’t be afraid of grounding some chilis and making your own mix of sambal oelek at home using a traditional recipe. It could be just what your dishes need to be a lot more delicious, spicy, and flavorful. Plus, a spoonful of homemade sambal oelek in your soup can make a boring meal into something fiery and sophisticated.

With all the new inventions and creations on the market, it can be a little overwhelming when choosing the perfect hot sauce. There are endless new flavors, twists, and collaborations, and sometimes, it feels like you need to be like a “sommelier” of hot sauce to decipher through all the different aromas and undertones to choose the right one. All of this can make you want to give up the search, but instead of giving up, why not reach for an old faithful that’s been consistent and present for well over a century? 

Tabasco is a classic, and there’s nothing wrong with going the tried and tested route. It’s the ultimate pantry staple for when you need to give something a little kick. While many newcomers entered the ring to compete with it, it’s undeniable that it still delivers delicious heat to any meal, including Mexican gazpacho soup.

Shaking a couple of drops of Tabasco into your soup couldn’t be easier. It has the perfect subtle heat and flavor that won’t overpower a dish, making it suitable for any cuisine. And, of course, there are numerous different flavors and heat levels of Tabasco, so you can always mix it up or go for something stronger or milder, depending on your needs.

While many of the ingredients on this list are in sauce form, that doesn’t mean you should rule out dry spices. Dry spices can work just as well as liquid ones, and depending on the spice, they can help you get a pure chili or pepper flavor into your soup without adding ingredients that you might not always want, like extra oil, vinegar, sugar, and salt. A great spice to add to soups is cayenne pepper. This spice is the ground form of cayenne peppers, and it gives you great cayenne flavor and heat in a dry, powder form.

With great taste and the ease of shaking your spice container into your soup, cayenne pepper is a convenient way to add some fire to your soup. Plus, you can put it in at any stage of the cooking, as it works just as well as a finishing seasoning as it does a base spice. An added bonus is all the potential health benefits that cayenne pepper has, including a number of beneficial nutrients it contains, as well as being a source of capsaicin, which is anti-inflammatory and contains antioxidants. So, there are certainly enough reasons to keep some cayenne pepper in your kitchen.

The rise in popularity of Korean cuisine is to thank for the fact that gochujang has now become a much more common supermarket ingredient in the United States. This fiery fermented paste is made from soybeans, red chilis, salt, glutinous rice, and sugar to deliver a thick crimson paste with a complex flavor. Gochujang is spicy, salty, sweet, and packed with umami, so it’s sure to give your soup all the depth of flavor and kick you want. It’s the ingredient that keeps on giving, and there are plenty of other applications for it. It can even be used in unexpected ways, like in this gochujang carbonara or even in your next chocolate cake.

While you can technically add gochujang to your soup after cooking, it’s the perfect base for a soup broth that you can build on with other ingredients. You can also use it to make some kimchi sundubu jjigae, a popular Korean stew that uses gochujang as the star flavor ingredient. If you can’t find gochujang in your local grocery store, make sure to visit H-Mart or any Asian grocery store, where you should find loads of these red tubs of goodness and even a variety of brands.

Thai cuisine is known for having long ingredient lists to make an involved yet balanced flavor, especially in sauce or soup. This incredibly technical cuisine is a crowd-pleaser, and thanks to ready-made pastes and mixes, we can make our favorite Thai dishes at home without needing 20 or 30 ingredients. Thai curry pastes can be a real lifesaver when you want to recreate your favorite red, green, yellow, or panang curry at home. But some cooks don’t know that they don’t have to use these pastes in one way only. They can be added for flavor as an extra oomph to marinades, sauces, and yes — soups. Thai curry paste can be the base of your next soup, such as Thai coconut soup, and choosing a spicy one can help you make a fiery soup that will get you instantly warmed up on the inside.

Using a ready-made curry paste is really simple, but you’ll need to start your soup by sauteeing the paste in some oil in a pot or saucepan. Once you’ve cooked it for a couple of minutes on medium heat, you’ll smell the delicious fragrances. It should brown slightly before you add it to the soup you’ve been cooking for a few hours already, or you can simply add your liquid of choice to the sauce, such as some broth, water, or even some coconut milk, to create the soup.

Looking for ways to add spice to your soup can be an opportunity to explore new flavors and ingredients. There are plenty of easy choices for giving your soup a kick, but there are also some less obvious ones that offer an exciting flavor experience. This is where XO sauce could come in handy. It’s a flavor bomb, and just a small amount of it can take your soup to new heights.

XO sauce is a relatively new invention crafted in Hong Kong in the 1980s. It can be a little expensive as it’s made from some high-end ingredients, like dried scallops, shrimp, salty pork, or even abalone. This makes it full of umami, and other ingredients like chilis, shallots, garlic, and other aromatics make it a well-balanced sauce that’s packed with flavor. It’s totally worth every penny once you taste how it can transform your humble bowl of soup like an easy wonton soup with just a teaspoon or two. Tracking down a bottle of XO sauce isn’t the easiest, but ask around at an Asian grocery store to be directed to one.

There are plenty of cuisines that incorporate spice in various ways, so it’s always a good idea to look to those for inspiration when searching for hot sauces and condiments. Mexican cuisine is known for its use of diverse hot chilis of all kinds, including strength of heat and flavors, so one doesn’t have to look far to find a great Mexican hot sauce to add to the pantry. While there are several to choose from, Cholula hot sauce is a great option and is super popular for a reason. It’s full of layered chili flavor from its mix of arbol and piquin peppers, and it can pack a punch.

You can mix some Cholula hot sauce into your soup and get a spicy, great-tasting meal in a cinch. Plus, with a selection of different flavors and levels of spice, you can find a Cholula bottle for all kinds of tastes and preferences. It’s just as good on some eggs as it is on some tacos, a salad dressing, or in a brothy or chunky soup of your choice. Mix some into a hearty tortilla soup to amp up the flavor even more.

For those looking for a unique way to give your soup a kick and want to move away from chili, Sichuan peppers (sometimes spelled Szechuan) are the perfect choice. They are quite unlike chili peppers in a number of ways. Firstly, they’re not a chili pepper but are, in fact, a type of berry. Secondly, the heat of Sichuan pepper isn’t an obvious type of heat like chilis. Sichuan pepper gives off a tingly sensation that builds as you eat more. If you’re not familiar with it, it can be a really interesting experience to try it for the first time, and once you’re past the strange tingling, you’ll likely want to keep going back for more.

You can simply crush and sprinkle some Sichuan pepper into your broth, or you can make a delicious chili oil with it to drizzle over any soup. To make a spicy chili oil with Sichuan peppers, infuse the peppers with some oil over medium heat. You can mix in other flavor elements like cinnamon, cloves, and garlic to get an even more delicious flavor.

This spice originates from Syria, where the peppers were named after the city of Aleppo. Nowadays, however, it’s more likely to find Aleppo pepper produced in Turkey, but this red spice is popular all over the Middle East, Turkey, and the Levant. It’s a spice that seasons and adds a chili kick to food. Believed to be much more flavorful than regular red pepper, Aleppo pepper has a fruity and smoky complexity to it and can be a potent substitute to use instead of cayenne pepper or other chili powder.

Shake some ground Aleppo pepper straight into your soup at any stage of cooking or eating, and you’ll experience a magnificent elevated flavor and a decent amount of heat, but not so much that it will be too difficult to handle. You can find Aleppo pepper at some larger mainstream supermarkets or at Turkish, Middle Eastern, or even Indian grocery stores.