This luscious vegan noodle soup tastes like comfort in a bowl—and an awful lot like chicken noodle soup! The chicken-soup flavor comes from a combination of dried herbs (marjoram, sage, and thyme) also found in poultry seasoning, the herb blend often used in Thanksgiving stuffing. Because there’s no real chicken, the soup cooks quickly and is ready to enjoy after just 30 minutes on the stove. To give it an appetizing golden hue, add a pinch of turmeric along with the herbs.

Recipe from drmcdougall.com

By Heather McDougall,

Ingredients

  • 1 cup chopped onion
  • 1 cup chopped celery
  • 1 cup chopped carrots
  • 6 cups vegetable stock
  • 1 teaspoon low-sodium tamari or soy sauce
  • ½ teaspoon dried marjoram, crushed
  • ½ teaspoon dried sage, crushed
  • ¼ teaspoon dried thyme, crushed
  • Freshly ground black pepper
  • 3 cups dried brown rice fettuccine noodles or whole-wheat pasta, broken

Instructions

  • Combine the onion, celery, carrots, stock, tamari, marjoram, sage, thyme, and pepper in a 4-quart Dutch oven. Bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat to medium-low; cover and simmer for 20 minutes.
  • Stir in the noodles; return to a boil. Cook for 10 minutes more or until noodles are tender.

Comments (51)

(5 from 23 votes)

Recipe Rating

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Mia

This soup is delicious! It is perfect for a cold night.

Garland Schonauer

Amazing soup! This is a staple for me and the wife now. Cook it exactly as the recipe suggests with one exception … 1 Tbsp liquid aminos instead of 1 tsp. Goes great with some rustic bread.

Claudia Martindale

Added some soy curls and it was delicious.

cm

if you don't sautee the basic vegetables before starting the soup there is something really wrong with your culinary skills! i started with the sautee of onion carrot celery like a normal chef because that's how you make soups good and then did the rest and it was great. i used chickpea spaghetti pasta.

Charity

Awesome soup! I added some mashed chickpeas for protein. The flavor was perfect!

Jackie

Really delicious, such an easy and quick recipe. I will definitely make it again.

Helen B

Would not make this again. Basically just tasted like the broth I used. Very bland. I added garlic, extra veges, tomato paste to try to give it some flavor. Still just ok. It was edible with the additions but there are much better soup recipes in my rotation. Won't be making this again.

Renee

This soup is absolutely delicious!

Marta Illes

This is sooo good - I did add some vegan chicken and zero noodles to it but even if i didnt it would still be delicious

Lee

I made this today. Followed recipe but used a 1.5 tsp turkey & gravy dry seasoning spice mix and skipped the pasta. To make it more filling I added 1 cup dry quinoa to soup and rice noodle raman block broken into pieces. So good!!

Tracy

I’m really surprised; this seemed to simple to compensate for no chicken but it was really good. I sautéed the veggies and herbs, added the broth and noodles, set it for four minutes and released the pressure as soon as it was done. I just winged the measurements for my three quart instant pot.

Ronnie

Great flavors - I use a frozen mirepoix mix when I don't have fresh veggies on hand.

Adam

Just made this, really good. I made it as the recipe instructed.

Adam

How much is typical serving? 2 cups?

janine

The best soup! It is so flavorful and easy to make.

Darlene

Didn't you used to give a nutritional breakdown on your recipes? Why aren't you doing that? It seems nobody especially likes to give the sodium count anymore.

Kristi

I agree Darlene!!! I am diabetic and also watching salt and other things. Not even a serving size or any information makes it so difficult to follow my plan :(

Sylvia

I agree about sodium. View Dr. Greger’s video on nutritionfacts.org for the warning about sodium’s effect.

Arlene

Love this quick and easy soup recipe. It was delicious and did not lack flavor! Thank you FOK!

Noelle

This looks creamy in the pic. Is it? I'm not seeing any ingredients that would make it "thick" or "creamy". Thank you.

ray

Try scooping some of the soup into a separate bowl and then with an immersion blender, purée it and add back into the rest of the soup.

M

its the pasta/noodle that you put in to cook together with the soup that pulls the starch into the soup and make it "creamy" looking

Glenn A.

My mouth is watering just reading this recipe, so I intend to make some this week. One question, for anyone who has already made this: What is the equivalent of "3 cups of pasta" in packaged dry weight? Thanks!

Glenn A.

Nevermind. I calc'd it at roughly 13.5 oz dry. Ergo: use a 16 oz package of noodles.

Nikki Alvarado

Kitchen Bouquet gives a nice color (using a VERY small amount) to broths and a nice flavor too.

Ashley @WFPB101

This was quick and easy! You could easily prep the ingredients beforehand and have everything ready to throw in. I doubled the recipe for my larger family and had plenty of leftovers.

Elizabeth Nigh

Forks over knives is Whole food plant based and doesn't use chicken.

Linda

There's no chicken in it. Just says chicken flavored because of the spices used in it like chicken noodle soup

Michelle

This is quick, easy and delicious! Part of our regular rotation. Yum! Thanks FOK!

Sandra

This is my "go to"-Soup whenever I had a long working day and need something quick and comforting. Sometimes I add chickpeas or kindney beans.

Nicole

So good!

Gina

This is the best soup I have ever had. I am not a fan of celery in soup so I double the carrots and sue brown Pad Thai Rice Noodles. Perfection!

Jennifer Draper

This soup is absolutely delicious and is perfect for a cold winter day!!

Rebecca Ard

This is the best! I will definitely make it again.

Megan

I love this easy, comfort food recipe!!

Patricia Torres

how much poultry seasoning would you use?

ido

3/4 tsp worked well, I added with the other spices because I wanted it to have a strong herb flavor. Add it in, stir, taste, and add more if you'd like.

Patricia Torres

can this be cooked in instant pot? if so, how would you do it? Im new to my instant pot and anxious to try.

Patricia Torres

Is there a way to cook this in the instant pot?

Lu

Put all the ingredients in the pot except the noodles. I would guess set it to 4 minutes at high pressure and then quick release. Depends on how soft or al dente you like your veggies. I would cook the noodles separately so they don't use up too much of the broth. Or you can add them with the other ingredients or afterward and set the pressure cooker to Saute. But watch them. You can also Google vegan noodle soup in pressure cooker for some other timings. Don't know why this questions doesn't get a response from the author. It is a common question on soups and stews. Also, Vegan Under Pressure by Jill Nussinow has lots of great recipes and timings for all kinds of foods. Check if your library has it. Hope this helps.

Veronica

So comforting !!

Charlene

Can this be cooked in a slow coo& for how long.

Keasley Lewis

Does it have to be in a Dutch oven ?

Jessica N.

I made mine in a pot and I substituted noodles with 3 cups elbow macaroni. I ended up having more noodle than liquid in the end but its still delicious.

Daniella

You didn’t say what is marjoram and you didn’t say how many comes of water.

Lisa N

Hi Daniella, Marjoram is a spice that I can find in my local grocery store. I bet you can leave it out if you can't find it and the soup would still be delicious. In the recipe it calls for 6 coups of vegetable stock. Thats where the water is, in the stock. I can find this is my local grocery store and cooks who are better than I am can make their own, home-made stock by cooking vegetables in water to give the water a good flavor.

Darrell

Marjoram is a mild oregano type herb

Stacey Coia Gabryszek

Hubby was missing chicken noodle soup. This did the trick! Thanks!

Jessica S.

I love this recipe. I make batches of it when I need comfort food or when I'm getting under the weather or just because it's tasty.

Gregg

Is there a brand of vegetable stock that would allow this light colored soup? All I’ve found are orange in color. Or do people make their own stock? I really want to try this.

Tanya C.

I use bullion for my stock Greg! I find it tends not to have that orange coloring which is off putting to me. I use “vegan chicken” for the most part, there multiple companies that we like. Edward and Sons seems the most readily available in my super market and I like the flavor best but it’s cubes and can be spendy as much as I use. (Their beef one is the best for traditional beef dishes I feel like) There’s a powder one I use also, I’ve only found it on Amazon- Orrington Farms is the brand I use on that. They have two kinds- vegan and “normal” so make sure you get the vegan one!!! I find one tsp per cup is more then enough for the broth flavor (directions say two) This company have a pork one also that’s nice in bean soups- it’s pretty high in sodium tho so I only use it for special occasions myself. Hope that helps!!!

About the Author

Headshot of Heather McDougall, director of the McDougall Program

About the Author

Heather McDougall

Heather McDougall is the director of the McDougall Program in Santa Rosa, California. Heather also develops healthy, family-friendly recipes for the McDougall Newsletter. For more from her, follow the McDougall Program on Instagram.
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