How to Thicken Soup with Eggs

One of my favorite ways to thicken a soup is with eggs! It is one of the lesser known ways to thicken soups that I love to use because it results in a rich flavor, silky texture, and a creaminess without adding cream! It is great for people who don’t want to thicken with a flour or starch, and also adds healthy proteins and fats! It is done through a process called “tempering eggs.”

Tempering eggs is a technique used to slowly raise the temperature of eggs without causing them to scramble. This is particularly important in recipes that involve adding eggs to hot liquids, such as when making custards, sauces, soups, or desserts. By gradually introducing hot liquid to the eggs, you ensure a smooth and homogenous mixture, preventing the eggs from curdling or coagulating.

How to Temper Eggs:

• Whisk eggs or egg yolks in a bowl until very smooth.
• Continue whisking and slowly add the hot liquid, one ladle at a time to incorporate into the eggs. This slowly raises the temperature of the eggs, instead of adding a lot of hot liquid at one time which would scramble the eggs.
• Continue adding ladles of hot liquid until the eggs are above 160*F. This means they have been correctly tempered and are now cooked through and won’t scramble. You can now use the tempered eggs as needed.

Troubleshooting Tempering into Soup:

• Reasons your egg scrambled or cooagulated while still adding hot liquid:
  • You added the hot liquid too fast
  • You added too much hot liquid at once
  • You were not whisking fast enough
• Reasons your eggs scrambled once you incorporated it back into the soup after tempering:
  • Most likely, your eggs were not tempered to a hot enough temperature. This usually happens when the hot soup you are adding, isn’t actually hot enough. It needs to be simmering!
  • You didn’t add enough of the hot liquid to the tempering process, so it didn’t bring it up to temperature.
  • You didn’t check the temperature of the tempered eggs. It must be 160*F or above before you can add it to the soup.

How Many Eggs Do I Need to Use?

For every 6 cups of soup, you need 2 whole eggs, or 4 egg yolks. They have the same thickening result. Egg yolks are a little silkier and richer.