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Making soup? Don’t have any dill? Continue reading to see some of the best dill substitutes in soup recipes that you can use instead.
When making certain types of soups like mushroom soup, cauliflower soup, salmon soup, or potato soup, dill takes the flavors of these to another level. Its fresh, grassy, and lemony, anise-licorice flavor will gently enhance the flavor of soups.
However, if you don’t have any dill at the time of making any of these soups, here are the best dill substitutes to use instead.
Note, if a soup recipe features dill as the main ingredient, like a creamy potato dill soup, I’d personally wait until I have dill to make this type of soup. Therefore, most of these substitutes work best in soup recipes where dill is not one of the most prominent ingredients.
So what are the substitutes for dill in soup?
The best herbs that can be used to replace dill in soup are herbs like fennel, tarragon, thyme, dried dill, and chervil.
Each of these will be discussed further below.
Best dill substitutes in soup
Fennel
Fennel is a great dill substitute for soup. Fennel won’t work in recipes where dill is the main ingredient, but it can work in many types of soups including pasta soups, white bean soups, potato soups, and more.
Tarragon
Tarragon can act as a great dill substitute in soup as well, especially in creamy potato soups. While many creamy potato soup recipes use fresh or dried dill, there are quite a few in which fresh or dried tarragon makes a lovely addition such as this creamy potato soup recipe with tarragon.
Thyme
Thyme is a great sub for dill in soups. Even though thyme is earthy and minty compared to the grassy, fresh, citrusy flavor of dill, it can be used in soups like Hungarian mushroom soup since the main ingredients in this type of soup are mushrooms and Hungarian paprika. Not dill.
It works because both thyme and dill are usually used in this type of soup in, small, yet similar quantities. Therefore, if you’re making Hungarian mushroom soup and you have no dill, replace it with thyme at a 1:1 ratio.
Both dried thyme and fresh thyme will work here.
Chervil
Chervil is another worthy substitute for dill in soups. While chervil does not look anything like dill, this herb does have a mild parsley flavor with subtle anise-like, licorice-like notes. It works great in creamy potato soups, mushroom soups, and more. It is best used at the end of the cooking process.
Dried Dill
If you’re making a soup recipe that calls for fresh dill, chances are you will be able to use dried dill as a substitute, especially if the fresh dill isn’t used to garnish the soup. Simply use 3x less dried dill to replace the fresh. That means if the soup recipe calls for 1 tablespoon of fresh dill, replace this with 1 teaspoon of dried dill instead. Dried dill is perfect as a replacement for fresh dill in salmon soup recipes.
There you have it! 5 effective ways to substitute for dill in soups. Most of these dill replacements are great for soup recipes where dill is not a very prominent ingredient and most of these herbs are very easy to find. Happy cooking!
More easy substitutes for dill in specific recipes
- Substitutes for dill in salmon
- Substitutes for dill in tzatziki
- Substitutes for dill in ranch dressing
