Soup Bowls

Often the plates are already in the cupboard and you are looking for soup bowls to go with them. Just like in our store, we pay attention to the capacity, to a handle, and to whether the bowl is microwave and oven safe. We start with the capacity, as a common complaint in reviews is a beautiful bowl that turned out to be too small for soup as a main meal.

Choose your soup bowl based on capacity, not width

A bowl of soup as a starter is about 250 ml, and for soup as a meal, you are looking at around 400 ml. For a meal soup, you should look for a bowl that holds more than 400 ml. The width in the product name helps you only halfway, as the height and shape of the bowl also determine how much it can hold.

Three bowls of almost the same width show how much the capacity can vary:

• ASA Selection Soup Bowls / Bowls Saisons Sand ø 15 cm / 350 ml - 4 pieces: 15 cm wide and 350 ml, enough for a bowl of soup as a starter.

ASA Selection Soup Bowls / Bowls Saisons Sand

• Cookinglife Soup Bowls / Bowls Serene Sand ø 14 cm - Earthenware - 4 pieces from our own brand: 14 cm wide, 7 cm high and 580 ml, spacious enough for soup as a meal.

Cookinglife Soup Bowls / Bowls Serene Sand

• Cookinglife Soup Bowls / Bowls Stratton ø 15.5 cm - 6 pieces: 15.5 cm wide, 7 cm high and 850 ml, for soup with plenty of filling.

Cookinglife Soup Bowls / Bowls Stratton

If the capacity is not listed for a bowl, then the height is an indication, but you can be sure only with the ml included. If you are satisfied with the bowl you currently have, fill it with water and pour it into a measuring cup: this way you know how many ml you are looking for.

As an all-round size, we recommend 16 cm in our store, from breakfast to dessert. Even with that size, the capacity determines whether there is room for soup as a meal: the bowls from Costa Nova of 16 cm have 670 ml. If you are mainly looking for a bowl for yoghurt or oatmeal, you have more choice among all our bowl.

When is a soup bowl with a handle handy?

A bowl with hot soup also becomes hot, especially when it comes out of the microwave. Microwave safe means that the bowl can withstand the microwave; it says nothing about how hot it becomes in your hand. With a handle, you can hold it without touching the hot wall. A handle does take up space, and bowls with handles stack less easily on the shelf.

The Cosy & Trendy Soup Bowls / Bowls Soup Creme ø 12 cm / 450 ml - 4 pieces have two handles and 450 ml in a bowl of 12 cm. We also have the same bowl in green, ochre, blue, and in a mixed set. They are dishwasher and microwave safe; the oven is not listed among their features.

Cosy & Trendy Soup Bowls / Bowls Soup Creme

If you prefer to hold the bowl by one handle, you can take the BonBistro Soup Bowls / Bowls Yong Squito with Handle 14 x 14 cm / 520 ml - 6 pieces, a square porcelain bowl with 520 ml. This bowl is also dishwasher and microwave safe.

BonBistro Soup Bowls / Bowls Yong Squito with Handle

The Cosy & Trendy Soup Bowl Soup of the Day White ø 11 cm / 500 ml is a single bowl with one handle. Dishwasher and microwave are not listed among the features of this bowl.

Which bowls are microwave safe and which are oven safe?

If you often heat your soup in the bowl itself, first check if the microwave is listed among the features. For most of our soup bowls, it is included, but not for all, nor for every bowl from our own brand. If the microwave is not listed, it is better to heat the soup in the pan.

Where an oven limit is mentioned, it is usually 180 °C; the bowls from Costa Nova can withstand up to 250 °C. In our recipe for French onion soup with cheese croutons, the soup goes under the grill at 220 degrees. That temperature is below the 250 °C of the Costa Nova bowls, such as the Costa Nova Soup Bowls / Bowls Casafina Eivissa Sand Beige ø 16 cm - 6 pieces. The Eivissa bowls have 670 ml and can be used in the oven, dishwasher, microwave, and freezer.

Costa Nova Soup Bowls / Bowls Casafina Eivissa Sand Beige

A bowl up to 180 °C can be used in an oven that is not hotter, for example, to keep soup warm. A bowl from the oven is very hot, so use an oven glove to handle it.

If the bowl comes out of the fridge with some leftover soup, let it come to room temperature before it goes into the oven. For some bowls, the product information also warns that a large temperature change can cause cracks.

Which soup bowl matches your plates?

The easiest match is a bowl from the same series as your plates. If you have plates from the Bistro series of Cosy & Trendy, then the Cosy & Trendy Soup Bowls / Bowls Bistro Vintage White ø 16 cm - 6 pieces belong with them. They are white and made of Portuguese earthenware.

Cosy & Trendy Soup Bowls / Bowls Bistro Vintage White

With the Flower plates from our own brand, the Cookinglife Soup Bowls / Bowls Flower White ø 14 cm - 6 pieces. They are dishwasher and microwave safe.

Cookinglife Soup Bowls / Bowls Flower White

If your plates come from somewhere else, the soup bowl does not have to come from the same series. With white plates, the bowl can bring colour to the table, such as the Cookinglife Soup Bowls / Bowls Nola Blue ø 17 cm – 6 pieces: wide bowls of 800 ml.

Cookinglife Soup Bowls / Bowls Nola Blue

If you are starting completely anew, first choose which dinnerware suits you. A dinnerware set often includes bowls, alongside dinner plates and breakfast plates.

Spoon marks and rings on the shelf: here’s how to tackle them

Almost all our soup bowls are dishwasher safe. With soup, the spoon scrapes over the same bottom repeatedly, and over time, grey marks can remain there. If you see grey scratches from a spoon, try to wipe them away with a soft cloth and some baking soda.

A ring on the shelf or on a wooden table can come from the bottom edge of an earthenware bowl. For some of our earthenware bowls, also from our own brand, that edge is not glazed or still damp after the dishwasher. A tea towel along the bottom edge prevents that ring.

Porcelain does not leave such a ring according to our own product information. If you prefer to unload the dishwasher without drying, porcelain is the easier choice. An example is the white Cosy & Trendy Soup Bowls / Bowls Moon White ø 14.5 cm - 4 pieces, with 490 ml per bowl and also suitable for the microwave.

Cosy & Trendy Soup Bowls / Bowls Moon White

How do you get enough soup bowls for Christmas or a birthday?

We sell only a few soup bowls individually; most come in packs of six or four.

If you often set the table for a large family, take one pack more than you currently need. This way, you can account for breakage, and the next time soup is served, there will be an equal row on the table again. For one or two spare bowls, the BonBistro Soup Bowls / Bowls Yong Squito with Handle 14 x 14 cm / 520 ml are also available individually.

Twelve bowls or more fit most easily in the cupboard if they stack inside each other. Stackable are among others Stratton, Saisons from ASA Selection and Eivissa from Costa Nova.

When is a more expensive soup bowl worth it?

The bowls that can go into the oven up to 250 °C, those from Costa Nova, belong to the more expensive soup bowls in our range. If you gratin your onion soup under the grill, that is a reason to choose Costa Nova.

If the soup only goes from the pan to the table, then the capacity counts most. From our own brand and from Cosy & Trendy, we have affordable bowls with a generous capacity that are dishwasher and microwave safe. Four bowls in one box may seem cheaper in the list than six, while you may pay more per bowl.