The Cheesy Bread Bowl Tip To Take Your Soups To A New Level

A warm bowl of soup. A gooey grilled cheese. When it comes to this classic comfort food combo, the only thing better than eating them together is melding them into one decadent dish. Oh yes, it's possible. Rather than dipping your sandwich into your soup, you can try slurping it out of a wonderfully cheesy bread bowl. While it's true that even a basic bread bowl can elevate any dining experience, layering your loaf with cheese before pouring in the soup is guaranteed to take your edible vessel to a whole new level.  

The best part? You can apply this genius tip to just about any of your favorite soup and cheese pairings. Just remember that a thicker soup is key if you wish to prevent a soggy bread bowl, though you certainly shouldn't run out of options there. If you love a rich French onion soup, for example, you can load up your bread with creamy Gruyère. Craving a hearty roasted tomato soup? Balance out its zestiness with some mild and melty yellow American cheese. And if some good old-fashioned broccoli cheddar soup is on the menu, play up its flavors by stacking your bread bowl with a second helping of cheddar.

Now that you've got some mouthwatering combinations in mind, the next step is nailing the construction. Luckily, a grilled cheese bread bowl is not as hard to build as it may seem. And, in fact, there are a few ways to go about it.

The first approach you can take is to prepare your loaf like you would cheesy pull-apart bread. You can start by cutting out that circular "bowl" in the center, which will contain your soup. Then, slice the surrounding area of the bread crosswise, as recipe developer Miriam Hahn demonstrates in Tasting Table's French onion pull-apart bread recipe, and either leave the slices straight across, or turn and cut again to create cube or diamond shapes. Do not cut the bread all the way through, though, as you want to preserve the integrity of the loaf. 

Next, simply fill in all the crevices with the cheese of your choice and bake it in the oven until it's all nice and melty. Once the cheese has softened, you can pour in your soup and pull apart your "grilled cheese" slices as you go. However, you can also go the cheesy volcano route, which is the preferred method of culinary creators like Perry Santanachote and TikTok user @spilling_the_sweet_tea, whose version is pictured above. 

In this case, you'll slice a boule loaf horizontally so that you end up with a few thick, flat bread rounds. Slather each piece with butter, give them a golden grill, then add your cheese while they're on the griddle. When it begins to melt, stack each slice back on top of each other to rebuild your bowl, hollow out the center, and voilà — you've got a stacked grilled cheese bowl ready to soak up all the flavors of your soup.