In Benin, the soup is served in almost every meal before the main course. Soups are prepared with or without meat with a variety of vegetables and other ingredients.

Calalu is a very popular soup made of palm oil, any kind of meat, greens like cassava, collard greens, mustard greens, spinach, kale; peeled and chopped tomatoes, dried shrimps, minced garlic, chopped onion, red pepper and salt. Palm butter soup is a delicious soup served mainly in the northern provinces of Benin. Palm butter soup contains palm nuts, onion, garlic, tomatoes, smoked fish or any other kind of meat. As in the Beninese cuisine you can find a lot of meals which include peanuts, the people from Benin use peanuts as an ingredient for soups. A traditional soup is the peanut soup made with peanuts, chicken, tomatoes, garlic, salt, black pepper, peanut butter and carrots.

Pepper soup is a traditional soup from the northern parts of Benin. The ingredients are goat meat, onion salt, chilly pepper, black pepper, mint, utavi leafs, pepper soup seasonings and dried shrimps.