Soups are very popular in Somalia. They are made using meat, vegetables or a combination of meat and vegetables. Soups are often consumed at dinner time.

Ndolé (Bitterleaf) Soup is made from a variety of ingredients that, for the non-African, might seem to be an odd combination. The bitterleaf (also called bitter leaf) adds a distinctive flavor to the soup, but if none is available substitute spinach or other greens. Other ingredients include fresh shrimp or prawns, dried, salted, or smoked fish (such as cod), raw shelled peanuts, fresh ginger root, ripe tomatoes, thyme and salt, black pepper, cayenne pepper or red pepper.

Molokhia is a soup that combines chicken and molokhia leaves with tomato paste, hot chilli pepper, black pepper, garlic, ground coriander, ground cayenne pepper or red pepper and olive oil.

Lablabi is another popular soup in Somalia. Chick peas, day-old bread, lemon juice, and olive oil (and harissa hot sauce) are the basic ingredients needed to make this dish.