When it comes to great food debates, “Is cereal a soup?” ranks right up there with “Is a hot dog a sandwich?” And while you may not have given it much thought before now, we can practically guarantee you’ll be mulling over the question all day. After all, you eat cereal from a bowl, with a spoon—you know, like soup.

Then again, cereal is eaten cold in the morning, likely with your choice of milk. So it’s not soup, right? Well, soups like gazpacho are served cold. And some soups have grains in them, like cereal.

It’s enough to make your head spin. Whichever side you’re on, the “Is cereal a soup?” debate definitely qualifies as food fact trivia. Keep reading for everything to consider when deciding the all-important cereal-soup question.

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First, what is soup?

Um, hot liquid that you slurp with a spoon? Correct, but if you’re looking for an official definition, you’ll have to consult Merriam-Webster. According to the dictionary, soup is “a liquid food especially with a meat, fish or vegetable stock as a base and often containing pieces of solid food.”

Dictionary.com, however, goes one step further and says that soup is “a liquid food made by boiling or simmering meat, fish or vegetables with various added ingredients.”

Why some people think cereal is not a soup

People who consider Merriam-Webster the authority on defining things point out that cereal doesn’t meet the dictionary’s definition of soup. While it qualifies as a liquid food when eaten with milk, and it does contain pieces of solid food, it doesn’t contain meat, fish or vegetable stock. Cereal doesn’t fit Dictionary.com’s interpretation either. Most cereal isn’t boiled, right?

Other people point to the temperature of the food in question. While there are a couple of popular cold soups (including that aforementioned gazpacho), soup is usually equated with a hot meal. Most cereal is not consumed hot—unless you count oatmeal, which sparks a whole other debate.

And then there’s the sweet-savory divide within the “Is cereal a soup?” debate. Soups are generally savory and often have an umami flavor, while cereal tends to fall into the sweet category, even if you’re opting for something more healthy like a raisin bran variety.

Plus, a lot of flavor melding, culinary technique and food interaction need to happen for a potful of ingredients to become soup. Yet simply adding milk to a bowl of dry cereal makes it breakfast.

Why others think cereal is a soup

A bowl split in half: the left side contains cereal rings with milk, and the right side contains a creamy soup with herbs, both on a wooden table.Getty Images (2)

Aside from the fact that it’s eaten in a similar fashion to traditional soup, people who have given this topic ample brain space argue that soup doesn’t need to be hot to qualify as soup. Yes, there’s gazpacho, but there’s also cold cucumber soup, chilled avocado soup and more. Soup isn’t bound by temperature, these foodies say, which means cereal isn’t discounted from the definition.

But what of the base? People who answer “Is cereal a soup?” with a resounding “Yes!” point to cream-based soups. Potato soup, clam chowder and broccoli cheddar, for example, all use milk as a base, just like cereal does. So in this case, cereal milk could be considered a broth. (Though we’ll point out that those soups also use a stock of some sort.)

Is cereal a stew?

To find out whether stew, soup’s chunkier cousin, describes cereal, we’ll need to go back to our dictionary friend. Merriam-Webster defines stew as a “fish or meat usually with vegetables prepared by stewing.” (In case you’re wondering, stewing is “to boil slowly or with simmering heat.”) So clearly there’s a difference between soup and stew.

Since you probably aren’t cooking your corn flakes, and since stew isn’t served cold, cereal seems to be much closer to soup than stew. At least that’s settled!

Should we agree to disagree?

Probably. Neither camp—those who insist they’re eating soup for breakfast each time they pour a bowl of Cheerios, or those who are adamantly against classifying the sweet stuff as soup—is outright wrong. In fact, there is no right answer to the question “Is cereal a soup?” And whatever you choose to call it, it’s comfort in a bowl.

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