Peasant Stock

This is the Lower East Side’s best kept secret. The owner churns out the most delicious soups every day in an adorable & tidy 5×5 kitchen. She’s sure to always include a vegetarian and/​or vegan option on her menu. I’ve never had one soup here that has disappointed — this coming from someone who was raised with homemade soups all her life! For an extra treat try the peanut butter cookies for 50 cents.
Find daily menus posted on facebook every morning.

Tucked away inside a little grocery market, you’ll not only find a few aisles of produce, but you’ll also find some little food stands. Once you meander around the market and find Pleasant Stock, you’ll notice that it’s not much to look at, just a few pots on a stove behind the counter. But in the soup game, it’s all about what’s inside those pots!
I had the Spicy Chickpea and Tomato Soup. And my oh my, I felt like I could cry! So good!

I love this place, and stop by for delicious and healthy gluten-​free soup as much as I can, at the end of a weekday or on the weekends. They do sell out some days on certain dishes or bread. It is a family owned small business, and it is always a delight to interact with in person.

Great fresh soups. Sweet potato, lentil and chickpea soups are some of my
Favorites. The cornbread is tasty too ($ 2.50)

The soups here are amazing. Truly homemade with fresh ingredients. If you’re splurging, try the corn bread and/​or the peanut butter cookies too.
My only gripe is that they close very early during the weekdays, otherwise I would be here everyday.

Love this place. Fantastic selection of super delicious soup, very good prices, and the owners are delightful. Essex has a plethora of exceptional options, and this is one of the best.

The. Best. Soup. Ever. Love each of the many works of art made here. Summer fav is the chilled gazpacho.
Do yourself a favor and stop by for some great soup and cornbread!

really good. I’m greedy so i bought two: Smoky Eggplant Tomato Soup with organic
Quinoa and the Chilled Avocado Cucumber Soup. delish. i would most definitely recommend this spot especially if you are a soupy like me. didn’t know how i would feel about a cold soup either but it was good.

My fiancé and I both will be revisiting!!! The soup was great and name was catchy! The person was pleasant and smiled the whole time she served us. For a treat we had the cornbread, also awesome!!!

In the back of the Essex Street Market lies a treasure beyond belief, Peasant Stock. Let me say that before I tried the soup here, I would only eat soup if I was sick. Now it’s something of a tradition.
I’ll start with the product. They use the freshest ingredients and make their soups every morning fresh. I’ve had creamy roasted tomato basil, creamy potato leek, pasta fagoli, chicken and wild rice and so many more and they all (A) fill me up and (B) taste delicious. Oh and they are all affordable, which in this city is something quite rare. Oh again, this food is healthy for you, wow.
Lastly, I will share with you the charm and spirit of Christine (the owner) and Emma (her daughter). They are so friendly and attentive to you. I’ve seen them both deal with their fair share of annoying customers asking for things so outrageous and time consuming that most people would lose patience for but not these two. They truly give you service with a smile, no matter how annoying and unruly you are (don’t be a jerk and take advantage of that).
I guess in summation you could say I rather enjoy this establishment and I will be going back on a regular basis as should you.
Sorry, Peasant Stock. They only let me give out five stars.

Had their turkey and bean soup one day, was EXCELLENT.

Love the soups and the corn bread is excellent. I wish I had a larger freezer so that I could bring them home more often.

Peasant Stock is exactly what I had been told. They’re a small stand in the Essex Market, serving up some of the best soups I’ve had in recent memory. You’ll find them at the back left of the market, in a totally unassuming nook. Every time I’ve been, it’s been the same two women, and they’re always super friendly. You order, your order is served to you immediately and you can go sit at some of the tables in the general market area.
At this point, I stick to the same order. I get the spicy veggie chili with a piece of cornbread. The chili is hearty and filling. It lives up to its spicy designation, providing a pleasantly intense heat. The cornbread is a perfect compliment and is great for dipping.
My only wish is that they had a brick and mortar location, rather than being in the sterile market. Their soups make me wish I were sitting in an armchair, in a cozy café. Instead, I sit in a cold, open market as I devour my chili. Hopefully they move to a standalone location soon though! Peasant Stock is definitely worth the trip for some great soup at reasonable prices.

This was our first trip to Essex Market. We didn’t know this place was here. I spied the sea salted peanut butter cookie — only 50 cents! — and it was incredibly good. We decided to have our lunch right here. We had the lentil soup and it, too, was delicious Rich with a little spice and chunks of chorizo. We had classic cornbread on the side. All reasonably priced and very, very tasty. We highly recommend this place!

Back in Tokyo, there’s a soup chain called Soup Stock which I used to frequent. When I moved to NYC I was sad about the lack of soup-​only options (Hale & Hearty stresses me out!) and I was sooo pleased to find Peasant Stock.
Although their daily selection is limited, there’s always a vegetarian/​vegan option so I can order something. The corn bread is also delicious.
With a large soup and a bread it ends up being an $ 8 lunch, but it’s perfect for my break in-​between classes and is always so tasty and fresh. I hope they stay in the Essex Street Market for a long time to come.
Soup sure makes me happy.

Delicious and reasonably priced. She makes the soups from scratch right there. Perfect on a cold city day.

Sometimes I think that it’s mind control or drugs or maybe an exotic parasite that makes me want eat gallons of soup every day. But then I realize that it’s just Peasant Stock with their delicious, perfectly-​spiced soups. That and the cold, which I hate.
There are vegan soups, gluten-​free soups, meat/​dairy/​gluten-​loving soups, wonderful cornbread, so good sea salt-​flaked peanut butter cookies, (sometimes) buckwheat banana bread and lovely people behind the counter (the only things listed here which you cannot eat). It’s all freshly prepared, so come early if you want a good selection. Also, their Facebook page posts daily listings of the soups, since they rotate them:
. My favorite is red lentil soup with kale and quinoa.
I want to give them all my money, but I guess that’s impractical, so I wrote a Unilocal review instead.

There aren’t many places in that strictly do soup and Peasant Stock is one, and does it extremely well! Its a bit hidden away in the back left corner of Essex market so you might have to make a round before you come across it. Basically its a tiny stall with a lady who makes some kick ass soup and a small assortment of cookies and baked goods.
The soup rotates on a daily basis so you’re sure to get something new. Everything is freshly prepared on a kitchen stove like you’d see at home so it has a comfortable feel from the start. We tried the asparagus, leek, and potato soup and got a large to share between two of us. Picked up some bread from Pain dAvignon next door which was killer too.
About the soup… Im not a soup person really but WOW was it tasty! Super creamy, obviously lacking preservatives, not over-​salted like most soups from the can, and went exceedingly well when paired with the bread to dip it in. It all tasted very fresh and clean and happy and would have even gone well as a sauce for chicken or something. Great for a cold blustery NYC day! And a large soup wasnt even that expensive… About $ 6 give or take depending what you get.
We will absolutely be back — and soon! Making this place a go-​to this winter!

Peasant Stock is amazing, the service is friendly, the menu changes daily and most importantly the soup is always delicious! Definitely check it out when in the Essex St Market, which I believe is still a somewhat hidden gem of the Lower East Side!

After shopping in Essex Market, I stumbled upon Peasant Stock. You’d definitely be hard pressed to find it being that its a small little store front all the way on the left side of the market by Davidochs Bakery. So at first glance its a minimalistic layout everything there is essential for running their daily operations and their menu consists of 4 daily soups which vary from day to day and some interesting varieties of nuts, croutons and cornbread (That I’ll definitely come back and try the next time).
Soups on todays Menu
Yellow Split Pea Soup with Ham
Spicy Veggie Chili Soup
Chicken Soup with Wild RIce
Sweet Potato Chipotle Soup
All of which sound delicious but being that I’m carrying a fridge worth of groceries I unfortunately had to go with one. I went with the Chicken Soup with Wild Rice and I am pleasantly surprised at how well done this soup is, the moment you open it you clearly see that its packed to the brim with carrots, peas, chicken and wild rice. Taste-​wise its definitely a must try, its a rich, clean, flavorful soup. I can’t speak for the others but I really enjoyed my chicken soup.
I will most definitely be coming back on a regular basis to sample the other soups they have and provide updates, in the meanwhile if you want to see what they have on a daily basis you can check out their facebook to see whats available. If you happen to be in the neighborhood definitely try out Peasant Stock.
Key Facts
Check their facebook for Daily Soups
They have different baked goods everyday as per first post refer to facebook.
They take credit card
Small soup is 4.75
Large is 5.50
Get the Large one you wont regret it.