I get so excited to make our Tomato Soup Recipe every year! My favorite time to make it is the very end of summer leading into fall. I’m able to find the best, super ripe and sweet roma tomatoes this time of year, which makes the best tasting tomato soup.
Our homemade tomato soup takes a little bit of time to make, but it’s totally worth it and very easy to make! My mouth waters every time I think about this soup! It’s incredible on its own, with a gooey grilled cheese (classic!) or with our buttery garlic bread!
How to Make the BEST Tomato Soup Recipe
Ingredients
Process
- Preheat oven to 375°F. Spread tomato halves onto a baking sheet and drizzle with olive oil. Season with salt and pepper.
- Roast tomatoes.
- While tomatoes are in the oven, melt the butter in a large pot. Add onion and sauté.
- Stir in the garlic and thyme and sauté.
- Add crushed tomatoes, basil leaves, dried basil, and sugar. Season with salt and pepper.
- Stir the mixture and reduce the heat to medium or medium-low and simmer.
- Pour broth and roasted tomatoes into the pot. Season with salt and pepper.
- Continue to simmer soup, stirring occasionally.
- Carefully pour hot soup into a blender.
- Place a clean dish towel over the closed lid and blend until smooth.
- Pour soup back into the pot.
- Stir in the cream until fully incorporated.
- Simmer tomato basil soup for 2 to 3 minutes before ladling into bowls. Top each serving of tomato soup with fresh basil leaves. Serve.
Tools You Will Need
- cutting board
- knife
- measuring spoons
- dry measuring cups
- liquid measuring cups
- mixing bowl
- wooden spoon
- blender (if using)
- large pot or Dutch oven
Fresh vs Canned Tomatoes for Our Tomato Soup Recipe
I mentioned earlier that I love using fresh roma tomatoes at their peak ripeness for our recipe and it’s true! Fresh roma tomatoes are my first preference because they have amazing flavor (that become even more concentrated and delicious once they’re roasted).
That doesn’t mean you can’t get amazing results with whole canned tomatoes. I love that high quality canned tomatoes are so readily available. The flavors are also already nicely concentrated, so the roasting step can be skipped all together (which will save you about 45 minutes!). Just add a 28 ounce can of whole peeled tomatoes to the pot, as you would with the roasted tomatoes.
Overall, the most important aspect of out tomato soup recipe is to use high quality tomatoes that have great flavor!
Why This is the BEST Tomato Soup Recipe!
- We roast our tomatoes, which really concentrates the delicious, sweet and acidic tomato flavor!
- We add basil (both fresh and dry…just trust us on this one) to our soup and it’s hard to find a better combo than tomato and basil!
- We add a touch of cream which adds a subtle, rich and creamy flavor to this extra cozy tomato basil soup recipe.
- The our homemade tomato soup truly has the best tomato forward flavor that’s super smooth, creamy, well balanced with the basil, and will warm you right up!
Make Ahead and Freezing Instructions
Make Ahead
Our tomato soup recipe can be made up to 5 days in advance. Cool the finished soup, transfer to an airtight container and refrigerate until ready to use. To reheat, pour soup into a pot and simmer over medium-low to medium heat, stirring occasionally, until heated through.
Freezing
Our soup can be frozen for up to 3 months. Cool the finished soup (leaving out the cream) transfer to an airtight container and freeze until ready to use. To thaw and reheat, transfer container of soup to refrigerator and thaw overnight. Once soup has thawed (a little frozen is okay), pour it into a post and simmer over medium-low to medium heat, stirring occasionally, until heated through. Once heated through, stir in cream simmer for a few minutes and serve.
Variations
- As I mentioned earlier, you can totally swap the fresh tomatoes our for canned ones.
- We love the tomato-basil combination of flavors, but if you’re more of a purist, you can omit the fresh and dried basils from the recipe, for more of a classic tomato soup.
- If you want a slightly healthier version, you can omit the cream and replace it with whole milk or plain yogurt.
- If you have an immersion blender, you can use that to puree the soup instead of a blender.
More Delicious Soup Recipes You Will Love
Tomato Soup Recipe
INGREDIENTS
- 1 ½ pounds Roma tomatoes, sliced lengthwise
- 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1 medium yellow onion, diced
- 4 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 tablespoon fresh thyme, minced
- 1 (28 ounce) can crushed tomatoes
- 2 cups basil leaves, roughly chopped
- 2 tablespoons dried basil
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 2 cups low sodium chicken broth
- salt and pepper to taste
- ⅔ cup heavy cream
INSTRUCTIONS
- Preheat oven to 375°F.
- Spread tomato halves onto a baking sheet and drizzle with olive oil. Season with salt and pepper.
- Roast tomatoes for about 45 minutes.
- While tomatoes are in the oven, melt the butter in a large pot over medium-high heat.
- Add onion and sauté for 5 minutes.
- Stir in the garlic and thyme and sauté for another 5 minutes.
- Add crushed tomatoes, basils and sugar. Season with salt and pepper.
- Stir the mixture and reduce the heat to medium or medium-low and simmer for 10 minutes.
- Pour broth and roasted tomatoes into the pot. Season with salt and pepper.
- Continue to simmer soup, for about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Carefully pour soup into a blender and blend until smooth.
- Pour soup back into the pot and stir in the cream until fully incorporated.
- Simmer the soup for 2 to 3 minutes before ladling into bowls.
- Top each soup with fresh basil leaves. Serve.
NOTES
- As I mentioned earlier, you can totally swap the fresh tomatoes our for canned ones.
- We love the tomato-basil combination of flavors, but if you’re more of a purist, you can omit the fresh and dried basils from the recipe, for more of a classic tomato soup.
- If you want a slightly healthier version, you can omit the cream and replace it with whole milk or plain yogurt.
- If you have an immersion blender, you can use that to puree the soup instead of a blender.
Did you make this recipe? We want to see!
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I made this (and wrote about today! http://www.ladychirpsalot.com/2011/10/tomatoes-and-basil-and-soup-oh-my.html) and it was delicious! Thanks for the recipe and the GORGEOUS food styling and photography! SFB is definitely my new favorite recipe site :)
Yay! So glad!
All I can say is YUM. Must make this soon before tomatoes quickly go out of season :)
yum yum yum!!! Roasted tomatoes are my absolute favorite! I cannot WAIT until the weather gets cold down here in Texas!
This sounds awesome! Hopefully I can get my hands on some good tomatoes and try this soon!
You have a beautiful site…just “stumbled” upon you. Great recipe!
It must be tomato soup season. I just made some myself, and I’m eating the leftovers right now! I love the idea of roasting some of the tomatoes for the soup, AND using butter. Mmm, butter. And I love your beautiful photos.
Oh, wow, this is so beautiful! Just used the last of my homegrown basil, but I will find some more to make this. And I love the bowls.
Match made in heaven! Basil really goes very well with any type of tomato dish. Hot or cold tomato dish, name it…Basil has to go there somewhere. Lovely soup recipe…will definitely try!
Perfect with a grilled cheese! Oh man.. I want this for dinner…
I made it Friday night and it is fantastic! Almost just like one I love from a local deli. I wasn’t in a goat cheese mood, so I made parmesan crisps and crumbled them over. So good!
sounds amazing, will have to try it out as soon as I find basil on these islands!
This sounds so delish! I am making it tomorrow night. My husband and I and our 3 little kiddies had the most delicious tomato soup EVER skiing in Switzerland at a little tiny hut….I’ve been trying to recreate it ever since and have tried 3 or 4 recipes in several different ways…but, this looks like it could be it. Yum, yum.
This looks amazing! I am so making this soon! Love slow roasting tomatoes…
Wow! This soup looks like all kinds of amazing. Yum!
I made this soup last night, and it turned out amazing! I had never made tomato soup before…and even thought I didn’t like it. But I saw this post and it looked so yummy I had to give tomato soup another try. It was pretty easy to make too!
I did a little step by step of this recipe on my blog, http://www.amandakbythebay.blogspot.com. I linked back to your site a couple of times of course! Thanks again for the awesome recipe!
I am so enticed by your photo of the roasted tomatoes! I looooove tomatoes, and roasting makes them sweet, tender, and perfect for soup. Can’t wait to try this.
This makes me want to hunker down at home with a bowl of soup and an America’s Next Top Model marathon in the background. (My guilty pleasure is eating comfort food while watching that show).
Love your blog–photos and food are both incredible. I linked to one of your recipes this week in my blogger potluck. If you’d like to check it out, you can find it at http://www.muchtomydelight.com/2011/10/blogger-party-potluck-spooky-supper.html.
Thanks, and have a great weekend:) Jenn
This soup is pretty and soo yummy looking!
Simple food and food photography at its best. Glorious and oh so clever.
This soup is to die for….
OMG!!!!! What awesome pictures………..
Lovely.
On a dark rainy evening, comfort in a bowl; hot homemade soup with nice crusty bread. I have some strangling odds and ends of tomatoes and basil that need a touch of luster and this recipe is perfect.
I want a bowl of this with a grilled cheese sandwich.
Ok, I’m not the biggest fan of a tomato, but this – this is glorious.
Roast it, add some herbs, heavy cream and goat cheese – gimme gimme!
Ok, it’s settled. I’m making this TONIGHT. I LOVE creamy tomato soup, and this sounds divine.
Also, side note, yes, I’m staying home on a Friday night to make soup.. My license says I’m 24 but really it appears I’m 74. You decide.
Are you kidding?! That sounds like a pretty amazing Friday night to me! I’ll be 74 with you, nbd :) Hope you like the soup!!
Sounds like a FANTASTIC Friday night to me! And I’m 25!
Right there with you! I’m 24 and i was gaga to make this, turned out SOO good!
And I’m 20… I’m spending my Spring Break at home, cooking all of these delicious recipes.
Best Spring Break ever!
I’m 45 and I just made it tonight coupled with homemade french bread, hot bacon dip and coconut mousse for desert I don’t have feta in the house so I’ll just plunk some parmesan on the table for whoever wants I would think sprinkling blue cheese on this would be great too. I tasted it and it’s amazing wow thanks so much for posting.
I’m weak. Like, seriously weak. This is my next soup. Holy crap, I can’t move. GORGEOUS.
Just made it. So easy & really tasty. I didn’t have canned crushed tomatos so I substituted 1 can tomato sauce & a little water. Plus, I used home grown Beefmaster tomatos quartered. Came out great!