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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Trying to find recipes so that I can use my plethora of tomatoes from our garden I stumbled upon this recipe and can’t wait to try it. I’m not going to use roma tomatoes, but instead a selection of heirlooms….I hope it works!!
made this for dinner, everyone kept saying how much like a sort of meatless bolognese it was! we agreed that taste wise it is down right delicious; as a soup, even with grilled cheese on the side, it was a little too intense. converted the leftovers into a pasta dish the next night though; yum yum yum. thanks for the recipe! i have filed it under “sauces” :)
I just made this. delicious! great job. i will be using your website more often.
thanks!
Great to hear!
I made this last night and it was delicious!! LIght on the tummy but very satisfying. Ive now got TWO soup recipes which i’ll be making often this coming winter (pumpkin was the other one).
I didn’t have any fresh basil, so I made this with just a little dried basil and it was still delicious! I also added a little chili powder for a kick. Thanks for the recipe
Just made this (Yes, it is 1am.) And holy moly it is delicious. I added a little fresh grated parmasean to it, but otherwise kept it the same. SO DELICIOUS. I can’t wait to eat a big bowl of this with a grilled cheese made on my roommates fancy shmancy grilled cheese maker. Sounds like a perfect Friday night to me.
This was absolutly amazing! Im never buying store bought ever again. Thank you for sharing :)
I made this soup tonight for a few friends and myself…HOLY COW it was INCREDIBLE. Just the right amount of everything, the flavors really come together beautifully in a tomato soup that is so warm and creamy. Its like a soup dream come true haha. I HIGHLY recommend that everyone make this at least once, you definitely wont regret it! (although I did have to blend a little at a time, blender explosions of tomato soup are no good haha)
This recipe was first time ever making tomato soup and it turned out oh so good, especially served with some homemade sourdough bread. I made some adjustments though:
1 – Even though I was dead set on making this on Sunday, when I went food shopping on Saturday, the supermarket did not have ANY fresh basil (it is winter after all). Given the selection of fresh herbs I had to choose from, I went with tarragon. I used one good handful in place of the fresh basil and it really added a nice flavor to the soup.
2 – I added only 1/3 cup of heavy cream, and I think that’s all it needed really. Maybe even 1/4 cup would suffice and still make for a nice and creamy soup.
Thanks so much for a wonderful recipe!
You grew up near The Noodle? Me too! Did you go to New Trier? Small world! This looks delicious!
We made this last night, and it is the BEST soup ever! We’ve already posted the link on Facebook and friends and family will be making it this week too.
I cant wait to try out this recipe. It looks great. Thanks for sharing.
Finally got to making this and it was FANTASTIC!!! Thank you!
http://ailovesthis.blogspot.com/2011/11/warmth.html
I just bought glass containers so I can make this soup again and freeze them for later. One of my fav soups EVER!!! Tomato is always the go-to soup of choice and this was ridiculously easy to make – so much better tasting and for you than canned. thank you!!
Made this soup last nite and it’s fab! Only had 1 lb Roma tomatoes, so I used 1/2 lb cherry tomatoes (only roasted those about 30 min) and it worked great! Thanks for such a nice recipe.
mmm that looks like a great comfort food, thanks for sharing :)
I have never cooked with heavy cream before so I was wondering when you pour the cream in, do you whip it first or just pour it in in the liquid form?
Nope, no whipping involved. Just stir it right in!
So, I just made this soup on Sunday and it is SO good! I’m a college student and it was the easiest thing to make! Thank you! :)
Thank you for this delicious recipe! I am a tomato soup FANATIC…it is my ultimate comfort food. I looooove cooking soups in the fall and am always trying out new recipes. I was looking for a yummy fall dish to curl up next to by the fireplace on Halloween while the trick-or-treaters stopped by. I’ve made homemade tomato soup many times but never thought of roasting the tomatoes…let me tell you, it makes a huge difference in flavor! This was so yummy and really hit the spot! The goat cheese on top is a fantastic twist. Cheers!
I was 24 years old when I finally started to like tomato soup, now I’m fighting to get back all those years I’ve wasted! This is going immediately into my repertoire. And indeed it’s getting cold in LA, it was ~58 last night and I was freeeezing (so sad too, because I’m originally from NY, and it’s snowing out there. HAH!)
absolutely beautiful pictures! i can’t wait to make this soup with a grilled cheese sandwich!!!
I am making this right now, and I must say after a few tastings, and half of my goat cheese gone (the gf wont stay out of it) This is going to be fantastic.
I am also serving it with my ultimate grilled cheese: swiss, cheddar, provo, tomatoes, bacon mayo on texas toast!
Thanks!
That grilled cheese sounds AMAZING….Texas toast? Yes please! Glad you like the soup…and goat cheese :)
This looks awesome. It’s warming up now in Sydney, but there’s still cool evenings for a healthy soup like this!
This looks FANTASTIC! I am going to make some small tweaks on my end, but thank you so much for the post. Yum. Yum.
This looks incredible!
Can’t wait to try it out when it gets colder around here.
Yummy, tomato soup is my favorite.