The best tomato soup recipe actually uses whole canned tomatoes! They are a huge time-saver for this recipe, extra flavorful, and are available year-round, which means you can make flavor-packed tomato soup in the heart of winter when it’s not tomato season. Paired with sauteed onions and garlic, broth, and a little heavy cream, this tomato soup recipe is sure to be on repeat in your home! If you’re looking for more homemade soup recipes, try my chicken stew recipe, French onion soup, or lentil soup recipe.
What You Need to Make this Recipe
Olive oil and butter — these add richness and flavor to the tomato soup. The oil also helps to keep the butter from burning. Aromatics — sauteed yellow onion and minced garlic impart layers of flavor and a mouthwatering fragrance to the soup. Tomatoes — you need two 28-ounce cans of whole peeled tomatoes for a thick, tomato-rich soup. Water or chicken stock — I prefer to use chicken stock for extra flavor, but you can use water in a pinch or swap it for vegetable stock. Sugar — granulated sugar (white sugar) balances the acidity of the tomatoes and enhances their flavor. You can leave this out if desired. Heavy cream — a little heavy cream adds a little decadence and also takes away some of the acidic bite of the tomatoes. Fresh basil — fresh chopped basil is the perfect finishing touch of bright color and a hint of fresh herbal flavor for this delicious soup.
How to Make this Tomato Soup Recipe
- Using a sharp knife, peel and chop a yellow onion.
- Combine olive oil and butter in a large pot or Dutch oven and heat them over medium heat until the butter is melted. Add the chopped yellow onion and allow it to cook, stirring frequently, until softened, about 8 minutes. Then add the minced garlic and stir. Cook for 5 minutes, until the garlic is very fragrant and browning.
- Add the canned whole tomatoes to the pot. To avoid wasting even a drop of the delicious tomato juice, pour a little chicken stock or water into the cans and swirl it around, then pour that into the pot.
- Add the rest of the chicken stock (or water, if using) to the mixture. Stir in the white sugar and black pepper and bring the soup mixture to a boil. Then reduce the heat to medium-low and let the tomato soup recipe simmer for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Remove from the heat. Use an immersion blender to carefully pulse the soup until the tomatoes have broken up a bit and your desired consistency is reached. Taste and add salt if necessary.
- Stir in the heavy cream and serve the easy tomato soup immediately, topped with chopped fresh basil.
Pro Tips for Making this Recipe
Don’t use a high-speed blender. Blending olive oil at a high speed can make it bitter, so I don’t recommend using a powerful, high-speed blender to puree the soup. If you don’t have an immersion blender and you want to blend the soup for a silky smooth texture, use vegetable oil, grapeseed oil or all butter instead. You can also use a potato masher instead to break up the tomatoes if you prefer a chunky soup. Use a non-reactive pot. Aluminum, cast iron, or copper pots can react with the acidity of the tomatoes, and the soup may taste metallic. Try stainless steel or enamel-coated cookware instead. Turn it into a homemade tomato basil soup recipe! To easily add more basil flavor to the soup, add about 10 basil leaves to the pot right after you turn off the heat and pulse with an immersion blender. For a lighter homemade tomato soup: Use half and half instead of heavy cream. You can also reduce the amount of heavy cream to ½ cup. Make vegan tomato soup: Leave out the butter and use more extra virgin olive oil or swap it for vegan butter, swap the chicken broth for vegetable broth, and use full fat coconut milk instead of heavy cream.
If you’ve tried this Tomato Soup recipe, then don’t forget to rate the recipe and let me know how you got on in the comments below, I love hearing from you!
