The Best Homemade Tomato Soup

It’s tomato season! This homemade tomato soup is made with garden fresh tomatoes, basil, and garlic for the ultimate dreamy soup. Serve this up with a toasty grilled cheese for the ultimate nostalgic dinner!

Garden Fresh Homemade Tomato Soup

Listen I know, it’s August. You’re thinking, “but, Sarah, why would I want soup right now? It’s 85 degrees?” I will tell you. Because it is fresh garden tomato season! If you grow tomatoes you’re growing more than you can possibly keep up with. If you’re at the grocery store you’re seeing heirloom tomatoes galore. And we need a delicious, flavorful, homemade tomato soup to use up all those garden fresh tomatoes.

Ingredients for homemade tomato soup

This garden fresh tomato soup may look fancy, but it’s pretty darn easy to make and only calls for a few simple, fresh ingredients. With simple recipes it is *so* important to use high quality, fresh ingredients because the flavor will really shine through. We recommend using organic or homegrown tomatoes, garlic and basil!

• Tomatoes: Well…DUH. We used a combination of campari and plum tomatoes, but you can feel free to use whatever you have on hand! Just make sure you’re using a really high quality, fresh tomato–it will make or break your tomato soup!
• Onion: We used a white onion, but a yellow onion would also work well here!
• Garlic: All tomato soup needs garlic in my opinion. We used a full head of garlic, which is usually about 6 to 8 cloves! No need to mince the garlic up finely because you’ll be blending it all anyways. You can simple use the flat edge of your knife to crush the garlic before roasting in the oven!
• Basil: Is tomato soup even complete without fresh, sweet basil. I think not. You can feel free to add more or less basil depending on your preference!
• Broth: I like to make this tomato soup with organic chicken broth, but if you’re vegetarian or vegan, you can easily swap it out for a high quality vegetable broth instead. It will be equally delicious.
• Salt + Pepper: Salt and pepper are key to complementing those sweet, fresh tomatoes! Feel free to adjust the amounts to your exact taste and preferences!
• Cream (optional): This is totally optional, but if you like your homemade tomato soup extra creamy I highly recommend stirring in some cream at the end! You can use heavy cream or a dairy free alternative like coconut milk or cashew cream!

How to make homemade tomato soup

I adore this fresh tomato soup because it is SO easy to make. It’s one of those recipes that tastes like you spent all day in the kitchen, but actually only requires 15 minutes of hands on time. If you don’t believe me, let me outline how incredibly easy this really is

1. Roast your tomatoes, garlic, and onion. Simply toss everything in olive oil and salt and pepper and roast in the oven for 50 minutes. This release all those juicy, aromatic flavors and give your fresh tomato soup that slow cooked, roasted all day taste.
2. Cook down with broth. Add everything to a large pot with broth to get the right consistency for your soup. I like to cook it down a little with the broth so that the broth really gets infused with all the flavor.
3. Blend up. Use an immersion blender to blend everything up right in the pot, or transfer it to a blender to blend there. Either way, it takes 2 minutes to get a creamy, dreamy tomato soup!
4. Serve. And that’s it! Serve your soup with fresh bread, grilled cheese, or enjoy on its own!

What to serve this fresh tomato soup with:

This tomato soup is delicious on it’s own, but I think we can all agree that the best part of tomato soup is what you get to eat with it. Serve up your tomato soup with

• Parmesan Cheese: This is a non-negotiable for me. tomato soup is not tomato soup without a healthy topping of shaved parm. The cheese melts into the hot soup and gives it a delicious nutty bite!
• Goldfish Crackers: Okay so this is if you really want to lean into that tomato soup nostalgia. Top your tomato soup with some goldfish crackers and you’ll immediately be transported back to the cafeteria.
• Heirloom Tomato Flatbread: Still have a million tomatoes lying around? This heirloom tomato flatbread is to die for!
• Grilled Cheese: I think we can all agree that tomato soup and grilled cheese is the food of the gods. The buttery, crunchy, salty grilled cheese perfectly complements the creamy, slightly sweet tomato soup. It is pure perfection.

Enjoy!

XXX

• Author: Sarah Crawford
• Prep Time: 10 minutes
• Cook Time: 1 hour
• Total Time: 1hr 10mins
• Yield: 4 servings
• Category: soup
• Method: roasted
• Cuisine: american
• Diet: Gluten Free

The Best Homemade Tomato Soup

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It’s tomato season! This homemade tomato soup is made with garden fresh tomatoes, basil, and garlic for the ultimate dreamy soup. Serve this up with a toasty grilled cheese for the ultimate nostalgic dinner!

• Author: Sarah Crawford
• Prep Time: 10 minutes
• Cook Time: 1 hour
• Total Time: 1hr 10mins
• Yield: 4 servings
• Category: soup
• Method: roasted
• Cuisine: american
• Diet: Gluten Free

Units: USM

Equipment

food processor

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baking sheet

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parchment paper sheets

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Ingredients

• 3 1/2 pounds fresh tomatoes (we used campari and plum, but use whatever you like!)*
• 1 full garlic head (about 6 cloves), peeled and smashed
• 1 white onion, roughly chopped
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3 Tablespoons olive oil
• 1 large handful of basil leaves
• 2 cups chicken or vegetable broth

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 375°F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. Place the tomatoes, garlic, and onion pieces on your prepared sheet. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and drizzle with olive oil. Place in the oven for 1 hour or until the roasted and aromatic.
3. Remove from the oven and place in a large pot or dutch oven with vegetable broth and basil. Cook over medium heat for 5 minutes.
4. Use an immersion blender to blend to your desired consistency.* If you like chunks of tomatoes remaining, feel free to leave it a little chunky, or blend all the way to a creamy consistency.
5. Simmer for 10 to 15 minutes or until the soup has reduced slightly. This will help the flavor deepen! If using, add the cream and stir to mix.
6. Serve hot with fresh croutons and parmesan cheese, or serve up with a toasty grilled cheese. Enjoy!

Notes

1. You can leave your tomatoes whole to roast them, or halve them and place them flat side down so they aren’t rolling around. Either will work!
2. If you don’t have an immersion blender, you can also transfer the soup to a high powered blender or food processor and blend! Simply place back in the pot after blending and follow according to directions.