This simple tomato soup recipe will become your go-to for a fast and delicious meal. With fresh or canned tomatoes, this soup can be on the table in less than 30 minutes and the flavor is incredible! You’ll never go back to canned stuff after you try this easy homemade tomato soup. With paleo and vegan options.
For a while there, I saw tomato soup recipes on a bunch of different blogs and I couldn’t wait to make it, but I put it off. I’m telling you now. Do not put it off!
Put down the can of tomato soup and just get some canned tomatoes, I promise you’ll be much happier.
And much fuller since you won’t feel bad about eating a whole recipe, or maybe just half, of this easy tomato soup. And then you won’t be dehydrated either because honestly, the sodium in any canned soup is crazy!
So this can go two different ways. You can use oil and leave out the milk for a totally delicious vegan and paleo version, which is how we prefer it or you can add a splash of milk (or cream!) to your bowl and stir it in for a creamy tomato soup that’s 1,000x better than anything you had as a kid.
Either way, I’m guaranteeing it’s awesome, not to mention pretty fast to make. And did I mention simple?
You’ll probably want to add 1-2 teaspoons of sweetener, depending on your tomatoes and how sweet they are. One teaspoon was just enough for me but you may want more or less!
If you’re serving this tomato soup to guests, you’ll probably want to chop up the basil a bit (or a lot!) nicer than I did. Here’s how to cut basil chiffonade. I kind of just hacked at it. Whoops. 😀
Also, if you want something a little more complex, try my Roasted Tomato and Garlic Soup. This Cheesy Tomato Soup is also delicious and almost as easy as the simple tomato soup recipe below.
And one last note, if you wanted to make a large quantity of this and freeze it (without dairy products of course) it tastes just as delicious thawed and it’s a great way to have a quick meal on hand.
I always do this as the yield isn’t huge and the leftovers are awesome!
- 2 tablespoons butter or olive oil for vegan / paleo
- 1 onion sliced
- 3 cloves garlic sliced
- 1 32 oz (946 ml) can of tomatoes (pureed, diced or whole, or 4 cups of peeled fresh tomatoes)
- 1 cup (240 ml) chicken or vegetable broth for vegan
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 tablespoon dried parsley
- 1 large bay leaf
- black pepper to taste
- 1/4 teaspoon sea salt plus more to taste
- 1 tablespoon fresh basil, chopped
- 1-2 teaspoons honey or sugar (sugar for vegan / honey for paleo)
- Whole milk or cream to serve if desired (about 2-4 tbsp per serving depending on how you like it) - omit for paleo / vegan
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In a small to medium pot, melt the butter (or the oil) over medium heat. If you have no way to blend your soup once cooked, finely chop your onion and very finely mince your garlic, otherwise, just slice it to saute it quickly.
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Add the onion to the pot, stir well and saute for 5-6 minutes before adding the garlic. Again, stir well and saute for 2-3 minutes.
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Add the tomatoes, broth, baking soda, parsley, bay leaf and salt and pepper. Bring up to a boil, then turn down to a simmer. Simmer for 10 minutes or so over medium-low heat. The baking soda will foam up and help neutralize the acids from the canned tomatoes and you won't taste it at all.
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Remove the bay leaf from the soup and puree. I use my immersion blender, but you can also transfer the soup to a blender to blend it until smooth, or if you chopped your onions and garlic finely enough and used tomato puree you can omit this step for a soup that isn't as smooth. Once blended, stir in the honey or other sweetener you have on hand and fresh basil and check for seasonings, adding salt as needed. Serve while hot with a splash of milk or cream if desired.
Pictures updated October 2019. Here’s one of the old pictures!
{ 56 comments… read them below or add one }
This sounds like the perfect tomato soup! I can’t wait to try it!
I am coming over with some grilled cheese sandwiches to dip in this!!
this looks so creamy and comforting! I need to make this, my family loves tomato soup~
I love tomato soup and it is great to have such a simple & quick recipe 🙂
I’m all about tomato soup especially when the weather gets colder. So this is a must-make recipe along with your roasted tomato and garlic soup. Can’t wait!
Wow, your photography has improved so much! I’m jealous. Oh yeah, and this soup is great. 😉
My hubby loves tomato soup, but I’ve never tried making it before. Thanks for the inspiration!
This soup is so good! Right on time for Fall/Winter weather! Easy to make and far better than canned!
So creamy and delicious! Love that it’s healthy!
Loved this soup!! At first I was unsure about the baking soda but I followed the recipe and yes it worked! Great trick thank you!
Hi, Sonia. This recipe looks perfect. Tomato is my favorite soup and I don’t want to buy canned anymore. Have you ever frozen this? Do you think it would taste the same? Thanks so much. If I’m going to make it, I may as well make enough to last awhile!
Hi Jeanne, yes, it freezes very well! I only add milk or cream when serving, if you were to add it before freezing I’m afraid it wouldn’t freeze as well. I hope you enjoy it!
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place earlier! I bookmarked it.
Hey Heidi – I make a lot of homemade tomato soup – my kids won’t touch the canned stuff. But, initially they complained about the chunkiness of the soup. So, I started using a food mill to process it after it cooked. Using the finest setting, the soup has the same smooth velvety texture as the canned varieties. (I prefer the chunkier style myself!) Love the addition of the honey. The baking soda is a new one to me and I’m going to give that a try!
Hey Will, thanks for the comment. A food mill is a great idea. My kids would probably prefer that super smooth texture too. I think I’ll have to dust off my food mill and give it a try 🙂
I know this is an old post and you might not see it, but I want to thank you for this easy to make and delicious recipe. We really enjoyed it and it didn’t take a lot of energy or dishes to make on a “do you mind if I just make grilled cheese” kind of night. The only changes I made were to throw the bay leaf in while I was sweating the aromatics, and add a pinch of miso paste to bump up the umami a bit. I swirled a bit of last year’s basil that we froze in olive oil over the top when I served it. Lovely!
I spent an hour trying to find a SIMPLE recipe for tomato soup using canned tomatoes. Way too complicated (time consuming), too many steps, too many ingredients, and other unnecessaries. Then I came to your easy recipe and it is exactly what I was looking for. You are a mother, not a snooty professional chef who thinks if a recipe doesn’t have 20+ ingredients it’s not worthy to write down. Thank you for your recipe that is perfectly good enough for my ignorant self. I will look at more of your recipes!
I have been looking for a good home made tomato soup recipe that was quick and used canned tomatoes. This is fantastic! Even my husband liked it! You can tweet it to be more sweet or creamy or thick or thin! Good with grilled cheese sandwich for meatless dinner! Thanks!
I’m so glad you love it as much as we do Lisa! And thanks for stopping in to leave a comment 🙂
Thanks. Awesome soup.
Thanks!
Hi! This is the first time I have ever seen your blog! I was looking for a decent recipe for easy homemade tomato soup. SO, my 15 yr old Autistic child just made this. Not only was it easy..it’s absolutely delicious! He is so excited as he did it himself and he loves it. Thank you for this awesome recipe!!!
I’ve made tomatoe soup but i have made it too sweet. How can I fix this? Thanks.
After many attempts with different recipes, this is the keeper! So easy and perfect!
I use a leek instead of an onion when I have one and so good!
You nailed it!
I’m wondering what it would taste like without the baking soda. Baking soda depletes the vitamin c. Maybe sub sugar?
I have made this soup numerous times. So easy to make and absolutely delicious. It’s quickly become my go to soup and one of my faves.
Wow! I searched all over the internet looking for a good tomato soup. I hadn’t ever made one before, but this was simple, easy, and SO DELICIOUS. I cooked my onion in bacon fat which gave it a nice flavor. I also crumbled some bacon to go on top. Delicious.
A good dairy free option is almond milk; it’s thick enough to keep the soup from being too watery and gives it a nice color.
Thanks for the recipe!
I know this is an old post but I found it today when in search of some good homemade tomato soup. I never made it myself before. This was the best recipe. I used a quart of crushed tomatoes that I canned from my garden. I also grew the basil and parsley. It was perfect with some grilled cheese. Thanks for posting this recipe!
Yum-people keep asking me, since I am vegan, if I have ever made tomato soup – well now I have a simple and yummy looking recipe to go off of! Thanks.
Made this tonight! Oh my gosh it was SO good!! Thanks!
I just made this today for me and my son. We loved it. I tweaked it a little because I added chopped carrots and celery (to up the veggie content). Thanks for such a delicious recipe!
YUM! and THANK YOU!!
I used a canned, diced, fire roasted tomato and added a bit of pesto……DELISH!!
Congrats of baby #3!!
This is the first time I’ve made tomato soup from scratch and though I don’t particularly care for canned tomato soup as either it is too sweet or tinny tasting I LOVED this soup!!! Hubby who enjoy the heck out of Campbell’s has just told me that his is now our go to recipe for tomato soup and I don’t have to buy him any more Campbell’s. So a HUGE THANK YOU!!!! This was just perfect and I have shared!!!!
I’m so glad you enjoyed it! This is our go-to recipe now too, we love it! Thanks so much for sharing Melody!
I just made this soup and it really was wonderful. I followed the recipe as much as I could but some items I did not have. I used a only a 28 ounce can of diced tomatoes and used half of an onion. Also, I didn’t have any fresh basil so I used dried. I pureed in my blender and added reduced fat milk at the end (as well as the honey mentioned in the recipe). I will definitely be making this soup again and again!
Great recipe for tomato soup!! Beats eating it from a can.
I had found a recipe for “french onion soup grilled cheese sandwiches” and had to find a basic soup to go along with it. On a whim I googled “how to make make tomato soup with canned tomatoes” and your recipe showed up. This is really very good. I am 47 yrs old and had no idea how to make tomato soup other than opening a can and heating it up. I have to say, it was really quite easy for the tremendous flavor. This is no ordinary tomato soup and I will always choose to make this over the store bought from this day on. Thank you for sharing this recipe, it has made quite the impression on my husband and I.
I have stage 4 breast cancer and the lycopine on tomatoes is excellent to fight off those cancer cells and i crave tomato soup with a couple croutons on top…looked in the cabinet tonight…
No tomato soup….but diced tomatoes and tomato sauce….so…..gonna be cooking this recipe in just a bit!!!
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We’ve been eating a tomato soup that has very similar ingredients. I like to add some nutritional yeast for a cheesy flavor…like adding the grilled cheese right into the soup!
Wow, I am loving this idea, Carissa. I wouldn’t have thought of it.
I bet nutritional yeast in pasta with tomato sauce must be absolutely brilliant too! Wonder if I could get my son to give that a try. 😉 He adds cheese to his pasta ALL the time. Drives me insane. He uses up all my cheese, and when I go to use some, which I seldom do, there’s no more!
Mind you, if he liked the nutritional yeast alternative, then I might run into the same problem… except the yeast, I do use a little more often! So I wouldn’t be too happy about being all out when I need to use it.
Now I definitely want to try that tomato soup with nutritional yeast in it. And sooner than later. 🙂
Only 3 weeks??!?!? For real??!?! I seems like it was only yesterday that you made the big announcement. Wow, how time flies. You must be getting extremely anxious. Oh, this brings back memories… You better shower us with pictures of that little one!
As for your soup, it’s simply gorgeous. Can you believe that I’ve never made tomato soup before in my life? I really have to remedy that. This soup is soooo getting made, and soon! Think I can leave the honey out without changing the outcome too much? Maybe if I added a little bit of unsweetened applesauce instead? 😉 Alright, alright, I’m outta here! 😉
Oh, hey, awesome pics, by the way! Definitely pinning to my recipe inspiration board!
Oh, how fun! I am sure you can put that gift card to good use. And if the Fairy Hobmother needs somewhere else to sprinkle her fairy dust, I would not be opposed! 😉 There’s nothing like a little bit of retail therapy to make winter zip by faster! Thanks for sharing the opportunity!
This soup sounds delicious and so easy to make! Love the picture of the soup with basil leaves – looks delicious!
I ADORE homemade tomato soup! I don’t think it is as good in any restaurant… thank you for sharing your recipe! 🙂 Your pictures are gorgeous!
I actually like that iconic Warhol brand of tomato soup, but it’s because it’s a blast from the past – I grew up with it etc etc etc. Homemade is so much better, and that’s what I eat when I’m being grown up (rare, I admit). Your version looks wonderful – thanks for this.
I love homemade soups. I made some roasted fresh tomato soup last time and swore that that’s my favorite tomato soup 🙂
That baking soda trick is so interesting! I have never tried that, although I love making tomato soup. And this soup looks delish! Yum!
That sucks that your site was down! I love tomato soup, and really should make it more often! It looks so good!
I make my own tomato soup too!!! I use nutritional yeast in mine for a cheezy taste!! MMMMM…with homemade corn chips!! Yours looks amazing too!!!
simple meals are the way to go for expecting mommies, this looks amazing..
try to rest …
I bet you are an awesome mom!!!! I can just tell 🙂 I’m
Impressed how many posts you get out with two kids while pregnant, Very impressive!
I really must try this soup, I’ve been scared of canned tomato soup for ages but I love tomatoes so I need to whip this one up! Love the simplicity, exactly what I need right now! 🙂
Hi Heidi! This is such a beautiful and delicious soup! I’d love to give it a try. My kids especially love tomatoes and they will love it for sure.
Congrats on Fairy Hobmother!
A great soup. I love simple soups, no too many ingredients, but full of flavor. I never understand why people would buy canned soups in the first place, home made is so much nicer
This post just came at the perfect time; I just cam back from food shopping and bought a large can of canned tomatoes with the very intent of making tomato soup and grilled “cheese” this week!
The Fairy Hobmother? What in the world is that 🙂
Homemade tomato soup just can’t be beat! It’s so incredibly easy to make, and your version looks delicious.
Lucky you, being visited by a benevolent appliance fairy! Any grand plans on what you shall be purchasing?
Ever since making my own tomato soup about a month ago, I haven’t bought a canned version since (sorry Amy’s!). It’s so easy and it really is delicious, isn’t it? I like the touch of honey you have in yours, might have to steal that idea next time 🙂
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