It’s funny how your tastebuds mature as you get older.
(Well, at least with some people… I still know some horribly picky adult eaters I guess.)
As a kid, I would run screaming when my Dad would try to feed us tomato soup, and that aversion continued well into my adulthood.
Thankfully, my journey into real food has broadened my horizons a bit, and I now eat a lot of things I would never have before– tomato soup being one of them.
I not only “like” this tomato soup, I crave it… I yearn for it all day long when I know I’ll be making it for supper that evening. It’s THAT good. My tomato-soup-hating-hubby will even begrudgingly eat it, although he won’t yet admit that he “loves” it. (His tastebuds are maturing slightly slower than mine…)
If you don’t have home-canned tomatoes at your disposal, just use two cans (14.5 oz each) of the store-bought version instead for your own little version of tomato soup heaven.
Creamy Tomato Garlic Soup
- 4 cups crushed or diced tomatoes (do not drain)
- 4 tablespoons butter, coconut oil, or bacon grease
- 1/2 cup chopped onion
- 4 cloves of garlic, minced
- 3 tablespoons flour
- 3 cups whole milk OR half and half
- 3 teaspoons sucanat (or substitute 2 teaspoons brown sugar)
- 2 tablespoons dried basil
- 1 1/4 teaspoons sea salt (I like this one.)
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
- Shredded Parmesan cheese (optional– for garnish)
Heat your oil of choice in a large stockpot, then add the onion and garlic and saute until tender. Stir in the flour and let it brown for about 2-3 minutes.
Puree the tomatoes in a blender or food processor. (If you have a hand/immersion blender, you can skip this step. Read on for details.) Place them in a separate saucepan, and bring them to a simmer.
Add in the sucanat, salt, pepper, and basil, then pour in the milk all at once. Cook and stir constantly over medium heat until it reaches a simmer and begins to thicken. Stir in the heated tomatoes and allow the flavors to meld for around 5-10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
If you have a hand blender, you can puree the entire soup right in the stockpot, which will save you a messy blender/processor. (Unless you like chunky tomato soup, then just leave it as-is.)
Adjust seasonings if needed, then serve with a handful of shredded Parmesan cheese on top.
This simple, real-food soup makes an excellent side to a hot grilled cheese sandwich. Or, serve it for supper on a wintery night alongside some chewy homemade French bread.
PrintThick & Creamy Tomato Soup
Ingredients
- • 4 cups crushed or diced tomatoes (do not drain)
- • 4 Tablespoons butter, coconut oil, or bacon grease
- • 1/2 cup chopped onion
- • 4 cloves garlic, minced
- • 3 Tablespoons flour (white, whole wheat.. even coconut flour in a pinch)
- • 3 cups whole milk OR half and half
- • 3 teaspoons sucanat (like this) (or substitute 2 t. brown sugar)
- • 2 Tablespoons dried basil
- • 1 1/4 teaspoons sea salt (I use this one.)
- • 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
- • Shredded Parmesan cheese (optional– for garnish)
Instructions
- Heat oil in large stockpot
- Add onion and garlic
- Saute until tender
- Stir in flour and let brown 2-3 minutes
- Puree tomatoes in blender or food processor (Skip this step if you have hand/immersion blender) Place in separate saucepan, bring to a simmer
- Add sucanat, salt, pepper, and basil
- Pour in milk all at once
- Cook and stir constantly over medium heat until it reaches a simmer and begins to thicken
- Stir in the heated tomatoes and allow flavors to meld 5-10 minutes, stirring occasionally
- Optional Step: If you have a hand blender, puree soup right in stockpot (unless you like chunky tomato soup, then just leave as-is)
- Adjust seasonings if needed
- Serve with a handful of shredded parmesan cheese on top
Notes
Makes an excellent side to a grilled cheese sandwich or alongside some crusty homemade bread.
WAIT! Make it even better by roasting the tomatoes before you puree! Just spray a cooking sheet with cooking spray. Mix halved tomatoes and a teaspoon of olive oil in a bowl and place them on the cooking sheet. Sprinkle with balsamic vinegar. Cool 375 for 15 minutes. YOU WONT BELIEVE HOW MUCH TASTIER THE SOUP IS!
Oh Kelly– YUM! I’m totally trying that!!
Roast the “canned” halved tomatoes? or fresh? (I’m guessing you still reserve the liquid for the soup?)
I, too, crave tomato soup, however, just recently I’ve learned I’m sensitive to cows milk. Have you heard of anyone using almond milk as a substitute? I suppose I could try it myself this weekend and let you know how it goes 😉
I haven’t personally tried that, but I imagine it would work just fine. Let me know how it goes!
I did make mine with unsweetened almond milk this weekend. It was creamy and wonderful however, I may need to tweak it just a bit because it was a little too sweet. Even unsweetened almond milk has just a hint of sweet to it anyway. Next time, I’ll either use plain soy milk OR I’ll just reduce the brown sugar amount. It was still VERY good though and I’ll definitely make it again. I told my mother I won’t do canned tomato again. This was pretty easy and I’m JUST beginning to really cook. 🙂
Good to know about the almond milk. Glad you enjoyed it– it definitely beats the canned stuff! 🙂
Try Hemp milk or Soy milk. I’d think Almond milk would be too sweet. But, if you like that – Go for it! Make it your own!
I also can not have milk products so I just use water and add a thickening agent. Just like coffee with out cream it dosen’t have the creamy texture. But still tastes great.
We used coconut milk and it was delicious.
I make a similar version, only I can mine and then just pop open a quart and while it is warming make grilled chesse sandwhiched (or toasted cheese sandwhiches which ever you perfer) Great fast dinner!
I made mine with grilled muenster. Super-fab!!!
Oh Yum! 🙂
I plan making this when I get home from sea. I am gluten sensitive though so will try it with chickpea (gram) flour as that’s how I always thicken gravy (& everyone loves it)
Rachelle – what did you omit when canning this soup? I’m thinking I’d like this canned.
Yum! Totally pinning. 🙂
Thanks lady!
Got this in my email this morning and immediately decided to make it for lunch-eating some now, delicious!! 🙂 Pinned so I remember where I got it from!
Wow Lisa– you’re fast! 🙂 Thanks for the pin, too!
I am so relieved to learn I am not the only person with an aversion to tomato soup. My husband teases me constantly about it. I will have to give this recipe a try 🙂
We love tomato Basil soup at our home– so great this year with our own home grown heirloom tomatoes!!!! Thanks for your recipe!!!!!
Yum Sonda! Wish my crop of heirloom tomatoes had been better this year. 🙂
Oh my goodness!!! This sounds soooo amazing. Pregnant and recipe surfing is a dangerous combination!
I hear that! I would literally drool on the keyboard when I was pregnant and surfing Pinterest. hehe. 🙂
How would you make it with fresh tomatoes, do you need to do anything special, like peeling or scorching the tomatoes first?
I love this site and the comments too.
It makes me smile and reminisce. What is there about pregnant and sour stuff anyway?
I craved home made sauerkraut.
I literally would sit down and eat half a quart a day for what seemed like months.
My first mother-in-law was from Oklahoma. Raised in the dust bowl she canned everything. So she taught me to make sauerkraut the easy way. We simply shredded the cabbage packed it in qt. jars added a tsp of salt a bit of boiling water screwed on the lid and let them sit until use. After several weeks they were ready. Heat processing would ruin it by killing off the culture it formed that today is pushed as “pro-biotic” for good health.
I would grab a jar from the pantry heat it with bacon grease and simply eat the whole dish.
It was never really sour like the commercial stuff you can buy today.
According to today’s canning standards it is lucky we are not all dead … lol … which tends to make be think part of that “be careful” or “die” scare tactics are to keep everyone in the high priced processed market.
Anyway I have never given up that love for very tomato taste … so much so that over the years I developed a no meat spaghetti sauce that I use for everything. I can make it from scratch using home canned or store purchased whole tomatoes in a few minutes or triple the recipe and can it for later. I then use this on macaroni or as the base for rice or chicken or whatever in my sun oven.
If you are interested my recipe is on my blog here 🙂
http://food-o.com/quick-sauce/
Anyway this sounds great and I love tomato almost any way, shape, or form so I will definitely try this … maybe today 🙂
I tried this with a twist or 2.
There are only two of us at home now so I cut the recipe in half.
The tomatoes were canned fire roasted organic diced and I left them chunky. My Italian seasoning mix replaced the Basil.
I think it was the best tomato soup I have ever eaten. My husband who avoids anything creamy looking like the plague loved it too.
YUM Linda! I love your substitutions!
I have to thank you for this recipe. I found out recently that I was gluten intolerant and store bought condensed tomato soup was my one weakness( terrible I know between the chemicals and all that.) A lot of store bought soups have wheat flour and I have yet to find a store bought gluten free tomato soup I liked. So I started trying various recipes found online and on Pinterest. I disliked every single one until I found yours. I made it with almond milk and gluten free flour and
gosh was it delicious! Thank you
so very much! I will be making this time and again!
Whoo hoo! SO happy you liked it Ariel!
If gluten is a problem, try thickening the soup with dehydrated tomatoes. I’m going to dehydrate my tomato skins this summer so I can use them to thicken my spaghetti sauce and my tomato soup.
I use coconut water and or coconut milk in my soups quite often. More Thai tasting but very yummy.
I would avoid soy milk or most commercial nut milks. Soy (in any form) is not good for you due to the phytoestogens. Commercial nut milks like almond are full of unhealthy additives (just look at the ingredient list). And many canned coconut milks have gums added to them. There are some brands of coconut milk that are *just* made out of coconut, just make sure that the can isn’t lined with BPA (a good option is Natural Value Organic Coconut Milk which I have purchased by the case through Amazon.com). If you want to use almond milk, it’s best to make your own by pureeing almonds and water and then straining it through a milk bag or cheesecloth (recipe: http://www.primalpalate.com/recipe/almond-milk/). If the point of the flour is to thicken the soup, you could probably use something like arrowroot starch which has a neutral flavor.
Just made this soup – restaurant quality! Delish. Thank you!
Well, it’s been over a year now since my original comment and this is STILL my go-to recipe for Tomato Soup. On occasion, I have to switch this for that, reduce amounts, improvise, etc for those times I just was a bowl of soup and I may not have everything the recipe calls for. Even with the variations, I have YET to be disappointed. I’m posting now because I’m in the process of making it now. It’s one of those times I must 1/4 the recipe due to lack of ingredients but like before, it’ll still turn out great! 🙂
Love it! And thanks for the update Angel!
Has anyone tried making this with fresh tomatoes instead of canned?
I made this soup tonight and it was wonderful! However, I discovered that one of my cans of tomatoes was actually diced tomatoes with green chilies…oops. I used it anyway, and although the soup was spicy, it was still delicious. I put a little more sugar in it to cut down on the spiciness, and it worked. So my accident turned out okay…whew!
That actually sounds like a pretty yummy accident! 🙂
I used 2 tsp onion powder and 1.5 tsp garlic powder instead of fresh and then added all the spices to the tomatoes and made the butter/flour/milk mixture in a different pan. Mixed it all together and it was a super easy and fast lunch with some grilled cheese.
Yum! And yes, it’s definitely the perfect complement to grilled cheese!
Do you think this soup would freeze well?
Good question– I haven’t tried it, but I don’t see why not! 🙂
The BIG Cheat! When things are crazy……… Open a quart of your homemade salsa, put in sauce pan, add butter and cream. Heat & serve.
Love your blog girl!
I love your blog. I too have an adversion to anything thick and creamy. It’s a texture thing. Lol. I solved my issue, with the tomato soup recipe (which I just love), by replacing the milk with homemade chicken stock. It is yummy. And it freezes just fine. Thank you again.
Hi again. We eat a ton of garlic. My husband eats it raw. Ugh! (I usually plant about 300 or so garlic cloves in the fall). Any way, I use about 6-8 large cloves of garlic in my tomato soup. Did I say we like garlic?
I’ve been making this for years, although I add oregano with the basil. Since we always seem to have plenty of frozen homemade broth, I usually do a pint of that for every quart of tomatoes.
I actually have a comment about eggs from today’s post…..we’ve had chuckens a long time and I have figured out if you put eggs on the counter for at least a week preferably two the eggs will peel just fine…my theory is the store bought eggs peel fine because they are already aged by the time you get them! Give it a try and let me know…,
I actually have a comment about eggs from today’s post…..we’ve had chickens a long time and I have figured out if you put eggs on the counter for at least a week preferably two the eggs will peel just fine…my theory is the store bought eggs peel fine because they are already aged by the time you get them! Give it a try and let me know…,
We had so many tomatoes this year and this is perfect to use them up!! Making this right now! Thanks. My husband loves it intake soup.. me, it’s okay. So I have high hopes haha.
I made this tonight as I was craving Tomato Soup with a grilled cheese sandwich. I used Coconut sugar as we can’t have regular sugar and I used Arrowroot flour instead of wheat flour. It turned out great. My husband doesn’t like tomato soup, but he LOVED this! I will be making this again! Thanks!
I use my homemade salsa, blend it up so it is smooth, add butter,salt, pepper, and vegetable broth. You could use milk, but I can’t drink it, so vegetable broth works for me. My salsa already has onion, garlic, and herbs in it, so it’s ready to go. Will try your recipe, sounds good. God bless.
Just made this garlic tomato soup for supper. It was awesome!!!! Definitely a keeper. Thanks Jill.
I know this is an older post, but I was wondering if this can be pressure canned? I love this soup and it would be great to have some already made for the winter:)
I can’t wait to try this! Have you tried canning it for long term storage by chance? I know there are differing opinions about canning milk. How about chicken noodle soup? I’ve delved into canning chicken, broth and beef thanks to your posts. Ready for the next step! ?