Homemade Tomato Basil Soup makes for a lovely comforting dinner and I can never get enough of this recipe.
This soup is for you if you are looking for an easy dinner meal prepared with fresh tomatoes within 20 minutes.
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Originally, back in 2012, I called it a soup a la provencale.
The soup is inspired by the southern france, Provence region, which means it's a Mediterranean soup.
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Time-saving and Dietary plus points
This tomato basil soup has many advantages. Here are some of them:
- homemade from scratch preparation with whole ingredients making it a healthy soup
- quick, easy and simple to prepare within 20 minutes in just one pot
- vegan and dairy-free
- gluten-free which is an advantage if you have celiac disease
- low sodium if you use a homemade vegetable broth or a low sodium canned broth
- low calorie which is great for weight loss
How to make it?
Step 1
Sauté onion and garlic and add the tomato.
Pour in broth and season.
Step 2
Cook ingredients soft covered.
Step 3
Blend soup to a smooth consistency or leave it chunky.
Serve hot.
📖 Recipe
20 min Tomato Basil Soup Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 Tablespoon Olive Oil
- 1 Onion sliced
- 4 Pieces Garlic Cloves chopped
- 1.6 Pounds Tomato diced or roughly cut smaller
- 2½ Cup Vegetable Broth
- 10 Basil Fresh fresh
- 2 Teaspoon Thyme or Italian Seasoning
- 1 Bay Leaf
- ¼ Teaspoon Black Pepper Ground
- Salt to taste
- Parsley Fresh to garnish
Instructions
- Heat up a pot with the olive oil and sautee sliced onion soft.
- Add the chopped garlic too and stir cook for a minute.
- Place diced tomatoes into the pot and keep over low heat.
- Pour vegetable broth over the tomatoes in the pot.
- Add fresh whole basil leaves, the bay leaf to the pot and season with thyme.
- Stir and combine everything in the pot and keep over medium heat.
- Cover the pot and leave the soup to cook for at least 10 minutes.
- When the ingredients are cooked through, pick out and discard the bay leaf.
- Blend the soup to the desired consistency.
- Season with black pepper and salt to taste.
- Serve hot. I like to garnish with fresh parsley.
Notes
Nutrition
Flavor variations
I usually like to stick to the basic tomato basil soup recipe, but you can pep up or make the following changes to your soup:
- spice up the soup with a pinch of cayenne pepper, cumin powder, and coriander powder. Use them together or alone.
- add pasta such as small pastina noodles to the soup
- use peeled Tomatoes or without seeds (see in FAQs below why)
- roast your tomatoes first to bring out the sweet intense flavors of your fruits (yep the tomato is actually a fruit)
- serve it cold like gazpacho or my orange tomato soup
The suggestions are all optional but a great way to upgrade your tomato soup!
Serving
At home, we serve up this soup with a green salad and toasted bread.
It's a light dinner meal but feel free to enjoy your tomato soup with a “heavier” protein-rich salad such as a shrimp louie, Caesar salad and similar.
Another favorite addition to this soup is garlic bread or a nutritious whole grain bread such as this spelt bread.
Craving more comfort flavors? Then I recommend a cheesy grilled cheese sandwich with this soup or a Croque monsieur or madame.
FAQs
I think the soup turns out quite thick but if yours is too liquid for your taste, just cook it down further to the desired thickness after blending it smooth. If you want it to be more creamy, you can add thick cream or vegan cream.
Yes, tomato soup can give you heartburn BUT this is only true for some people. Turns out, all the men that I know (on 2 continents) don't like tomato soup because tomato soup causes them stomach acid reflux. The solution that worked so far: Peel the tomatoes. Usually peeling the tomatoes helps, but it's not always a guarantee.
No, you don't need to peel your tomatoes BUT some people don't like the little shreds in their soup and others seem to have a problem digesting the skin. See the heartburn question.
No, you don't need to, but some folks don't like the seeds in the soup. Keeping them in the soup won't make your soup bitter or something.
Use a homemade tomato coulis instead of the onion, garlic, and tomatoes. The broth quantity can be reduced too. You can even skip the olive oil and just pour the coulis into the soup pan. Season the soup recipe with thyme and basil. You don't need to add the bay leaf. Also, taste first if you need to season with salt and black pepper. Parsley is optional. Using this tomato coulis will reduce your cooking process by 5–8 minutes so that you can make a soup within 8–10 minutes.
I harvested about 50 tomatoes today & had to find ideas to use them. Found this recipe & so glad I did. It is very quick, easy, & delicious. Will have plenty of soup for the winter. Grilled cheese & soup. Will be freezing in jars.
Great idea to freeze them in jars. Next time, if you have a lot of tomatoes, you can try making a French tomato coulis too. It's like a thin flavored tomato sauce, and we can it, but you can freeze it as well.
This is the best tomato basil soup I’ve ever put in my mouth!! And SOOO easy!! YUM! Thank you!
You are welcome, Becky! 🙂
Thank you for sharing this recipe. It sounds easy and delicious! Can’t wait to try it.
You are welcome Tommie.
Can you please tell me how much 1 serving is?
Thanks.
About 2 cups or 400 ml. It's an estimate.
Thanks so sweet I Like it please send me the ingredients of faIafel and baklava food 👌
Hi Mercy, glad you liked it. I haven't made falafel and baklava yet. But now I want to! Thanks for the inspiration.
This recipe was easy to follow. I did change it up a bit from a previous recipe. I roasted my garlic and tomatoes in the oven before cooking in the pot. I quartered my tomatoes and drizzled with olive oil and put the garlic in with the tomatoes @ 400° for about 30 mins. Then I shelled the garlic and threw the tomatoes in the pot. While waiting for the tomatoes and garlic to roast, I sautéed the onions with 2 TBSP of butter. When the onions were translucent, I poured 1/4 of sherry wine then added the tomatoes and garlic then added my broth and used the seasonings and the amount listed in this recipe . This recipe turned out amazing!
Thanks so much for sharing Bree 🙂
Made this tonight! Changed it up a bit. Used 2 Tbls. butter in with onions/garlic after they softened. Added approximately 2 Tbls. flour for a roux, to thicken and some lemon zest. I didn’t make the quantity you made. It tastes fabulous!!!! Easy and quick.
Thanks for sharing your version of the recipe Jeanne.
I made this today it was great!!
Thanks for sharing Aubrey 🙂
My boys loved this soup. My only problem was that I forgot to take out one of the bay leaves!?!? Really delicious and simple. We will definitely make it again. We added a slice of mozzarella to both my son's bowls and I opted for a generous drop of ricotta. However it doesn't need either - just trying to beef up calories for a lunch. Thank you for sharing this recipe.
Made this with fresh tomatoes and basil from my garden - delicious! The whole family loved it - which never happens!
Curious as to how people are freezing this - do you freeze in bags? Use a vacuum sealer?
What about canning? I would love to use up some end of the season tomatoes by canning soup!
Hi Megan, you can can it by using this water bath canning technique. To freeze, prepare batches in freezer-friendly containers. We just use Tupperware containers.
Absolutely delicious!
thanks for sharing!
Super easy to make and delicious!
That's great that you enjoyed the soup as much as we did
Super easy and simple. Can play around with the recipe and tastes good!
awesome! did you add an ingredient? 🙂
I made this and it was so simple, delicious, and fresh. I will never make canned tomato soup again... Was also a great way to use up the bag of fresh tomatoes my neighbor brought over from their garden 🥰 I used bacon grease instead of oil though, and set the bacon aside as a garnish for later
Thanks for your feedback Bliss, I'm glad you enjoyed the soup. 🙂
Awful tomato soup recipe. Watery and no flavor.
Hi Katelyn, I'm sorry to read that the soup wasn't up to your expectations.
I'm surprised you found it watery...When I made it it came out thicker like cream of tomato soup.I used beef broth because I had it and I like veg. beef soup. When I blended it in the blender I put it on " liquify".
will this freeze well?
Hi Sandra, yes it will freeze well. Freeze n batches and just place it in a cooking pot over low heat to thaw and warm up again.
Thank you. This was quick and easy. I appreciate the recipe.
Glad you found it useful and delicious Shaniqua. 🙂
I didn’t have basil so I didn’t use it but the soup still turned out amazing
Thanks for sharing Shannon! 🙏
Delicious, added carrots and celery salt bc I was out of celery. Also added a can of nestle table cream after I blended. Used tomatoes and basil from my garden
Sounds delicious too, thanks for sharing Natalie. 🙂
I Made it exactly per the recipe and served it with homemade foccacia. It was so good!
Love this soup with foccacia too. Thanks so much for your feedback. I appreciate it! 🙂
I will never buy canned tomato soup again! I made with homegrown roma tomatoes and herbs. This was so easy and delicous!
That's awesome! So glad to read that you discovered this soup for yourself. 🙂
I used beef broth because I had it on hand and I also used homegrown grape and regular tomatoes.and basil leaves.....It was delicious...Loved not having to skin the tomatoes! After blending in the blender on "liquify" it was beautifully thick enough. Iran out of bay leaves , so left it out....I never have olive oil, so used canola....wish I'd thought to use bacon grease I keep in fridge...that sounded delicious! Made my second time just now...IT TAKES A LOT LONGER THAN 5 MINUTES PREP THOUGH....more like an hour to chop it all...
Thanks for your feedback Susan!
This soup looks so good. I can't wait to make it with my garden fresh tomatoes and basil. Will it freeze well?
I would like to make some large batches while I have the tomatoes handy.
Hi Lisa, yes you can freeze this soup. Pack it into batches and just heat it up again when you want it. It's good for at least 4-5 months in the freezer.
Made it exactly per the recipe and served it with homemade foccacia. It was so good! This will probably become a regular comfort food in the cooler months.
Great idea to serve tomato soup with foccacia. Love it! Thanks for sharing Valerie. 🙂
Super yummy with some garlic French bread on the side. Made little crunchy Swiss cheese sandwiches to dip them in.
Love the idea of dipping little swiss cheese sandwiches into the tomato soup. YUM!
I really like tomato soup,which is a bit surprising because I never liked soup until a few years back.
Your 'Tomato Soup A La Provencale' - Pleasantly simple - uses only a few ingredients!I want to have some now,with warm garlic bread.Yummy!
This is a lovely soup and I do like the chunkiness along with the fresh basil. Bet is tastes divine.
Hi louise!
we do have basil growing in masses in our garden but its not the european type, here its called Tulsi. It smells and tastes differently. For this soup I needed the proper basil and I had to buy it. I wish I could get some seeds though to grow my own. I am already looking all over goa for herb seeds.
I love my soup hot. I like the new format of Masala herb. The tomato soup looks lovely and is just the way I make it at home. Only, I didn't know they did the same back in France 🙂
Anita that means u have a great instinct in combinating ingredients! 😉