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Why I Love This Creamy Tomato Soup
When the weather is cold outside, tomato soup and grilled cheese always hit the right spot. The flavors are located somewhere between our favorite childhood memories and the most comforting meals we crave as adults.
Growing up, tomato soup was often made from our home-canned concentrate. I still can the concentrate each year, but I also love to make a quick, fresh soup. The ingredients are simple and almost always what we have in the pantry.
To make this creamy without the heaviness of actual cream, I added white beans. Once the whole soup is blended, the beans become creamy and give just the right texture. It’s an easy swap-out that makes this a dairy-free recipe!
Creamy Tomato Soup Ingredients
- Butter is the fat used to sauté and is essential to a well-rounded tomato soup. The richness of the butter balances out the acidity of the tomatoes.
- Celery, onion, and carrot are the unusual players in this soup. Instead of only tomatoes, these vegetables add an underlying full vegetal flavor to enhance the tomatoes. No one will guess they’re in the soup, but will love the flavor.
- Tomato paste is not often found in tomato soup. The paste is condensed tomato and has a concentrated flavor accompanied by some sweetness. This turns the tomato flavor up a notch without adding too much liquid.
- Canned diced tomatoes are tomatoes picked while ripe and instantly canned to retain all of their flavor and freshness. The fresh tomatoes at the grocery store in the off-season are tasteless. These canned tomatoes are always in season.
- White beans are the secret component that makes this a creamy but dairy-free soup. Everyone loves a creamy tomato soup, but the added fat and rich cream can drown out the other flavors. White beans are almost tasteless and provide the best texture.
The full amount of each ingredient can be found in the recipe card below.
Tomato soup is oftentimes an afterthought. This recipe brings it back to the forefront of your meal list! The best part is how easy and quick it is to make. While it’s cooking, you can get the grilled cheese ready, and soon you’ll have a perfect, comforting meal.
More Soup Recipes
- Leftover turkey soup
- Healthy chicken tortilla soup
- Sausage lentil soup
- Creamy chicken and wild rice soup
- And don’t forget to make grilled cheese croutons to go on top!
Have I Convinced You to Make This Recipe?
I hope you make this recipe and put some food on your table. Leave a comment and share a star rating so you can let others know how much you love this recipe. This helps show others that this is a recipe they, too, can make, enjoy, and love!
Creamy Tomato Soup
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp unsalted butter (or oil to be dairy-free)
- ¾ cup diced celery
- ¾ cup diced carrot
- 1 cup diced onion
- 1 ½ tsp kosher salt
- 1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1 6-oz can tomato paste
- ½ tsp red pepper flakes
- ½ tsp celery seed
- 1 28-oz can diced tomatoes
- 1 15-oz can white beans drained
- 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
- 1 cup water (as needed)
Instructions
- Melt butter (or oil) in a 4-quart saucepan over medium-low heat. Add the celery, carrot, onion, salt, and pepper. Stir and cover to allow the vegetable to soften but not brown, 4-5 minutes.2 tbsp unsalted butter (or oil to be dairy-free), ¾ cup diced celery, ¾ cup diced carrot, 1 cup diced onion, 1 ½ tsp kosher salt, 1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
- Once the vegetables have softened and released some liquid, add the garlic and tomato paste. Cook the tomato paste until it has darkened and wants to coat the bottom of the saucepan, 2-3 minutes.2 cloves garlic, 1 6-oz can tomato paste
- Add the chili flakes and celery seed and stir. Pour in the tomatoes, white beans, and water. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer. Cover and cook, stirring occasionally until the carrots are fully soft, 15-20 minutes.½ tsp red pepper flakes, ½ tsp celery seed, 1 28-oz can diced tomatoes, 1 15-oz can white beans, 1 cup water (as needed)
- Once the carrots are fully soft, remove the soup from the heat and add the apple cider vinegar. Pour the soup into a blender canister. Leave the vent on the lid open and cover with a dishcloth to allow the steam to escape. Blend until smooth and creamy, 1-2 minutes. Return to the saucepan and keep warm until ready to serve.1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
Video
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Did you make this? Leave a comment below!
This was a big disappointment. Despite all the veggies & beans, vinegar & butter, it tasted overwhelmingly like canned tomatoes. Maybe we’ve gotten spoiled by the flavor & texture of Trader Joe’s tomato & red pepper soup, which we love & I usually doctor up with veggies. This was a lot of work for no improvement on a boxed store product.
We’ll try to salvage this by using it as marinara. Hopefully, a whole wheat pasta with some sautéed spinach & mushrooms will cut the flavor of canned tomatoes.
Hello! I’m glad you tried the tomato soup recipe and it is too bad it was not to your liking. I understand when we have something we love already love it is hard to live up to that. There are so many people that enjoy this recipe but I know not everyone will. Hope you can salvage it as you mentioned.
Made the soup for dinner tonight and I tasted it made herself a tiny bowl just to see how it was an oh my gosh I love it gonna do with grilled cheese with it thank you Kakeb for always bringing fresh ideas with the healthy twist… to a classic recipe. I think I’ve made just about everything you’ve put out there I love it all looking forward to the next video
Hi from Montréal, Quebec, cda.
Tried your soup and will certainly make it again. Very different from other tomato soups I have made. Thank you , love the bean addition.
Just made the dairy free tomato soup and toasted cheese sandwiches!!!! My family loved it!!! My son-in-law said: “Best tomato soup I ever had! Freakin Awesome Soup!”
This soup is I N C R E D I B L E. Quite possibly the best soup I’ve ever tasted in my entire life. It was very easy to make and was so full of flavor. I wish I could give it more than 5 stars. I will DEFINITELY be making it again!
This soup was incredible! Very easy and cost effective! Full of flavor and super creamy! My teenager could stop saying how it was so much better than the can and was more filling and had more flavor. It took about the same amount of time that a can would without all that added stuff we don’t need! Can’t wait to make it again!
I love the texture after I ran it through the Vitamix, The white beans does mute the flavor of the true tomato taste so if not for the tomato paste it wouldn’t work. The only real change I made was no celery seed (I don’t like the texture of it, especially in something that has no texture.) I added a big pinch of dried basil. I served with a good drizzle of tasting olive oil, freshly cracked pepper and a grating or two of parm. It was delicious with dad’s corny cornbread. I’d say this one is a keeper. I love the bean idea – I always forget about creamy white beans. I used cannelloni beans this time.
This recipe is tomato soup perfection. There is nothing I would change!
Celery seed adds to it and “disappears” completely except for flavor 😋
I made this today and it is very tasty. I used some leftover cooked lentils in place of white beans and added a bit of white wine. I cut back on some of the chili flakes and it is still pretty spicy, but delicious! Thanks Kaleb.
Love tomato soup very eager to try your recipe. Recipe sounds very good.
Wonderful soup!