Silky roasted tomato basil soup with a splash of cream. Cozy, simple, and perfect with crusty bread for dipping. This recipe uses fresh tomatoes.
Tomato Basil Soup At A Glance
- ⏱ Ready In: 50 minutes to 3 hours 20 minutes (depending on roasting method)
- 🍽 Serves: 4
- 🌱 Diet: Vegetarian, Gluten-Free
- 💪 Nutrition Highlights: Rich in vitamin C and lycopene from roasted tomatoes
- 🥕 Main Ingredients: Tomatoes, onion, garlic, basil, cream, butter
- 🔥 Flavor Profile: Rich, silky, gently sweet with a fresh basil finish
- 🧊 Meal-Prep Friendly: Keeps 5 days in the fridge, freezes beautifully (without cream)
- Best Served With: Crusty bread or a grilled cheese sandwich
Many homemade tomato soup recipes reach for a can, but this one starts with actual fresh tomatoes, and once you roast them, you’ll understand why it’s worth the extra step.
Roasting first — either hot and fast or low and slow — concentrates all that natural sweetness before anything even hits the pot, giving you a depth of flavor canned tomatoes just can’t match. Blended up with fresh basil, a splash of cream, and a little butter, it turns into something velvety smooth that just coats the spoon.
I love that it’s genuinely flexible too: rush it in under an hour, or let it go low and slow for a few hours if you’ve got a lazy Sunday and want something deeper and jammier. Either way, you’ll want good bread or a grilled cheese toastie on the side to mop up every last bit of the bowl.
👩🍳 More soup recipes you might like:
→ Tomato Florentine soup
→ Creamy sausage tortellini soup
→ Roasted tomato soup with creamy mascarpone
→ Leek and potato soup
→ Chicken and white bean soup
What You’ll Need
Here is what you’ll need for this tomato basil soup recipe. Find the full measurements in the recipe card below.
Roasted tomatoes
- Ripe tomatoes — the star of the show, roasting concentrates their sweetness and deepens the flavor
- Onion and garlic — roasted alongside the tomatoes for a mellow, sweet base note (the garlic goes in unpeeled so it doesn’t burn)
- Olive oil, salt, pepper — for roasting
- A touch of sugar — optional, helps balance out any acidity in the tomatoes
- Fresh thyme or oregano — adds a subtle herbal note while roasting
Soup base
- Vegetable or chicken stock — use vegetable stock to keep this fully vegetarian
- Tomato paste — deepens the tomato flavor
- Heavy cream — for that silky, rich finish; use light for lower calories
- Fresh basil — added right at the end so it stays bright and fragrant
- Butter — optional, but adds a lovely glossy finish
How To Make Tomato Basil Soup
Find the full recipe and nutritional information below. Here are some handy step-by-step photos for how to make this roasted tomato and basil soup.
- Preheat your oven — 300°F if you’re doing the slow roast, or crank it up to 400–425°F for the quicker method.
- Halve the tomatoes and place them cut-side up on a large baking tray with the quartered onion and unpeeled garlic cloves.
- Drizzle with olive oil, season with salt, pepper, and sugar if using, and scatter over the herbs.
- Roast for 30–45 minutes at 400–425°F for bright, juicy tomatoes, or 2–3 hours at 275–325°F for a deeper, jammier flavor.
- Once roasted, squeeze the garlic out of its skins and discard any tough herb stems.
- Tip everything — tomatoes, onion, garlic, and all those roasting juices — into a large pot.
- Stir in the stock and tomato paste, then bring to a gentle simmer for 20–30 minutes to let the flavors meld.
- Add the fresh basil and simmer for just 2 minutes to infuse without losing that bright green color.
- Blend until completely smooth with an immersion blender (or in batches in a regular blender). Pass through a fine mesh sieve if you want it extra silky.
- Return to low heat and stir in the cream and butter until glossy and smooth.
- Taste and adjust the seasoning, then serve.
Recipe Tips
- Pick your roasting method based on time and mood. Hot and fast (400–425°F, 30–45 minutes) gives you bright, juicy tomatoes with a bit of caramelization. Low and slow (275–325°F, 2–3 hours) concentrates the sugars into something richer and more complex. Both are worth trying.
- Always roast the garlic in its skin. It roasts sweet and mellow instead of sharp, and squeezing the cloves out afterward takes seconds.
- Add the basil right before blending, not before. Two minutes of gentle heat is enough to infuse the flavor without turning it dull and losing that fresh green color.
- Hold the cream back if you’re freezing or storing a big batch. The soup base keeps better without it — stir cream into individual portions as you reheat instead.
- Reheat gently. A splash of stock or water helps loosen it back up if it’s thickened in the fridge.
Serving Suggestions
This is the kind of soup that’s honestly a full meal with the right sides. I always serve it with thick slices of crusty bread for dipping, but a grilled cheese sandwich on the side turns it into pure comfort food. It also works beautifully as a starter before something like a pasta bake or roast chicken if you’re entertaining.
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Ingredients
Roasted tomatoes
- 3 lbs ripe tomatoes, halved 1.4 kilograms
- 1 large onion quartered
- 6 cloves garlic unpeeled
- 3–4 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
- 1 teaspoon sugar optional, helps balance acidity
- A few sprigs fresh thyme or oregano
Soup base
- 1–2 cups vegetable or chicken stock, as needed 240–475 ml
- 1 tablespoon tomato paste
- ½ cup heavy cream 120 ml
- 1 packed cup fresh basil leaves about 20 grams
- 1 tablespoon butter optional
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 300°F (150°C) for slow roasting, or 400–425°F (200–220°C) for a faster roast.
- Place tomatoes (cut side up), onion, and garlic on a large baking tray. Drizzle with olive oil and season with salt, pepper, and sugar if using. Scatter herbs on top.
- Roast for 30–45 minutes at 400–425°F (200–220°C) for soft, juicy tomatoes, or 2–3 hours at 275–325°F (135–165°C) for a deeper, more concentrated flavor.
- Squeeze the garlic out of its skins and discard any tough herb stems.
- Transfer the roasted vegetables and all their juices to a large pot.
- Add the stock and tomato paste. Bring to a gentle simmer for 20–30 minutes.
- Stir in the fresh basil and simmer for 2 minutes to infuse.
- Blend until completely smooth using an immersion blender, or in batches in a regular blender. For an extra silky texture, pass through a fine mesh sieve.
- Return the soup to low heat and stir in the cream and butter until glossy.
- Taste and adjust salt and pepper, then serve.
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