This post contains affiliate links.
My fresh tomato and basil soup uses garden-ripe tomatoes and fresh ingredients (no cans or pastes here)! If you’ve got more juicy summer tomatoes than you know what to do with, make this soup.
save this recipe!There comes a point every summer when our garden is simply exploding with tomatoes.
By that point, I’ve usually made a hundred caprese salads and tomato sandwiches and just need to do something to use up all those dang tomatoes.
And when that time comes, we have two options: we marinara, or we soup.
Reader rating
“Love this recipe. Made the soup as written and added extra veggies at the end and cooked an additional 20 minutes. Probably the best veggie soup I have had in a long time.” —Lisa
Key Ingredients
Like most types of soup, the ingredients in this tomato basil soup recipe are customizable to whatever you have on hand!
- Fresh Tomatoes: We’re celebrating the deliciousness of sweet, ripe tomatoes by using only fresh tomatoes in this soup! Any variety will do (read more about tomato varieties here).
- Flavor Base: Onion and garlic are the flavor foundations of any good soup.
- Basil: While we love this classic pairing, you could also throw in rosemary, thyme, or oregano!
- Vegetable Broth: Use broth instead of water to infuse this tomato soup with even more flavor (p.s. it’s super easy to make your own veggie broth at home).
Easy Tomato Basil Soup (With Fresh Tomatoes)
Ingredients
- 2 Tbsp olive oil, 30 mL
- ½ cup diced yellow onion, about ½ onion
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 8 cups chopped tomatoes, about 1 kg
- 2 cups vegetable broth
- ½ cup loosely packed basil leaves
- ½ tsp each smoked paprika, salt, and pepper
Instructions
- Cook Tomatoes: Heat 2 Tbsp olive oil in a medium pot over medium heat. Add ½ cup diced yellow onion, cooking until onion is soft, about 5 minutes. Stir in 4 cloves garlic (minced) and 8 cups chopped tomatoes. Continue cooking, uncovered, until tomatoes have mostly broken down and released their juices, about 10 minutes.
- Blend: Stir in 2 cups vegetable broth, ½ cup loosely packed basil leaves, and ½ tsp each smoked paprika, salt, and pepper. Using either a handheld immersion blender (or by carefully transferring the mixture to a countertop blender in batches), blend soup until smooth.
- Simmer: Return soup to the pot, cover, and let gently simmer for 20 minutes. This helps deepen flavor and slightly thicken the soup.If you'd like the sup to be thicker, remove lid while simmering.
- Serve: Serve warm, by itself or topped with croutons*, parmesan cheese, or crispy chickpeas.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information calculated by Sarah Bond, degreed nutritionist.
did you make this?Leave a comment below and tag @liveeatlearn on social media! I love seeing what you’ve made!
Love it!
So happy to hear! Enjoy! 😀
Do you have a recipe for tomatoe soup that is not blended? What do you think if skip the step of blending and just it chunky for this recipe? Thank you!!
You could definitely just leave it chunky and skip the blending step! You might just mash them up a bit to break them down.
Excellent base to work off of. I was looking for a recipe that didn’t require any canned paste. An abundance of tomatoes in my garden, and due to covid, not in contact with enough friends to share! Recipe as is was very good, did not need very much broth, as I prefer my soup thick, and omitted the honey. Second round, I added a couple chopped carrots, a red bell pepper, and a few celery stalks, and cayenne pepper. No broth at all. I ate two bowls! I think next time I might take the time to peel and seed the tomatoes first. This recipe lends itself to unlimited variation. Now I need to learn to can so I can have soup this winter! Thanks!
So happy to hear this could help you use some of those summer tomatoes (and the substitutions sound delish!) 😀
Is it possible to can this soup after it’s cooked? Either in a hot water bath or a pressure canner?
I haven’t tried so I can’t say for sure, but I would think yes!
This is amazing. It’s winter but I am using my canned tomatoes from this summer. Great recipe.
Love this recipe. Made the first batch as is. Had a few more veggies from the garden to use up so for batch 2 I added 1 cup each corn (cut off cob), green beans, and sliced okra. Made the soup as written and added extra veggies at the end and cooked an additional 20 minutes. Probably the best veggie soup I have had in a long time.
I’m so happy to hear it, Lisa! Enjoy! 😀
What to do with all of those volunteer grape and cherry tomatoes in the garden? 7 CUPS of TOMATOES! I have NEVER had such a delicious tomato soup in my life! I did double the honey but followed the recipe otherwise.
ABSOLUTLY Delicious! I made recipe exactly and added 1/4 cup whole wheat rice at the end. I also puréed the tomatoes only briefly to make the soup a little chunky! Wonderful tasty soup!!
So glad to hear it, Donna! Enjoy! 😀
Wondering whether freezing the marinara sauce or tomato soup will cause them to lose flavor.
It shouldn’t impact the flavor as long as its stored well (airtight and not freezer burned!)
We had a harvest of fresh garden ripened tomatoes and decided to make homemade soup with grilled cheese sandwiches. This recipe hit the mark in terms of reasonable prep time and flavorful outcome. We like a stronger taste of basil, so we left in the leaves and blended them right into the soup. The smoke paprika was DA BOMB! so delicate, but added a nice depth of flavor. Our family likes tomato soup a little on the creamy side, so we finished it off with half a can of evaporated milk and served it with a sprinkle of grated pecorino cheese. Best soup ever – it tasted gourmet!
This makes me so happy to hear, Shelly! Enjoy! 😀