This is the best tomato soup recipe, and it is so easy to make! Serve it with grilled cheese sandwiches for a comforting weeknight dinner.
INGREDIENTS
- 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1 yellow onion chopped
- 6 garlic cloves minced
- 2 (28-ounce/794g) cans whole peeled tomatoes
- 3 cups water or chicken stock (720ml)
- 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
- ½ teaspoon ground black pepper
- Salt to taste
- ¾ cup heavy cream (180ml)
- Fresh basil chopped
DIRECTIONS
- In a large Dutch oven, combine olive oil and butter. Heat over medium heat until the butter is melted. Add the onion. Cook, stirring frequently, until softened, about 8 minutes. Stir in the garlic and cook for another 5 minutes or until very fragrant and just starting to brown.
- Add the tomatoes. Swirl the cans with some of the chicken stock to get the rest of the tomato juices and pour into the pot with the remaining stock. Stir in the sugar and black pepper.
- Bring to a boil (this will take about 10 minutes), then reduce the heat to medium-low and continue simmering for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from the heat.
- Using an immersion blender, pulse the soup to break up the tomatoes a bit or until your desired consistency. (I do not recommend transferring the soup to a high-speed blender as blending olive oil can turn it very bitter. Mash with a potato masher to break up the tomatoes a bit if you don’t have an immersion blender.) Taste and add salt, if needed. Stir in the cream. Serve immediately topped with fresh basil.
NOTES
- Don’t rush the simmer. The full 30 minutes is ideal for the best flavor, giving the tomatoes time to concentrate a bit more and absorb flavor from onions and garlic. I tested this soup once, only letting it cook for 10 minutes because I was in a rush, and the flavor was somewhat bland and one one-note. It tasted less rich and more like canned tomatoes with chunks of onion in it than a savory tomato soup. When I simmered it for 30 minutes, the soup had a strong tomato flavor but was rounded out by the aromatic onions and garlic that simmered in the pot, too. A short simmer time didn’t allow the ingredients to meld and fully combine for a deeply flavored soup.
