There comes a time in the lifespan of every summer garden when the gardener has the delicious dilemma of what to do with a bounty of fresh tomatoes, all ripe at the same time. Besides making sauce, eating endless plates of Caprese salad, and freezing the tomatoes for later use, I like to make a fresh tomato soup. It may be a very simple recipe but it’s also incredibly tasty and satisfying, especially when served with a gooey grilled cheese sandwich or macaroni and cheese.
*******
If you’ve found my blog via Google or Stumbleupon, welcome! I hope you find my posts helpful and take the time to check out what’s new on Former Chef!
To receive free updates in your inbox when there’s a new post click here to subscribe.
*******
Homemade Tomato Soup
Printable version in PDF
2 cups chopped carrots
2 cups chopped celery
3 cups diced onions
6 cloves garlic, minced
12 cups chopped fresh tomatoes
2 Tbsp olive oil
2 cups water or chicken stock
2 Tbsp kosher salt
2 tsp. sugar
Rough chop all the vegetables. It doesn’t matter what they look like because the soup will be blended later, but make sure the carrots, onions and celery are all about the same size so they cook at the same rate.
In a large soup pot, heat the olive oil. Add in the carrots, celery and onions and cook until the onions are translucent, about 10 minutes. Add in the garlic and cook another 5 minutes, but don’t let the vegetables brown. Add in the tomatoes and water or chicken stock. Allow to simmer for about an hour, stirring occasionally, until the tomatoes break down and the carrots are soft.
Turn off the heat and allow to cool for 15 minutes.
Puree the soup, either with a stick blender or in batches in a conventional blender. I use a Braun hand blender that’s about 20 years old, but if I had to get a new one, I’d probably get this Cuisinart CSB-76 Smart Stick Hand Blender because it looks like the Braun ones may no longer be available.
Once the soup is all pureed, push it through a sieve. I use a chinois like this, Stainless Steel China Cap Chinois Fine Strainer: 12-inch but you can use any kind of strainer. The point is that you want to get out the tomato skins and seeds, but push through the rest of the vegetables. If you use too fine a mesh strainer, you will just end up with tomato juice. I lost about 2 cups of “solids”, mostly skin and seeds, during the straining process.
If you can skin and seed your tomatoes before making the soup you don’t have to strain it. But this is time consuming and I found it just easier to strain.
Put all the strained soup back in the pot and add the salt and sugar to taste. Even though my tomatoes were very ripe and sweet, I almost always add a couple of teaspoons of sugar to tomato soup or sauce because it helps balance out the acidity of the tomatoes and bring out the natural sweetness.
To serve, reheat the soup. I like to garnish it with a dollop of homemade pesto.
Other garnish options include a bit of milk or cream to make a “bisque”, chopped tomatoes to make a chunky tomato soup, fresh grilled garden vegetables (corn, zucchini, yellow squash, etc), or even tiny meatballs.
The possibilities are endless. Use your imagination!
Yield 12 cups. Freezes well for a few months.
If you like tomato soup, check out another version on FormerChef:
Slow Roasted Tomato and Fennel Soup with Smoked Paprika









{ 51 comments… read them below or add one }
Love the photos. Thank you for this recipe. I’ve never made tomato soup as fresh as this, it’s always from canned tomatoes. Hmmm…your link to the hand blender is making me want to buy one finally–such a good price!
Think your soup will be my salvation with all these tomatoes. I bet it is just as good cold as it is hot, too.
This looks amazing, I have so many fresh tomatoes to use, I am going to make this and freeze some, thanks for sharing this great recipe!!
Thank you for sharing your delicious soup recipe. Made it on Sunday. The flavor and texture was wonderful. I will make it again with our next batch of tomatoes & freeze some for the fall.
That’s awesome! Thanks so much for letting me know. I’m glad you enjoyed it.
have you ever put everything through a food mill instead of a sieve? Definitely going to try it today.
I’m sure a food mill would work, I just don’t have one. If you try it, let me know!
Food mill worked great. Soup is just wonderful, I will definitely make it again. I would even eat it chunky myself, but the kids wanted it smooth!
Thanks for letting me know! I prefer smooth myself, but the most important thing is to get the seeds and skin out. You can try taking the skin off and seeding before making the soup and then only blending only part of it for a chunkier version. In fact, my next post is going to be a “how to” on peeling and seeding tomatoes.
Wonderful Summer Tomato Soup recipe, I used my Food Mill and it was wonderful, I put a dollop of Sour Cream in the center and it was great.
I’m so excited to try this. We have a garden-full of fresh tomatoes, a stick mixer and a chinois that has NEVER been used. Thanks!
It was totally yum. Next time, I will puree a tiny bit longer and NOT strain for bits. That was the only tedious part.
Thanks for letting me know. Glad you liked it!
I agree that the straining can be tedious.
Next time you might try peeling and seeding the tomatoes first (http://formerchef.com/2009/08/20/how-to-peel-and-seed-fresh-tomatoes/) if you still want to avoid having skin and seeds in the soup but don’t want to strain it.
I think this soup look good but have not yet tried it, i will try it one day!
I added a few (3-5) leaves of sage and linden for the nice smell. Not cooked yet will write results.
Thx for the delicious recipe – I made enough to have leftovers, but ate my entire batch by bedtime…
I am a late comer to this recipe, I just really glad that I found it. The flavors of this soup blend really well, the carrots and celery add to the flavor versus overpowering it. Good thing because my husband dislikes carrots yet he is raving about the flavor and texture of the soup. Thanks for letting me sneak in the carrots!
thank you so much for a great recipe!! I have a blender…BlendTech….which will pulverize the skin and the seeds…so no waste at all!! (blendtech.com)
Soup is great! I used my food processor on pulse. I will be getting a hand blender for next time. I mostly used cherry tomatoes for the soup. The taste is light. I will be serving it with cornbread. My 6 year old help make this soup; tomato is her favorite and she gives this two thumps up!
This is the 2nd year I’ve made this tasty soup. We had a bountiful supply of tomatoes in the garden last year, as well as this year. Only thing I add is peppers (from our garden as well). Personally, I don’t feel there is a need to strain the soup, nor do I peel or seed the tomatoes. Love it!
This recipe looks ideal – I have an end of season glut of tomatoes, and have been looking for a soup recipe that doesn’t require you to pre-skin and seed the fruit. I have tried before and you need the patience of a seed !
Sorry – patience of a saint !
Am making the soup right now! Will let you know how it turns out in about an hour : )
I also use a 19 year old Braun stabmixer that I bought in Germany, and love it! It came with a small chopping attachment which also still works perfectly. I’m sorry that they don’t make it anymore.
I just made some tomato soup with canned tomatoes (its winter) but next summer I will try out your recipe (my recipe is quite similar).
I am about to try this recipe with my homegrown frozen tomatoes. It sounds wonderful.It won’t be as tasty as fresh but it will use up the large quantity of tomatoes in my freezer and I will make the soup next year from fresh tomatoes. I especially like the quantities given in cup measures rather than pounds or ‘large this and medium that and this many’. What is large or medium is how an individual looks at it and who weighs their garden produce. Thanks again.
Alice- I’m sure if you froze the tomatoes when they were ripe the soup will be just great!
I have been trying to make a tomato soup that I ate in Sweet Tomatoes, and I remember the ingredients listed carrots and celery in it too. This taste and look exactly like their delicious tomato soup. Thanks for the wonderful recipe, I can really taste the difference that fresh tomatoes make.
I tried this recipie this afternoon using some garden tomatoes and my husband and I loved it. It was worth the strainning process. I especially loved the idea of using the grilled squash. We has so many of both to use! thankyou for the recipie.
I made this today using 12 cups of Brandywine tomatoes from my garden. HOLY COW is all I can say. My husband doesn’t like tomatoes, and says he hasn’t had tomato soup in over 30 years, and is on his second bowl.
I made it with water, and used no garnishes at all- this recipe is just that good! Thank you so much for posting it!!!
Allison, thanks so much for letting me know. It’s one of my favorites too and next up on my “to make” list with my garden tomatoes (today is marinara sauce day).
This is a beautiful recipe, hiwever when I make it i add in basil and leave in large chunks so it borderlines a vegatable soup. Either way, very yummy! perfect for late summer harvest!
I live in India and I cannot find celery here. Is there anything I can use as a substitute?
Casey-wow! That is a good question and one I’ve never really thought about since celery is so common in the US. But then I looked back and I don’t remember ever seeing it in a market in South East Asia either.
My first thought is just leave it out alltogether. Celery has a very mild flavor and probably won’t be missed all that much. It helps add to the flavor complexity of the soup and compliments the other vegetables, but is not a deal breaker.
On the other hand, what else can you find there? How about fennel bulbs? That has a similar consistency, but a very different flavor profile. Still, I think it would be good.
As I mentioned below, I used parsley flakes (they’re in a similar vegetable/herb family as celery), and it was great! Also, sweeter radishes have been a great substitute in other soup recipes. Maybe add some extra stock to make up for the lack of celery water-juice in the recipe.
Thanks! Those are great ideas!
Thank you for this delicious sounding recipe! There are a lot of recipes out there but most have dairy in the recipe and in a household with dairy issues this is great! Can’t wait to make it this weekend!
Hello Former Chef –
I have so many tomato’s from my garden so yesterday I Googled “fresh tomato soup” and found your site. I printed this recipe and just finished making it. It’s so good! Thank you so much for sharing it with us.
This was incredibly delicious with my fresh garden tomatoes and onions! I didn’t have any celery on hand, so instead I just used a tablespoon of parsley flakes, which added a really nice depth to the flavor anyway. LOVED your recipe, thank you! Can’t wait to try the marinara sauce.
This recipe looks and sounds yummmy!!I cook a lot with tomatoes making stew with it…and the way i do it is, i chop up the tomatoes put in a bowl sprinkle some salt to welted and then cover the top and put it in the sun for a while so it can be easy to squeeze on a colander the heat from the sun gives it a good flavor and makes it soft too, if there is no sun just heat it up on a stove. this for those that don’t have a blender you can use this method.
This was wonderful. I made it and then lost the recipe and was frantic. Now I’m back again. I have 16# of tomatoes waiting to be made into soup and canned. Thanks for sharing.
This sounds delicious ! You could perhaps call it tomato vegetable soup if you didn’t strain it or put it through a blender. I would like the vegetables through the soup too.
Thank you for such a brilliant recipe. I loved how simple the ingredients are; Directions and pictures were very easy to follow. Watching the vegetables break down was so amazing especially with all the beautiful colors. The soup was fabulous.
I added 8oz silken tofu at the end to give a little protein. Paired wil crusty bread with Harvati cheese took my favorite comfort meal to a knew level.
Thank you.
Just made the soup today. So yummy. I decided to skin the tomatoes but did not remove the seeds. Also left it chunky. It was very gratifying to recieve so much praise this evening for my homemade tomato soup. People went back for seconds and thirds.
Yummo – could also make a cold tomoato soup for summer!!
Too much salt in my opinion. 1 tablespoon is plenty. Delicious otherwise!
I really loved your soup! I used almond milk and added bell peppers. I chose not to strain it because I like the texture. I added some smoked paprika and it is great! Thanks so much!
I made this soup recipe this evening, added my own touches, but I could’ve used a little less stock. Next time I will. To thicken it up, I used tomato paste. Came out PERFECT!! My kids and I like creamy soups, so I added heavy cream to it, and few more herbs, like basil, thyme, and rosemary. Sauteed them with the other vegetables. Ran everything through the food processor, and oh my, oh my!! LOL It was delicious!!
Oh yes, and I did not have to strain it either. The texture was perfect.
LOL – one more thing, I used coconut oil to saute the vegetables. Hope I didn’t leave anything out! Add a small dollop of sour cream to it as well as a little bit of pesto, or a couple of dashes of tabasco. What a perfect meal. I’m happy!
Katherine- Sound like you made a great soup! Thanks for letting me know you enjoyed it!
I like Tomato soup recipes, want to try this method
Sheetal recently posted..Instant Bhel Puri [Chaat]
{ 7 trackbacks }