The easiest Tomato Basil Soup EVER and it's so fresh & vibrant. Made with just 4 ingredients (plus salt, pepper & optional olive oil) and it only takes 10 minutes to make!
This Easy Tomato Basil Soup is for those times when I am feeling virtuous and when I don't have much time. It is so incredibly easy to make and takes only about ten minutes from start to finish.
The flavours of this Tomato Basil Soup are fresh, vibrant and untainted. The only ingredients are tomatoes, onion, garlic and basil (plus a little oil and seasoning). It's so simple!
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I just love easy soup recipes. This and my Vegan Pea Soup are my go-to's when I need dinner or lunch on the table super quick.
Because it is cooked so quickly the amazing fresh flavour of the tomato is retained and the pungent flavour of the basil is conserved by adding it at the very last moment before serving.
The resulting soup is fresh, aromatic and incredibly healthy. The taste of the fresh basil is amazing! No stock, plant-milk or cashew cream is added to this soup. The liquid comes only from the tomatoes which makes the flavour so much better. Because of this, it isn't a rich, creamy tomato soup. It's a really vibrant and healthy one.
If you want a creamy more indulgent recipe try my Instant Pot Tomato Soup and don't worry if you don't have an Instant Pot you can make it on a stove top too.
Low fat & Slimming World friendly
There are only about 280 calories in the entire pan of this soup and it is very low in fat. It can even be made totally fat free by omitting the olive oil and sautéing the onions and garlic in a drop of water instead.
If you follow the Slimming World diet plan you will also be pleased to know that this soup is syn free (if you omit the oil).
Are tomatoes good for you?
Tomatoes are a great source of lycopene which protects us from destructive free radicals which can harm cells and damage DNA. Cooking your tomatoes in a little healthy fat such as olive oil helps carry the lycopene into the bloodstream so that our bodies can benefit from it so I do recommend using a little oil as stated in the recipe if you can.
As well as being a good source of lycopene, tomatoes are full of many other vitamins and minerals. They are known to protect against heart disease, prostate cancer and asthma and they also help to ensure our bones, teeth, skin and hair stay healthy.
So you get all of those benefits and it's so incredibly quick and easy to make. There really is no excuse not to eat a healthy meal when you can whip up something like this in such a short space of time.
How to make tomato soup
In just 10 minutes and a few simple steps you could be tucking into a bowl of this fresh and delicious Tomato Basil Soup. It's so quick and easy and can be super cheap to make too when tomatoes are in season, or if you have a greengrocer like mine who always has big packs of them on quick sale.
- Step 1 - Sauté the garlic and onion
- Step 2 - Add the tomatoes and cook until they start breaking down
- Step 3 - Add the basil and seasoning, transfer to a blender and blend until smooth or blend it right up in the pan with an immersion blender.
You'll notice that once the tomatoes, onion and garlic are cooked up together in a pan, they are all blended up with the fresh basil then served immediately. You can use a blender or an immersion blender. Either is fine.
The higher-powered your blender is, the smoother the result. When I took the photos for this recipe I was using a pretty low quality one so it wasn't perfectly smooth. Now I have a Blendtec it emerges like velvet. A good blender is such a great investment if you like soups and smoothies!
There is no need to cook the soup any longer once the basil is added. It keeps the flavours really fresh and delicious if you just blend and serve.
How to serve
Serve this wonderful Easy Tomato Basil Soup with a drizzle of good olive oil and a sprinkle of cracked black pepper. it's also greta with a dollop of vegan ricotta and plenty of fresh bread available for dipping.
It is wonderful with my Miracle No Knead Focaccia on the side.
If you prefer a more traditional bread recipe there is always my Light Whole Wheat Bread, which is the one you can see in the photographs of the soup (except that one has some seeds added as an extra).
Tomato Basil Soup is also fab with grilled cheese sandwiches. Comfort food at it's finest! It's great in a Thermos for winter packed lunches too!
Hungry for more?
For more great vegan soup recipes check out these great options:
- Vegan Potato Soup
- Vegan Tortilla Soup
- Vegan Italian Sausage Pasta Soup
- Vegan Pea Soup
- Creamy Vegan Carrot Soup
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📖 Recipe
Easy Tomato Basil Soup
Ingredients
- 1 teaspoon olive oil optional, you can use a drop of water to sauté instead to keep the recipe oil free
- 1 medium onion chopped
- 3 large cloves of garlic chopped very finely I like lots of garlic so used 4 but adjust to suit your tastes
- 7 cups / 1400 g of chopped fresh tomatoes see recipe notes
- 1 handful of basil leaves and stalks are fine
- 2 teaspoons salt adjust to taste
- 1 teaspoon pepper adjust to taste
INSTRUCTIONS
- Heat a pan over a medium heat and add the oil or a couple tablespons of water.
- When hot add the onions and garlic and cook for a couple of minutes until just starting to turn golden.
- Add the chopped tomatoes. Continue to cook over a medium heat, stirring every few minutes until the tomatoes have broken down and are soft.
- Remove from the heat and add basil and salt and pepper then blitz in a blender or with a stick immersion blender until smooth.
- Serve immediately.
NOTES
NUTRITION
Nutritional information is provided for convenience & as a courtesy. The data is a computer generated estimate so should be used as a guide only.
Alan Leith says
I made this soup for my wife's christmas lunch starter and it was great! Followed the recipe / method, only change was to add a dessert spoon of sugar which took away the slight bitterness of the fresh tomatoes which were slightly under-ripe......usual supermarket standard.
Kim B. says
I didn't have fresh basil available at an affordable price ($4.99 for a small bubble pack and I would need several!) Within the veggie section of most grocery stores there is tube herbs. Basil is always avail (as is cilantro, which we use in our salsa) and a few others. Try this! This recipe would take the whole tube, but still tastes closer to fresh basil than anything dried can produce. :)
Kim B. says
Can't wait to try this with my own fresh tomatoes and basil! That being said, hubby and I overbought tomatoes (not knowing each of us grabbed a mambo container from Costco) and I'm sick of salsa. I weighed tomatoes, and didn't have enough fresh basil so I resorted to the Garden Gourmet "tube" basil found by the veggies. They had no bulk fresh, and I wasn't paying $4.99 for ONE bubble pack. Internet told me one handful of basil equals about 8 tbsp chopped. So it took the whole 4oz tube. Even with all of these very sorry substitutions this soup is great and I actually printed the recipe for our keepers binder. Thanks for a great recipe! (OH! I agree... prep time needs to be adjusted. I can work a knife and this def took longer than a 5 min prep. Just FYI)
Samantha says
I used one 28 ounce can of tomato sauce, 3 14-ounce cans of fire roasted diced tomatoes and 3 cans of garlic and celery diced tomatoes. Sautéed a tablespoon of minced garlic with two cups of frozen diced onions then added the tomatoes and simmered. Then I added two handfuls of chopped fresh basil and salt and ground pepper to taste. I didn’t even need to blend it. The consistency was perfect. Served it with harvest bread grilled cheese and my family raved about it.
Zhoonoh says
The recipe is disappointingly bland and flat. Sorry.
Pi says
I made this a few weeks ago and am in LOVE! I can't remember if I used my Blendtec or an immersion stick blender so there were pieces of skin. Trying it again with blanching the skins off first! This was so good. I did use fresh basil.
Kim B. says
You can (and should!) adjust the seasonings and basil amount based on the quality and timing of the tomatoes. Maybe you were looking more for a cream based? Reading the ingredients, this is def meant as a pure tomato/basil recipe and not the creamy kind with added cashew cream, etc.
Nicola says
Great Recipe, I added some fresh chillies as we like a little kick but with or without chilli taste great!
Lee Wright says
How much dried basil would I use instead of fresh?
A Virtual Vegan says
I wouldn't use dried basil in this recipe. It's a herb that isn't anywhere near as good once it's been dried and this recipe relies on such few ingredients that it really needs the fresh basil to be good.
This tomato soup recipe doesn't use fresh basil (it's an Instant Pot recipe but also includes stovetop instructions) https://avirtualvegan.com/instant-pot-tomato-soup/
Ashleyann says
Hi there, I love this recipe and have made it countless times. I'm curious if you've tried freezing it? I am thinking about using this recipe for all my fresh garden matos. Thank you!
A Virtual Vegan says
I haven't because we always eat it too quickly, but it will be fine! So pleased you're enjoying it!
Vicki Reeve says
Fantastic. Tastes just like the tomato soup we ate in Iceland. Simply pure tomato flavor. The only thing I did differently was to add some fresh cayenne peppers, minced, along with the garlic, and a touch of Tabasco -- because we like spicy. Thanks for a great recipe. I definitely will make again, because these tomatoes just keep on coming!
A Virtual Vegan says
Glad you enjoyed it Vicki. Love the cayenne pepper addition!
wendy says
It seems as though the same ingredients as marinara sauce. Can it be used for either?
A Virtual Vegan says
Made like this it would be way too liquidy. You could reduce it in a pan with no lid for a long while though until it was thicker like marinara.
Alejandra Paz says
I loved this recipe. You can be generous with the tomatoes or basil depending on taste. I highly recommend! My boyfriend was impressed since it was delicious the first time around!
Lynn Marie says
Recipe is very good, but 5 min prep time is inaccurate. I am not slow with the knife, but an onion, 4 cloves of fresh garlic, and 7 cups of tomatoes (I used big ones, and it took 10) took way longer than 5 mins. Leave yourselves enough time.
CeeCee says
So, so good. I make a big batch of this most Sunday mornings. This makes me think of Pret tomato soup (my favourite). I’ve found the results really do depend on the quality of the tomatoes, so the times I use less-than-great ‘maters, I make a couple of tweaks - a squeeze or two of Bomba purée and a couple of fresh, uncooked tomatoes as the soup goes into the blender seems to make the soup ‘brighter’.
Either way, results are always yummy.
A Virtual Vegan says
Glad you're enjoying it!
Kristin says
Do you leave the peels on?
A Virtual Vegan says
Yes unless you want to peel them all. I think life's too short for that and by the time it's all blended up you don't know they are there anyway.
Tania says
Are the cooking times the same if I use canned tomatoes?
A Virtual Vegan says
This recipe is designed to use fresh tomatoes. It hasn't been tested with canned and it probably won't be as nice. Cooking time would remain the same though. This recipe uses canned tomatoes https://avirtualvegan.com/instant-pot-tomato-soup/ (It has stove top as well as Instant Pot instructions).
Gil says
Super easy and was a great use for extra tomatoes from a holiday party!
A Virtual Vegan says
I'm really pleased you enjoyed it!
Natalie says
Just made this today. Super easy and delicious! I will definitely be making this again!
Carol says
Can this soup be frozen
A Virtual Vegan says
Yes it should be fine.
Shanequa says
I made this soup this evening and it came out great. I actually added cashews that I soaked in hot water to thicken the soup. I struggled a little bit trying to figure out how many tomatoes to use but it all worked out. I will definitely make this again.
A Virtual Vegan says
I'm glad you enjoyed it. Not sure why you struggled with the tomatoes because an exact weight for them is given. Maybe you missed it?