You’ll never again be satisfied with canned soup after trying this smoky roasted tomato soup, with a plentitude of roasted vegetables, enhanced with smoked paprika and red pepper flakes.
Recipe Overview
Why you’ll love it: The soup is so richly flavorful and nutritious, low in calories and sodium.
How long it takes: 1 hour, 20 minutes but most of that time is hands off
Equipment you’ll need: sheet pan, soup pan, immersion blender
Servings: 6
Tired of canned tomato soup’s blah flavor and unappetizing color? Did you know that a popular brand in a red can has 12 grams of sugar and 480 mg of sodium hidden in every serving? Yikes, and it’s not even very good.
You’re going to love this homemade smoky roasted tomato soup! It’s chock full of additional vegetables, which are roasted right along with tomatoes. The flavor is way beyond canned soup–you won’t even believe the difference! And there’s no cream or milk added.
Is anything better on a chilly day than a steaming bowl of tomato soup?
Grab a bowl of soup (I like to spoon it out of a big mug), snuggle into a cozy blanket, and curl up in front of the fireplace with a can’t-set-it-down book, and life seems perfect.
This hearty soup will warm you up from the inside out. (Especially if you get heavy-handed with the red pepper flakes like I often do.)
Drink it out of a thermos while you’re taking a break from snowshoeing or cross country skiing. Perfect!
About This Tomato Soup
Roasted tomato soup begins with fresh tomatoes. Maybe you have a garden full of tomatoes right now. This roasted tomato soup is a great way to use summer produce! It freezes well so you can store it up for later.
I love that there’s not a bunch of cream dumped into this tomato soup. It has a creamy smooth texture with no cream. It’s perfect for a healthy meatless lunch or dinner, or as a vegetarian or vegan entree. Perfect if you’re lactose intolerant or gluten intolerant, too, or if you’re doing Whole30.
Of course, if you want to stir some heavy cream into the soup, I won’t argue with you. In fact, I’ve included instructions for how to do that on the recipe card below.
I’ll run through the recipe here and give you lots of extra tips.
What You’ll Need
- Roma Tomatoes: Roma or plum tomatoes have more meat, and not as much juice or seeds. It’s the same type of tomato you would use to make spaghetti sauce or salsa. Roma tomatoes are red, small and firm, with a long oval shape.
- Onions: A couple of small yellow cooking onions are perfect. Another type of onion works fine too.
- Carrots: For natural sweetness to tone down the acidity of the tomatoes, carrots are roasted and added to the soup. They add nutrition as well.
- Garlic: Three cloves of garlic are added to the roasting pan (either in a foil packet or not). Sounds like a lot but roasting really mellows out the sharp flavor of garlic.
- Olive Oil, Salt, and Pepper: Added to the vegetables for the roasting process.
- Canned Whole Tomatoes: Yup, even more tomatoes!
- Broth: Either chicken or vegetable broth is fine. Look for low or no-sodium varieties.
- Dried Oregano: If you have fresh, that’s even more perfect!
- Smoked Paprika: The bold flavor of smoked paprika is essential to really drive home the smoky essence of this roasted tomato soup. It’s made by drying red peppers over a smoky fire and it’s so good! It’s very different than basic paprika.
- Red Pepper Flakes: For a little zing and heat! Add as much or as little as you like.
How To Make This Recipe
Begin by tossing the tomatoes, carrots, and onions on a sheet pan with a good dose of olive oil, salt, and pepper. The garlic cloves are roasted whole in a foil packet so they steam and get really soft (garlic is shown open for photos, but close it up so that it steams!). Pop it all into a hot oven until the veggies are soft and caramelized.
I could totally just stop right here and eat the roasted vegetables! Roasting brings out such great flavor in the veggies. I love roasted vegetables.
After the vegetables are roasted, put them into a large saucepan or stockpot, and add red pepper flakes, smoked paprika, and oregano, a can of tomatoes, and broth. Crush the tomatoes against the side of the pan with your spoon to break them up a little.
Simmer until everything is heated up and the veggies are really tender. It won’t take long, only about 20 minutes.
Use an immersion blender or a regular blender to puree the soup; or, if you prefer, don’t puree the soup. Quite honestly, it’s good either way, pureed or chunky. The longer you puree it, the smoother it will be.
Serve roasted tomato soup with homemade corn muffins or corn bread, or crackers and protein-rich edamame dip. Or a grilled cheese sandwich, of course, because tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches is a classic combination! Have you ever tried making grilled cheese sandwiches in your air fryer? Perfection!
Garnish the soup with grated cheese or homemade croutons! These crispy homemade Cheez-Its go really well with tomato soup.
You won’t need to add anything to this smoky roasted tomato soup because it’s very flavorful. If you’re referring to canned tomato soup, try adding dried or fresh oregano or basil, smoked paprika, or red pepper flakes.
The easiest and fastest way to thicken tomato soup is to stir in a few tablespoons of instant potato flakes. Stirring in heavy cream will also thicken the soup slightly. Note: Stir in heavy cream over very low heat and don’t boil.
If you have a little more time, simmer the soup longer to allow excess liquid to evaporate.
The vegetables can be roasted at least a day ahead of time. After they’ve cooled a bit, put them into a covered container and refrigerate. When it’s time to make the soup, add the roasted vegetables to the pan and go from there. You’ll save about an hour of prep time at dinner.
I like to make a double batch of the soup. Cool, and put extra soup into airtight containers and refrigerate or freeze.
Leftover soup can be refrigerated for up to 5 days. Because it doesn’t have cream or milk, this soup is perfect for freezing, and will keep for at least three months. Thaw frozen soup overnight in the fridge before reheating, for best results.
To reheat, gently heat soup on the stove until warm, or fill a microwave-safe bowl and heat in the microwave.
More Tomato Soup Recipes
- Instant Pot Tomato Soup – creamy & easy to make!
- Healthy Creamy Tomato Soup – a pureed soup made with canned white beans
- Slow Cooker Tomato Basil Soup with Tortellini
Soups and Stews
Smoky Roasted Tomato Soup Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 pounds (9-10) Roma tomatoes, washed and sliced in half lengthwise
- 2 small onions, quartered
- 2 medium carrots, peeled and cut into chunks
- 3 large cloves garlic, peeled
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- ¼ teaspoon coarse ground black pepper
- 1 can (14.5 oz.) whole tomatoes, undrained
- 3 cups vegetable or chicken broth (reduced sodium, if possible)
- 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
- 1 pinch red pepper flakes (about ¼ teaspoon, more to taste)
- Suggested garnishes: shredded cheese, croutons, fresh chopped parsley or basil, or crackers.
- 1/2 cup heavy cream, optional (see note)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400°F. On a rimmed baking sheet, toss the tomatoes, onions, and carrots with olive oil, salt and pepper. Arrange tomatoes cut side up. Use small square of foil to make a small packet for your garlic. Place the foil packet on the baking sheet with the other vegetables. Roast for about 45 minutes, turning the pan halfway through.
- Add the roasted vegetables, canned tomatoes (crush them against the side of the pan with spoon), broth, oregano, smoked paprika, and red pepper flakes to a large stockpot. Remove garlic cloves from foil packet and add to soup.
- Cook over medium low heat until everything is heated and the carrots are tender (if they weren't from the roasting), about 20 minutes.
- Using an immersion blender, purée the soup until it is smooth. You can use a blender or a food processor too, just be careful and do it in small batches.
- Taste and season with salt and pepper if needed. Serve with desired garnishes.
Notes
- For a creamier soup, over very low heat, slowly stir in heavy cream. Do not boil.
- Soup can be garnished with shredded cheese, croutons, fresh chopped parsley or basil, or crackers.
- Nutrition information does not include garnishes or heavy cream.
Video
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Did You Make This?Share a comment and rating below! I love hearing what you think!
This soup looks incredible! Love the idea of roasting the vegetables first. Roasting lends such great flavor. YUM!
I made this soup earlier this week and LOVED it so much! I ate it for lunch every day this past week, am still looking forward to more leftovers!
Thank you so much for your recipe. I can’t wait to try it soon.
Thanks!
There’s nothing better in this world than a roasted tomato soup! Well, maybe just a Gruyere sandwich to dunk in it.
This is good stuff! Perfect for winter when tomatoes aren’t as yummy. Worse than the balcony might be the bathroom. Yep, did that the other day.
Funny! Do you have a window in your bathroom?
No! I was experimenting with my flash at nighttime. Gross as it may be, it actually made for a better shot!
Cool! PS: Love your blog!
This looks amazing Rach! Perfect for the winter months, fabulous recipe! Hope you’ve been well! xoxo
I love tomato soup and yours sounds amazing! PS My neighbors KNOW I’m crazy :)
Oh, that soup looks incredible. I love, love, love the idea of roasting the tomatoes and other veggies first. Also, I take photos on my front porch most of the time. I even have a special table out there for it. Fortunately, my neighbor knows what I do for a living, since she often comes home just as I am setting up a shot in the afternoon … barefoot and coatless on a freezing day, taking photos outside. She just calls over and asks what I am shooting today (if she thinks I am bizarre, she doesn’t let on. ;) ).
My Mom talked me into making this and I love it! Your version sounds so delicious!
YUM! This sounds so good!!
I think my neighbors think I’m nuts also! They have no idea about my blog…I should really tell them one of these days! :)