One favourite and easy soup you can make at home is this creamy soup with Tomatoes.
Quick and delicious food is what I love and so making this Tomato Soup from the scratch is as easy as easy can get. With the market now flooded with fresh red juicy tomatoes, I cannot resist making this soup regularly. You can also make it Vegan! Interested? So do read on this easy healthy recipe that I am sharing with options to make it vegan. But to get all my posts do subscribe and join my newsletter. You will not miss a single post and I promise not to spam you.
Contents:
- What is soup?
- The ingredients for rich velvety Tomato Soup
- How do you make your Tomato Soup from scratch?
- Frequently asked questions
- Recipe Card
- Some other soups you will love to try
- Pin For Later
What is soup?
The word Soup evokes a picture of a cold breezy day and you sitting in a warm corner and drinking hot soup! With or without bread! Soup is liquid food, generally served warm but then you can also have it cold!
A soup is made by combining ingredients such as meat and vegetables with stock, juice, water, or another liquid the soup is generally boiled in a pot till the flavours are extracted, forming a broth.
Soups traditionally are classified into two main groups’ clear soups (my favourite ones) and thick soups. Thick soups depending on what is used for thickening are called different names:
- purées are vegetable soups thickened with starch,
- while bisques are made from puréed shellfish or vegetables thickened with cream,
- Like creamy soups? They may be thickened with béchamel sauce white sauce,
- while veloutés are thickened with eggs, butter, and cream.
- You can also thicken soups and broths with egg, rice, lentils, flour, and grains carrots and potatoes.
There is not much of a difference between a stew and a soup. In fact, I am at a loss many a time whether to call the end product a soup or a stew. But Wikipedia the place where I have gleaned this information says,” in some cases, there may not be a clear distinction between the two; however, soups generally have more liquid than stews.”
The ingredients for rich velvety Tomato Soup:
- Tomatoes: of course the main ingredient you cannot have a tomato soup without tomatoes. Choose ripe, red and juicy once as they will be less acidic.
- Onions: I love to add onions to the soup I get the red ones so that is what I use, you can try the white or yellow ones if you can source them.
- Garlic: soup needs fresh garlic, the quantity of garlic is, of course, debatable and is always the source of debate in my place. Hubby cannot get enough and I do not agree with him.
- Basil: again this is a newer ingredient in my place which ends up only in the girls and my portion of the soup. It tastes awesome do try using it.
- Other herbs: I use pepper, ginger and chilli flakes as my herbs.
- Sugar: use as per taste to balance the sour taste. Recently I heard that you can use baking powder to reduce the acidity of the soup. Being a base or alkali wit will work I will definitely try it.
- Thickeners: corn flour, potatoes flour for arrowroot can work but I prefer to add boiled potatoes in m soup.
- Cream and milk: these are generally a passé with me as the girls and the man in my life do not like it. But you can add them as they give such a rich and creamy soup.
- Other veggies: there are times when I add carrots. Beetroots have generally given me a shocker of colour I have been avoiding it.
How do you make your Tomato Soup from scratch?
You can choose from
- Roasting the tomatoes
- a) in the oven and
- b) on the stovetop.
- The second and easiest way and my preferred way is pressure cooking the ingredients.
- Whatever method you choose the end is blending the ingredients and simmering them.
- Let us see I generally use tomatoes, carrots as my veggies you can add potatoes too. Onions, ginger, garlic, pepper are my basic ingredients.
- If baking then sprinkle oil, salt and pepper on the cut tomatoes, garlic and onions, and bake at 180C/350F till golden brown.
- On the stovetop, too I will cook them on a skillet till the ingredients are brown on one side. Flip and cook them again.
- Cool and puree them.
- Add a butter/ olive oil if you want vegan and then add and fry 2 cloves garlic. (this is totally optional).
- Add the tomato puree, pepper, salt and herbs you wish to add. Generally, my soup thickners too get pureed if it is grated potato, carrot. But today I have not used any as I have used many tomatoes (about 1-½ kg) and used very little liquids.
- If using cornflour add a tablespoon of cornflour to a bowl and make a thick slurry. Mix this slurry stirring constantly. The quantity of cornflour you need will depend on how thick you want the soup. If using cornflour I will prefer to go 1 tablespoon then ½ tablespoon at a time.
- Simmer, switch off the gas before you add cream or milk.
- Serve.
Frequently asked questions:
-
Help! The milk I added to the tomato soup curdled? Why?
Tomatoes are acidic so adding milk to the soup will curdle the milk.
-
Can the curdled Tomato soup be eaten?
Yes, there is nothing wrong with the soup only texture will be off.
-
How do I fix the Curdled Tomato Soup?
Make some white sauce and then mix in the soup slowly.
To make the white sauce melt 2 tablespoon of butter add 2 tablespoons of flour cook for 2 minutes without browning, stir throughout.Remove from heat and gradually add the milk. Mix well until blended.Return to heat and cook slowly, stirring throughout until the sauce thickens. -
How do you add cream or milk to Tomato Soup?
To avoid the curdling warm the milk in a small vessel, add some hot soup to the milk, little at a time, stir well between each addition. When the milk and soup mixture is warm add it to the whole soup.
Instead of milk add cream, fresh cream or heavy cream. I use the malai I get on my milk after I switch off the flame.
There is another tip that I want to try it says add baking powder to the soup. Baking powder is base and will help in reducing the sour taste of the soup and prevent curdling of milk. -
So you want a creamy soup without milk and cream? Vegan soup?
No issues you can use any one of the below:
Corn flour
Potato starch
Arrowroot
Coconut milk
Add bread
Cashew nut -
Soup too watery? No problem you can save it.
Add 1 tablespoon of cornflour make a thick slurry with water in a small bowl. Simmer the soup and stir and add the cornflour slurry. Simmer for a minute or 2. If it is not thick enough try adding ½ the amount of cornflour slurry in a similar way.
The other methods are of course try adding potato puree, a white sauce.
Recipe Card:
Velvety Smooth Tomato Soup Recipe
Equipment
- Oven
- Pans
- Skillet
- Pressure cooker
- Mixer/Grinder
- Saucepan
- Spoons and Ladles
- Small bowl
Ingredients
- 5 ripe tomatoes
- 2 onions sliced
- 1 small carrot optional
- 6 garlic cloves
- 2 teaspoon olive oil
- 3 peppers corns
- ½ teaspoon ginger paste
- 2 clove garlic (optional but recommended)
- 2 teaspoon butter
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 1 teaspoon pepper powder
- ½ teaspoon mixed herbs
- Salt
- 1 teaspoon butter/oil
- Bread sticks
- 1 tablespoon cream optional
- ¼ cup milk optional
To make Vegan Soup:
- 10 cashew nuts soaked
Instructions
- Use only the the tomatoes, onions, carrots if using and 6 garlic cloves and chop them up. If you make smaller bits you will need lesser time. I made big pieces of the tomato and smaller ones of the rest of carrots and onions.
Roasting in OTG:
- Arrange in a pan and sprinkle 2 teaspoon oil, a pinch of salt and pepper.
- Roast at 180C/350F for 25-30 minutes or till golden in an oven.
- Cool and grind.
Stovetop Roasting
- To roast in a skillet on the stovetop keep an eye on the ingredients.
- After about 7-8 minutes on medium flame flip the ingredients and roast on the other side too. This time you will need say about 5-6 minutes.
- Cool and grind.
In the pressure cooker
- Cook the tomatoes, onions, carrots, ginger 6 cloves garlic and 3 pepper corns for 2 whistles. Let the pressure drop naturally.
- Cool and grind.
- There was a time I strained the and discard the fibre because kiddo wanted it so. You can do it too I rather use entire puree as it is.
- Add 2 teaspoon butte/oil in a thick pan add the garlic and till light golden brown. Mash them up.
- Add the tomato puree, add 2 cups of water, sugar, salt, pepper, herbs. Bring to a boil.
- Rather than use any thickner I prefer to adjust the amount of water I use. You can use cornflour, pureed potatoes either individually or together.
- Switch off the flame and mix a little cream, milk in a bowl, gently add the hot soup and stir well. Add some more soup slowly and mix.
- When the mixture in the bowl is warmer mix the contents of the bowl in the soup. Mix well.
- Serve hot garnished with butter.
- You can also add bread fried in oil but I prefer to toast them in the grill.
- To make a vegan soup grind the cashew nuts with the tomato.
Notes
- Potato starch,
- arrowroot,
- cashew nuts,
- boiled and grated potato.
- My mothers favourite was coconut milk.
Some other soups you will love to try:
This is an old post that I am updating with newer pictures and a write-up as a part of the group Foodies_RedoingOld Post.
Nisa Homey says
Yummy soup...perfect with toasted bread..
MyKitchen Flavors-BonAppetit!. says
Hi Archana,luv this impressive Tomato Soup preparation.Luvly delicious clicks and recipe too.Bookmarked it.Thanks for sharing.
Srivalli says
Great to know your kids agreed..:)..will be looking forward to the entries..
Priya says
Super tempting and comforting soup.
Ramya says
Perfect and hearty bowl of soup!!! perfect for rainy days!
Harini says
very colorful hearty tomato soup!
Hari Chandana says
Looks super delicious and tempting 🙂
Indian Cuisine
Amina Khaleel says
Tomato soup looks fabulous..healthy and delicious.
Smitha says
ever favorite...loved by everyone!...looks yum!
The Pumpkin Farm says
classic and tasty
Archana says
Thank you Thank you.
Shobha Keshwani says
Nice and hearty bowl of tomato soup. The addition of cream has given richness to this soup.
ArchanaPotdar says
Thank you.
Mayuri Patel says
Velvety Smith Tomato Soup sound so exotic. Just can imagine how the soup just slips down the throat. Archana, I'd love to try making my regular tomato soup with cashew nuts as the thickener.
ArchanaPotdar says
Thanks, Mayuri I am sure you will love the cashew nuts version too.
Chef Mireille says
Tomato soup is a wintertime staple here for me and I was so excited to try a new version as you get bored of the same old one. This was so delicious. Thanks for a varietal version I needed to break up the boredom!
ArchanaPotdar says
Aww! Mir! Thanks a lot.
Mina Joshi says
I love this velvety version where you have roasted the tomatoes first.. It looks wholesome and hearty and anyone would devour that with some bread. Tomato soup is a favourite in our our home too.
ArchanaPotdar says
😀 thanks, Mina.
Priya vj says
As a kid soup always meant tomato soup and nothing else would pass the test with me . Your lipsmacking and my fav tomato soup took me down the memory lane and the pic with bread crumbs was a total nostalgia .
ArchanaPotdar says
Thanks, Priya.
Linsy Patel says
loved your version of soup and it is really velvety texture, everyone has their own version but sometimes trying others will bring change in boring life.
ArchanaPotdar says
Thanks, Linsy.
Azlin Bloor says
It looks incredibly luscious, that velvety texture looks simply amazing. I love the combination of the spices and aromatics, very different from the usual!
ArchanaPotdar says
A compliment from the master! I will treasure it, Azlin!
Maria says
Love tomato soups as they are naturally very flavourful but yours looks extra delicious for how creamy and smooth it is! Just a few croutons on top and my lunch is sorted!
ArchanaPotdar says
😀 sois mine, Maria.
Jayashree T.Rao says
Love this velvety, smooth tomato soup. It tastes so good with all the spices. One of the favourite soups at home.
ArchanaPotdar says
Thanks, Jayashree.
Preethicuisine says
Archana this velvety smooth tomato soup looks so rich and creamy. Absolutely irresistible. Love the flavours too. Can’t wait to sip this yummy soup and enjoy the cold weather .
ArchanaPotdar says
😀 Thanks, Preethi.
Kalyani says
the only version that the elder one will eat 🙂 Now I have a new recipe for the favourite list.. I like how you have included tips n tricks to make it more appealing as well as to rework if required...
ArchanaPotdar says
😀 thanks Kalyani I included it thinking of my 2 in Bangalore.
Poonam Bachhav says
Your tomato soup looks creamy and literary velvety smooth. Can imagine how flavorful it must have been with all the spices going in.
ArchanaPotdar says
Thanks, Poonam.
Renu says
Interesting version of tomato soup. I like the addition of onion here and that you have roasted it, would love to try it soon.
ArchanaPotdar says
Do try, Renu. Thanks.
Katherine Beck says
Several things I love about this:
1. I think using potatoes as a thickener is an excellent idea.
2. The tips for dealing with curdled dairy are super helpful, as this happens A LOT
3. Ginger adds the most awesome flavor - great idea here
ArchanaPotdar says
Thank you Katherine! That is so sweet of you to list out all that you liked.
Brianna says
This looks so cozy and I love the vegan option
ArchanaPotdar says
Thanks, Brianna.
Lillie says
Perfect recipe for the ingredients I already have in my pantry and fridge!
ArchanaPotdar says
😀 Thanks.
Jessica Stroup says
Is there anything better than a bowl of homemade tomato soup? This was perfect!!!
ArchanaPotdar says
Thanks, Jessica.