Sep 17, 2020 44 Comments ★★★★★ 5 from 17 reviews

Simple Tomato Soup

Name: Simple Tomato Soup
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 20 min
Total time: 30 min
Cuisine: American
Ingredients: 4 tablespoons ghee, butter or olive oil (the ghee is good!); 1 extra-large onion, diced; 1 cup carrots, thinly sliced (or sub celery or red bell pepper); 2 lbs fresh tomatoes ( or one, 28-ounce can of San Marzano Tomatoes); 1 cup water plus 2 bouillon cubes (chicken or veggie); 2 tablespoons honey or sugar (or sugar alternative); 1 teaspoon salt, more to taste; 1/2 teaspoon pepper; 10-15 basil leaves; pinch cayenne (optional, but good); 1/2 cup cream or half and half (or sub-cashews-see notes); 1-2 tablespoon sour cream- optional!

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This recipe for Tomato Soup is simple and easy and can be made in under 30 minutes. It’s cozy, comforting, and perfect for bridging the season between summer and fall. Vegan-adaptable.

The soul has been given its own ears to hear things the mind does not understand. ~ Rumi

For the last month, this Simple Tomato Soup has become a weekly occurrence at our home. Both Brian and I are kind of addicted to it. I’ve been making jars of it to give away to busy friends and serving it up as dinner with a few slices of homemade sourdough (or sourdough croutons).

Even though it’s just soup, it feels like a meal.

What I love about this recipe is that it can be made with fresh tomatoes like we are using right now, or with canned Roma tomatoes in winter when fresh tomatoes are long gone. It can also easily be made vegan.

Our neighbors have a big basil patch which they’ve generously shared, so I wander over there and pick handfuls of basil to make pesto to go with this. But the soup doesn’t need the pest0- it’s just as good on its own.

Ingredients in Tomato Soup:

olive oil, butter or ghee
onion
carrot (or celery)
tomatoes (fresh or canned)
broth
seasonings
basil
cream or cashews

How to make tomato soup (in a nutshell):

Saute onion and carrots.
Add tomatoes, broth, and salt and simmer 10 minutes.
Add basil and blend
Add cream (or sub cashews)

Use Fresh or canned tomatoes. If using canned, use San Marzano, if you can find them.

I love using fresh tomatoes when in season- it makes the BEST tomato soup.

Quarter the tomatoes and simmer with the broth, covered, until broken down, about 10-15 minutes.

Using an immersion blender makes this especially quick and easy.

Then add cream or half and half. (Or, for a vegan option, add raw cashews to the simmering tomatoes to soften before blending.)

Serve the tomato soup up with a few basil ribbons, homemade pesto, sourdough bread, or sourdough croutons!

Keep it simple or add chopped tomatoes for more texture.

For extra richness, add pecorino or parmesan to the homemade tomato soup.

On the homefront:

The morning sun is dusty orange on my hands as I type. The smoke from the fires reached us a week ago and it has been eerily dark and gloomy here. We’ve been inside waiting it out.

I am reminded of how connected everything is. The fires, though far from here, affect us here many miles away. Even the earth echos the idea, that when one person suffers, we all suffer.

It’s easy to create a bubble around ourselves. Around our families. I’m guilty of this. But we are not bubbles. Like trees, our roots connect underneath the ground, hidden, whether we choose to believe this or not.

I walked passed a woman the other day that looked forlorn. She had a suitcase and looked as if she had traveled miles. It tugged at my heart. But I did not stop to ask if she was ok.

I debated. I got in my car and deliberated. I can’t help everyone, I thought. I’m hungry and in a hurry. And then, This will open a whole can of worms I don’t want to “deal” with right now, I kept arguing with myself.

So, I drove off.

Guess what? In the middle of the night, the time around 2 am, when your conscious comes to call, that scenario came back to me. I felt ill. I totally failed that day. I knew it in my core.

Later the next day I heard a whole town burnt to the ground, just a couple hours from here. Out of one hundred homes, eight remained. I think of that woman, and wonder if she was from there. I’ll never know, I didn’t bother to ask.

So I’ve been feeling pretty disgusted with myself, truthfully. I realize I can’t help everyone, but I can help those who cross my path. Those, my heart feels that tug. Not out of guilt, but of a knowing, that we are all connected.

Why is it, I’m telling you this? So maybe you can do better than I did. We all need to be better than this.

Our hearts know. Our heads talk us out of loving every single time.

So there’s that.

Other recipes you might like:

Enjoy this simple Tomato Soup. Make it for a friend, or do something kind with it this week.

xoxo

Sylvia