Easy Three-Ingredient Tomato Soup
My favorite tomato soup recipe! You wouldn’t think that three ingredients — butter, onion, and tomato — can come together to make such a velvety and delicious tomato soup, but let me tell you. They can. Jump to the Tomato Soup Recipe or watch our quick recipe video showing how to make it.
Watch Us Make the Recipe
How To Make The Easiest Tomato Soup From Scratch
This simple homemade tomato soup is quick, easy, and insanely delicious.
The soup is inspired by one of the most famous recipes out there — Marcella Hazan’s Tomato Sauce. Butter, tomatoes, and onion are simmered until slightly thickened. Out comes the onion and the sauce is ready to be spooned over pasta.
It’s genius and absolutely delicious. We use the same three ingredients in this tomato soup, but add a little water and blend everything together just before serving.
Making The Soup
Here’s how to the best (and easiest) tomato soup
Add water or broth and simmer. Bring everything to a low simmer, add some salt and leave it alone for about 40 minutes. See how creamy it gets? That’s thanks to the butter.
Blend. I find an immersion blender is useful, but a blender works, too. Adjust the soup for seasoning then grab a bowl…and maybe a grilled cheese sandwich? This soup is also amazing topped with homemade croutons or served next to this easy buttery garlic bread.
What Tomatoes Should I Use
This tomato soup is excellent with canned tomatoes. I love using whole peeled tomatoes or crushed tomatoes. By the way, we love San Marzano Tomatoes and are always pleased with tomatoes from Muir Glen. Neither are watery and both taste great.
You can also use fresh tomatoes. You will need 10 to 12 whole tomatoes (or about 2 pounds). It’s best to peel them, but we have made the soup with unpeeled tomatoes.
A Quick Recap
This is your new favorite weeknight meal. Promise.
- This tomato soup has three ingredients (plus water and salt).
- Everything is tossed into a pan — no browning, no hovering over a stove.
- You can use canned tomatoes — and should.
- Did I mention there are only three ingredients?
What Our Readers Are Saying
If you don’t believe that our recipe helps you achieve perfect tomato soup at home, take a look at what our readers are saying about the recipe! More reviews are in the comments section below.
“WOW!! What a delicious and easy tomato soup, my three and one-year old were as thrilled as my husband and I were.” – Ashley
“This is the best tomato soup, hands down!! Cannot say that emphatically enough. Did not change a thing from the recipe and it was perfect. Couldn’t be easier to make.” – John
“Made this exactly as written. Oh my gosh, this was amazing!!!” – Dayna
More Easy Soup Recipes
- You might also want to take a peek at our chilled tomato soup recipe (Gazpacho)
- Try this Incredibly Easy and Creamy Vegetable Soup Recipe. It’s one of our absolute favorites and something we make often.
- A wonderful recipe for homemade vegetable broth — It’s ultra-satisfying!
- Or, for something a little different, our roasted tomato soup with lemon and thyme.
- This easy homemade chicken noodle soup recipe is healthy, satisfying, and tastes incredible. It’s faster to make than the traditional version, too!
Recipe updated, originally posted October 2015. Since posting this in 2015, we have tweaked the recipe to be more clear and added a quick recipe video. – Adam and Joanne
Easy Three-Ingredient Tomato Soup
- PREP
You only need three main ingredients to make this velvety, rich tomato soup recipe. This, friends is your new favorite weeknight meal.
Makes 2 generous servings
You Will Need
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 large onion, cut into large wedges
1 (28-ounce) can tomatoes, we prefer to use whole peeled or crushed, see notes for fresh tomatoes
1 1/2 cups water, low sodium vegetable stock, or chicken stock
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt, or more to taste
Directions
Melt butter over medium heat in a Dutch oven or large saucepan.
Add onion wedges, water, can of tomatoes with their juices, and 1/2 teaspoon of salt. Bring to a simmer. Cook, uncovered, for about 40 minutes. Stir occasionally and add additional salt as needed.
Blend the soup, and then season to taste. The soup doesn’t need to be ultra-smooth, some texture is a nice touch. An immersion blender does make quick work of this, or you can use a blender. If you use a regular blender, it is best to blend in batches and not fill the blender as much as you usually would since the soup is so hot. We like to remove the center insert of the lid and cover it with a kitchen towel while blending — this helps to release some of the steam and prevents the blender lid from popping off (which can be a big, hot mess).
Adam and Joanne's Tips
- Can I use fresh tomatoes? Yes. If you want to use fresh tomatoes, you will need 10 to 12 medium tomatoes (or about 2 pounds). You can peel them, but we skip this step since we will be blending the soup in the end anyway.
- Can I add basil? This soup is delicious with and without basil. Adding a handful of fresh basil at the end before blending the soup is a fantastic idea.
- Nutrition facts: The nutrition facts provided below are estimates. We have used the USDA Supertracker recipe calculator to calculate approximate values. We have omitted salt since you will need to add to your tastes.
If you make this recipe, snap a photo and hashtag it #inspiredtaste — We love to see your creations on Instagram and Facebook! Find us: @inspiredtaste
Nutrition Per Serving: Serving Size Half of the recipe / Calories 348 / Total Fat 24.9g / Saturated Fat 14.8g / Cholesterol 61mg / Sodium 1485.4mg / Carbohydrate 29.6g / Dietary Fiber 4.5g / Total Sugars 15.4g / Protein 7.8g
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My daughter and I LOVED this soup. I cannot believe how easy it was to make and how delicious it was alongside our grilled cheese sandwiches! Fantastic job keeping it to 3 ingredients I always have.
Delicious! I blended it with chili powder, crushed red pepper, and a basil leaf as well. Can’t believe how easy it was, and will definitely make this again!
I made this recipe in my instant pot, didn’t change a thing, it was wonderful! I cut the recipe in half first time. Second time I made the full recipe, just as tasty. Instant pot away! Thank you for an awesome recipe!
My 4 year old LOVED THIS! Definitely a keeper, we all loved it but too see him ask for more several times was extra satisfying. Might try to blend in some white beans with the water for a bit of fiber and protein but regardless this is a life saver!!!
SO good. And so easy to make I’m really happy I tried this out. I used 1 14oz can of diced tomatoes (tomatoes came seasoned with oregano and basil in can) and 1 14 oz canned tomato sauce because it’s all I had but I don’t think it affected the recipe much. I also added some red pepper flakes for a kick. I didn’t want to use water but was out of veg stock so went with chicken broth instead. It made about 3 average bowls of soup for me and the fam. Paired it with some grilled cheeses 🙂
I can’t believe how good this is will only 3 ingredients. I used one can of tomatoes with garlic , green chilies and onions and the other can just regular tomatoes. It was great with grilled cheese sandwich.
I’ve been making this soup for a few months now. So versatile. I tend to add more veggies (carrots, celery, roasted peppers) and adjust with seasoning as needed. A very simple base soup as is, or with additions. Thanks for the simple recipe! My kids LOVE it!
LOVE IT!
I made this soup while the city has been on COVID quarantine. I added milk and basil. Very good.
Hey! Did you use milk instead of water, or in addition to? Sounds delicious!
Wow! Made this recipe today and was amazed with how easy it was and how well it turned out. I doubled the recipe to make enough for my family and it was a hit! They loved it. Thank you so much for sharing I will definitely be making again.
This soup is absolutely delicious! My kids loved it and asked me to make more the next day.
Can this be made in the instant pot?
Hi Kimberly, While we are sure this recipe can be adapted to work in an Instant Pot, we have not tried it ourselves. You might need to do a little experimenting. I’d expect that you need to reduce the water a bit since the instant pot does not allow steam to escape.
Omg Omg !!! This is the best tomatoe soup I’ve ever made. This is my 2nd time mking it. It’s so quick and so easy. But I added a can of stewed tomatoes, a bay leave and a frozen parmesan end. I’ll in love with it.
This is fantastic, thank you so much for sharing such as simple and delicious soup. I only had a half can of tomatoes, so I threw in some roasted red peppers from a jar and it was divine. Thank you again!
This is so good, and so easy. It’s now my go to recipe for t soup – make it once a week….thanks !!!