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
How To Make The Easiest Tomato Soup From Scratch
This simple homemade tomato soup is quick, easy, and insanely delicious. It is excellent with canned tomatoes, but you can also use fresh tomatoes. Tips for canned and fresh tomatoes are found in the recipe below. If you love quick, no-fuss recipes, this is it!
This tomato 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.
We love serving this with a grilled cheese sandwich, but a slice of this rosemary focaccia bread is also an excellent idea!
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.
Watch our video above and 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 soup is excellent with canned tomatoes. Just like when making our favorite red pasta sauce, 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
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I make this tomato soup vegan? Yes, olive oil or a plant-based butter is an option. You can also use coconut oil. It might sound odd but the light coconut flavor with onion/tomatoes is pretty delicious.
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.
Can I add cream? Yes, although, with the butter in this recipe, only a small splash of cream is needed.
Can I make this soup in advance? Yes! Store homemade tomato soup in an airtight container in the fridge for up to three days or freeze up to three months.
More Easy Soup Recipes
We have many soup recipes on Inspired Taste. Here are a few favorites:
For more tomato-based soups, take a look at our chilled tomato soup recipe (Gazpacho) or this roasted tomato sop with lemon.
I love creamy soups. Two of the most popular creamy soups on the blog are this easy creamy veggie soup and this simple homemade potato soup.
Homemade broths add so much to soups. Here’s our recipe for homemade vegetable broth as well as our favorite recipe for chicken broth.
While we are on the subject of chicken, you must take a look at our easy homemade chicken noodle soup recipe. It is healthy, satisfying, and tastes incredible. It’s faster to make than the traditional version, too!
I love this lightened up broccoli cheddar soup! It’s creamy and so delicious.
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
Watch Us Make the Recipe
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 ½ 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 make this vegan? Yes, olive oil is an option or coconut oil instead of butter. Coconut oil might sound odd but the light coconut flavor with onion/tomatoes is pretty delicious.
- 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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Best, most delicious tomato soup recipe, ever! We didn’t have enough tomatoes on hand so I used 1 14.5 can whole peeled tomatoes and 1 can fire roasted tomatoes (we like it hot).That and we use salted butter. Basil on top. My husband loved it! and so easy to make:)
Just made this tomato soup recipe. What a surprise! Something so simple could taste so unique and amazingly delicious.I live in Asia where simple things like tomato soup can be hard to find and this is so much better than anything from a can and dead simple to make.I think tomato soup has arrived in our household to stay
This is really good. I used what I had on hand, which was a small can of whole peeled tomatoes and a small can of fire roasted tomatoes. It turned out great! I did add a splash of half and half at the end and chiffonaded some fresh basil for people to sprinkle on their bowls if they wanted. My son is a super picky eater and he had two helpings. Inspired Taste for the WIN!
I made this almost exactly as written, but I used salted butter (what I had on hand) and better than bouillon, and the rest as written. Threw a handful (like 5 big leaves) of basil in right before blending. It turned out great, I was afraid it would be too salty the way I made it, but it was great. So simple too, but the three of us liked it a lot. This does not make a ton, like 3-4 bowls total or ‘2 generous servings’ as noted. Just FYI.
Bestest, easiest tomato soup ever. So easy I haven’t bought a can of tomato soup since I found it. Freeze in freezer bags. Flatten bag to save space and quickly defrost. Great for a super quick lunch. A splash of milk or cream at the end is heavenly.
This looks delicious and I need a soup to make tonight with lots of rain rolling in. I have all the ingredients but I have a red onion. Will this work?
Hi Emily, Red onion will work.
Love love your recipes but I have to watch my diat as been told high colestrol and I just don’t know what to cook, could you please help’!!!! Thank you
This soup is delicious! And so easy! My mom, who makes soup all the time, just loved it. I’ve got another pot on the stove simmering right now. Thank you for sharing.
Made this soup the other night and ir was FANTASTIC!! Keep up the great work Adam and Joanne!
Excellent recipe with great results – another beautiful addition to my library of “practical bachelor solutions.” If using fresh tomatoes and making a couple of minor alterations to this flexible recipe, we can easily and dramatically reduce sodium intake, as well … THANKS for posting!
I sauteed the onions and then put them in the blender with the drained tomatoes, thinking it would be easier and safer. turned out well, great recipe, used margarine instead of butter.
I forgot to mention the tomatoes were unheated.
Simple recipe, but it’s a little more than three ingredients. 🙂 This was really good. I was worried that it would be weird without a creme base, but I loved the texture.
Exactly the soup I was hoping it would be! So so good and easy. My butter was salted, and I added Better Than Bouillon, so I used just a tiny bit of salt instead of the full amount in the recipe.
That is exactly what I did! Plus, I added a teaspoon of sugar at the end to balance the acidity. It did not make it sweet, just perfect.