Creamy Roasted Tomato Soup Recipe - Chowhound (2024)

FAQs

What's the difference between creamy tomato soup and tomato soup? ›

But what about cream of tomato soup? Any “cream of” soup, tomato included, is pureed like a normal soup but then goes through a “creaming” process, wherein cream is added to the mixture. Cream of tomato soup is actually cooked at a much lower temperature than normal tomato soup.

To thwart the curdling tendency, changing procedures will render a smooth tomato soup. Heat the tomato mixture and cream separately, then slowly add tomatoes to the cream near the end of the cooking process. Once mixed, heat the mixture gently to 180 degrees. Do not boil.

Start by using 1 tablespoon of cornstarch at a time, mixed with 2 tablespoons of water. More cornstarch slurry can be added, but be sure not to add too much. Only mix in a small amount of slurry at a time to ensure that your soup will thicken properly. Using corn starch is a fast, effective way to thicken soup.

If your sauce or soup contains an acidic ingredient like wine, tomatoes, or lemon juice, the milk is more likely to curdle.

Size Matters. Here's the obvious one: Tiny tomatoes don't need to be peeled. Large heirloom varieties, with their tender skin, don't need peeling either. Hearty beefsteaks and those varieties bred for canning (such as plum or roma) have a pretty thick skin that wouldn't be welcomed in smooth sauces or soups.

Adding milk or cream to a soup can balance contrasting tastes and help ingredients that don't typically mesh blend seamlessly. Plus, the extra calories in milk or cream can make for a more filling soup served solo and without any accompanying sides.

And the combination of baking soda and sugar completely eliminates the tomatoes' acidity, allowing their rich flavor to shine through.

Add a can of diced tomatoes, a bit of cream, and torn fresh basil leaves. Swirl some red wine vinegar into the soup and serve with a stack of mozzarella and fresh basil leaves on a toasted baguette. Add a drizzle of pesto (homemade or store bought) and finish with toasted pine nuts and croutons.

This tip comes from food science. Add a small spoonful of sugar to enhance the natural sweetness of the tomatoes. Season with salt in all of the steps (starting with the sauteed onions). This ensures your tomato soup is never bland.

Can you add milk to soup to make it creamy? ›

Milk or Half-and-Half: This is the other magical ingredient that turns your homemade chicken noodle soup into the creamiest soup ever. Use 1 cup of whole milk or 1 cup of half-and-half.

If it tastes overly acidic or sharp, add a quarter teaspoon of baking soda. The soup will bubble and fizz wherever the soda lands as carbon dioxide is released. Give it a good stir to make sure the soda is fully spent; when the bubbles subside, taste again and add another quarter teaspoon if needed.

You can warm the cream, or “temper” it, which is what I do. Take about half a cup of the hot broth and slowly add your cream to that, stirring constantly. Then you can pour the cream mixture back into the soup and it should be fine.

Heavy cream is the best way to get that classic creamy flavor we know and love. In its place I have tried, to no avail, every other dairy for creamy tomato soup: half-and-half works in a pinch, milk makes the soup too thin, and yogurt is too acidic.

One common method to prevent your creamy ingredients from curdling is to stabilize the sauce by starting with a roux, which is a mixture of equal parts flour and fat (often butter).

Although it is likely to change the flavor profile more than other substitutes, tomato soup can work as a tomato sauce substitute. A can of tomato soup can replace 1 cup of tomato sauce. However, because the soup has more liquid than tomato sauce, you should reduce another liquid ingredient by 1/4 cup if possible.

Simple and satisfying, our creamy tomato soup is a lesson in how easy yet delicious home cooking can be. The recipe is adapted from the book Martha Stewart's Cooking School and it's made with five ingredients you probably already have in your kitchen: butter, onion, garlic, canned tomatoes, and stock or water.

Tomato soup tends to be sweeter and more liquidy than tomato sauce, so it's not a perfect 1:1 substitute. We'd avoid using tomato soup for something like pasta sauce, but it can definitely add a nice tomato-y flavor to recipes like this One Pot Italian Sausage Gnocchi Soup, or these Cheesy Baked Beans and Tomatoes.

Tomato soup is really just thinned-out tomato sauce

When you think about it, nothing much distinguishes tomato soup from tomato sauce except its degree of thickness.