Easy Tomato Soup with Roasted Red Peppers

Chop the onion first. Two cloves of garlic. Medium heat, olive oil — let it go for maybe five minutes until everything softens and the kitchen smells like actual food. This is where it starts.

Why You’ll Love This Comfort Food Soup

Tastes better than it has any right to. Just feels warm and alive in your mouth — not heavy, not trying too hard. Takes 55 minutes total and most of that’s just sitting there simmering. You can actually do other things. Works as lunch, dinner, the thing you eat on Tuesday when nothing else sounds right. Vegetarian. Chicken broth instead of stock, but if you swap to vegetable broth it’s exactly the same. Doesn’t matter. The roasted red peppers do something — you can’t quite taste them but they’re there, making it less sharp. Mediterranean without being fussy about it.

What You Need for Mediterranean Tomato Soup

Large onion. Chopped however fine you want. Two cloves garlic — minced small. Olive oil. Two cans of diced tomatoes. The canned ones work better than fresh here, not sure why. A liter of chicken broth. Two roasted red peppers, peeled and chopped — get them from a jar if you want. Dried basil. Salt and pepper. That’s it. Nothing else hiding in there.

How to Make Roasted Red Pepper Soup

Heat the olive oil in a large pot. Medium heat. Not high. Throw in the onion and garlic. Let them sit for about five minutes — you want them soft, kind of translucent at the edges. They’ll start smelling sweet.

Pour in the two cans of diced tomatoes. Don’t drain them. All the juice goes in. Add the chopped roasted red peppers. Stir it around. Pour in the chicken broth next. Add five milliliters of dried basil — that’s roughly a tablespoon but dried herbs are weird about measuring. Stir everything together.

Bring it to a simmer. Not a hard boil. Just that gentle bubble happening underneath. Cook for about 30 minutes. The tomatoes soften more, the flavors kind of find each other. Smell it around minute 25 — that’s when you know it’s close.

How to Get Creamy Tomato Soup Texture

Season with salt and pepper while it’s still cooking. Taste it. Add more if it needs it. Some people skip this but don’t.

This is the part that changes everything — use an immersion blender to puree until smooth. Just smooth. Not liquid. Smooth. The roasted peppers break down, the tomatoes disappear into it, and suddenly it’s this thick, velvety thing. Takes maybe three minutes of blending. You’ll feel when it’s right.

If you don’t have an immersion blender, let it cool slightly and use a regular blender. Do it in batches. Don’t fill it too full or it explodes hot soup everywhere — learned that the hard way.

Tomato Soup with Roasted Red Peppers Tips and Mistakes

The biggest thing — don’t skip the simmering time. I know 30 minutes sounds long but it actually matters. The flavors need that time to meld together.

Roasted red peppers from a jar work. Fresh ones taste better if you have time to roast them. Either way works. The kind that come packed in oil are fine.

Salt it properly. This soup needs salt more than you think. Taste it. It should taste like something. Not bland.

If you want it thinner, add more broth. If you want it thicker, just let it sit. The starch from the tomatoes will keep it together.

Cold works too. Make it, cool it, eat it straight from the fridge. Tastes different but fine. Maybe better. Can’t decide.

Easy Tomato Soup with Roasted Red Peppers

By Emma Kitchen

Prep:

20 min

Cook:

35 min

Total:

55 min

Servings:

6 servings

Ingredients

• For the soup
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 cans (796 ml) diced tomatoes
• 1 liter chicken broth
• 2 roasted red peppers, peeled and chopped
• 5 ml dried basil
• Salt and pepper, to taste

Method

1. Prepare the base
2. 1 Heat the olive oil in a large pot over medium heat.
3. 2 Sauté the chopped onion and minced garlic until soft.
4. Combine ingredients
5. 3 Add the canned tomatoes and chopped roasted red peppers to the pot.
6. 4 Pour in the chicken broth and add dried basil. Stir well.
7. Cook and blend
8. 5 Bring the mixture to a simmer. Cook for about 30 minutes.
9. 6 Season with salt and pepper.
10. 7 Use an immersion blender to puree until smooth.

Nutritional information

Calories

180

Protein

4g

Carbs

24g

Fat

7g

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Frequently Asked Questions About Vegetarian Tomato Soup

Can I use fresh tomatoes instead of canned? Probably. But canned ones are already cooked, so they break down faster. Fresh tomatoes need longer and more salt. Not worth it most of the time.

How do I store this? Container in the fridge. Lasts about four days. Freezes fine too — up to two months. Let it thaw overnight.

Can I make this ahead? Yeah. Make it the day before. Reheats in like five minutes on the stovetop. Just add a splash of broth if it thickened up.

What if I don’t have roasted red peppers? Skip them. It’s still good. Less sweet, more acidic. Different but not bad.

Is this actually creamy? No cream in it. Just the blended tomatoes and peppers making it thick and smooth. If you want cream-cream, add some at the end. Heavy cream, Greek yogurt, whatever. Changes it though.

Can I use vegetable broth instead of chicken broth? Yes. Totally fine. Same soup, tastes the same.