This creamy vegan tomato soup starts with slow roasted tomatoes. Homemade tomato soup with your own homegrown tomatoes? That’s a long haul supper! I enjoy taking my time with things like this.
We’re not going to hack soup or do a quick fix here. I slow roast tomatoes for over an hour here and then I purée them with cashews that were soaked ahead of time. And it’s seriously the creamiest, most comforting and nourishing bowl of tomato soup. It takes time, but it’s mostly inactive, so you can read a book or something while it’s all happening.
More soup inspiration for you!: vegan lentil soup with tomatoes and tarragon and simple chickpea soup with rosemary and garlic.
There’s a lot of recipes like this available online and in cookbooks, but I’ve already made this exact formulation a couple times. I think that always counts for something as far as sharing goes. We had a cool snap over here, which made for some slowly decaying tomato plants and an urgency to get the fruits picked and preserved. Basically the best possible timing for a cozy, homemade tomato soup. To slower days and lots of soup ahead!
Creamy Vegan Tomato Soup
Ingredients
- 4 lbs tomatoes
- 3 shallots, peeled
- 4-5 cloves of garlic, peeled
- 2 teaspoons fresh thyme leaves
- 1-2 tablespoons olive oil
- sea salt and ground black pepper, to taste
- ½ cup raw cashews, soaked for at least 2 hours and drained
- 1 tablespoon tomato paste
- ½ cup basil leaves, packed
- 2-3 cups vegetable stock
- 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
Equipment
Notes
- If you don’t have cashews or forgot to soak them, feel free to use some full fat coconut milk instead–about a 1/2 cup. This will change the flavour a bit, but you could totally go on a little flavour tangent and roast the tomatoes with some cumin and coriander seeds, maybe some chili too.
- Also, I puréed this in a high speed blender, which might account for the serious creamy-ness. I think similar results are possible with an immersion blender or food processor though.
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Cut any large tomatoes into quarters. Cut medium tomatoes into halves and leave any cherry or grape tomatoes whole. Spread them out in a single layer on the baking sheet with any cut sides facing up. Cut peeled shallots into quarters and nestle amongst tomatoes. Stick garlic cloves into juicy spots of tomatoes or nestle them between cut tomatoes like the shallots (just to avoid burnt and bitter garlic).
- Scatter thyme leaves on top of tomatoes. Drizzle the olive oil over the tomatoes, shallots and garlic. Season everything with salt and pepper and slide the tray into the oven. Roast for about an hour, or until the tomatoes have shrivelled up a bit and the shallots are soft. Let cool slightly.
- In batches, blend the roasted tomatoes with the soaked and drained cashews, tomato paste, basil, and vegetable stock until you have a smooth purée. Pour blended soup into a large pot.
- Once you've blended everything, including the accumulated juices in the baking sheet, add the balsamic vinegar to the pot. Bring the soup to a boil, check it for seasoning and adjust if necessary. Serve the soup hot with extra basil and olive oil drizzles.
Amazing creamy tomato soup!! Roasting the tomatoes really elevates this recipe and also keeps the prep/cooking time pretty hands off. This soup has a wonderful velvety texture and it’s such a treat with freshly harvested tomatoes from the garden. I’ve made this recipe a few times now and it always hits the spot.
Made this yesterday as meal prep, so I haven’t tried it yet (other than the usual taste testing for flavor balance), but I just got a text from my husband who had it for lunch at work: “Hands down best tomato soup of my life. Not worth it if it took forever but by golly was it delicious :-)”
This is super high praise coming from him, so I’m looking forward to my bowl later. Lucky for us, it’s really simple and mostly hands off to prepare. Now I just need to get my hands on more tomatoes…
Thanks Laura for another fantastic recipe!
Simple and delicious! I roasted everything in the oven then blended and cooked it using my Vitamix (soup setting) so it was extra easy and an even easier clean-up!
QUESTION: (disclaimer, I’ve not made this tomato soup yet). Summer has ended and extra tomatoes were made into LOTS of puree now in my freezer. Is there any way to utilize the tomato puree as opposed to roasting fresh tomatoes? What quantity might be used in place of roasted tomatoes? PS would LOVE to see a “search” feature on your comments.
Hi Kim,
So when I’ve canned tomatoes before, I accounted for 2.5-3 lbs of fresh tomatoes per quart jar. With this in mind, I think 4-ish cups of purée will do the job in this recipe.
-L
I have loved every recipe of yours that I have tried, can’t wait to give this one a go! Questions: Can I mix in yellow tomatoes with red in this recipe? A neighbour gave me more than I know what to do with. Will it effect the flavour much? Approx. how much is 4 lbs of average sized tomatoes?
Thanks so much!
Hi Jena,
Yellow tomatoes will be totally fine here. They’ll only change the colour a bit. And after some googling, it looks like 4 lbs is about 12-15 average-sized tomatoes ;)
-L
Just made this soup this morning since we have a ton of heirloom tomatoes and it is crazy good!! my husband, who isn’t a ‘soup’ person absolutely loves it!! thanks :)
I love all your vegan recipes. I have made this recipe for my son and he loves it so much. I am very thankful to you for this amazing vegan soup recipe.
Tomato soup is extremely delicious and tasty. I have already tried it and it was great. Please share some more recipes about tomatoes. Thanks for sharing delicious recipes with us.
Last night I made tomato soup for my daughter. It was made very tasty. The addition of cashews in the recipe is a brilliant idea. What a wonderful and healthy way to make it creamy. Thanks! I’m anxious to try more of your recipes.
Must try !
Hi I just made this tonight for my wife who was feeling under the weather today and I wanted something that wouldnt be to heavy. Also…I have never had tomato soup. Oh my goodness I am a fan now! I made it using your recipe instruction and my husband said that it was by far the best tomato soup he’s ever had! Thank you so much! Will definitely be making this again…was super easy too!
Hi. Made this soup, so very good, thanks! Do you have nutrition info for it?
Thanks.
Hello. Just discovered your interesting blog–how have I not seen it, for all the time (a fair amount; too much) I’ve spent perusing vegan/healthy cooking blogs during the past several years. Glad to know about it.
Although I want to try so many of the recipes I’ve checked out in your recipe section, the impetus for this comment is this: The photo of your tomatoes, on the baking tray, pre-roasting, is the most beautiful photo of fresh tomatoes I have ever seen. To call them ‘gorgeous’ is not adequate to describe the beauty of that photo.
Thanks!
Second time I’ve made this recipe, and as delicious as ever. Have you ever tried freezing it? It would be a great meal to have on hand on busy days, alone or over pasta. Thanks! :)
Hi Annie! I haven’t tried freezing this one, but I think it should be fine. The cashews provide a good amount of fat to help preserve the soup in the freezing process. Let me know how well it works if you try it!
-L
I made this last night after a request for tomato soup from my daughter. It was delicious and I’m sure will be on heavy rotation in our house. The addition of cashews is brilliant. What a wonderful and healthy way to make it creamy. Thanks! I’m anxious to try more of your recipes ;)
I just made this in the dead of winter and it was incredibly flavorful and a beautiful creamy texture. I might make it again without the broth as a decadent pasta sauce. Thank you!
hi! i love your tomatoes photo and I just found your blog. would you mind if I reposted it from the pinterest page to our facebook page? thanks! Carmit
Hi Carmit, that’s totally fine! Thanks for asking.
2nd time making this. My whole family and I just love it!!!
Thanks for yet another wonderful recipe :)
It’s so nice to find someone with similar love for growing veg. I can see our similar love for tomatoes and kale as my veggie patch looks so alike! Huge hugs.
Yep. Making this one too! Yummmers!
Hi Laura!
1. Love the sentiment about the life hacks (and agreed…talking instead of assuming is a really good idea). Totally appreciate that your delightful response is to make food very slowly. Awesome.
2. I am so impressed by your garden!! Your kale is out of control.
3. Thanks for another delicious looking recipe. I look forward to trying my hand at it!
Have a great day,
Sam