Tomato Basil Soup (Roasted & Creamy)

Silky roasted tomato basil soup with a splash of cream. Cozy, simple, and perfect with crusty bread for dipping. This recipe uses fresh tomatoes.

Many homemade tomato soup recipes reach for a can, but this one starts with actual fresh tomatoes, and once you roast them, you’ll understand why it’s worth the extra step.

Roasting first — either hot and fast or low and slow — concentrates all that natural sweetness before anything even hits the pot, giving you a depth of flavor canned tomatoes just can’t match. Blended up with fresh basil, a splash of cream, and a little butter, it turns into something velvety smooth that just coats the spoon.

I love that it’s genuinely flexible too: rush it in under an hour, or let it go low and slow for a few hours if you’ve got a lazy Sunday and want something deeper and jammier. Either way, you’ll want good bread or a grilled cheese toastie on the side to mop up every last bit of the bowl.

👩‍🍳 More soup recipes you might like:
→ Tomato Florentine soup
→ Creamy sausage tortellini soup
→ Roasted tomato soup with creamy mascarpone
→ Leek and potato soup
→ Chicken and white bean soup

What You’ll Need

How To Make Tomato Basil Soup

Find the full recipe and nutritional information below. Here are some handy step-by-step photos for how to make this roasted tomato and basil soup.

• Preheat your oven — 300°F if you’re doing the slow roast, or crank it up to 400–425°F for the quicker method.
• Halve the tomatoes and place them cut-side up on a large baking tray with the quartered onion and unpeeled garlic cloves.
• Drizzle with olive oil, season with salt, pepper, and sugar if using, and scatter over the herbs.
• Roast for 30–45 minutes at 400–425°F for bright, juicy tomatoes, or 2–3 hours at 275–325°F for a deeper, jammier flavor.
• Once roasted, squeeze the garlic out of its skins and discard any tough herb stems.
• Tip everything — tomatoes, onion, garlic, and all those roasting juices — into a large pot.
• Stir in the stock and tomato paste, then bring to a gentle simmer for 20–30 minutes to let the flavors meld.
• Add the fresh basil and simmer for just 2 minutes to infuse without losing that bright green color.
• Blend until completely smooth with an immersion blender (or in batches in a regular blender). Pass through a fine mesh sieve if you want it extra silky.
• Return to low heat and stir in the cream and butter until glossy and smooth.
• Taste and adjust the seasoning, then serve.

Recipe Tips

• Pick your roasting method based on time and mood. Hot and fast (400–425°F, 30–45 minutes) gives you bright, juicy tomatoes with a bit of caramelization. Low and slow (275–325°F, 2–3 hours) concentrates the sugars into something richer and more complex. Both are worth trying.
• Always roast the garlic in its skin. It roasts sweet and mellow instead of sharp, and squeezing the cloves out afterward takes seconds.
• Add the basil right before blending, not before. Two minutes of gentle heat is enough to infuse the flavor without turning it dull and losing that fresh green color.
• Hold the cream back if you’re freezing or storing a big batch. The soup base keeps better without it — stir cream into individual portions as you reheat instead.
• Reheat gently. A splash of stock or water helps loosen it back up if it’s thickened in the fridge.

Serving Suggestions

This is the kind of soup that’s honestly a full meal with the right sides. I always serve it with thick slices of crusty bread for dipping, but a grilled cheese sandwich on the side turns it into pure comfort food. It also works beautifully as a starter before something like a pasta bake or roast chicken if you’re entertaining.

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