Roasting is the way to get a tomato soup that tastes of something once summer’s over. Forty minutes in a hot oven softens supermarket tomatoes, concentrates them and catches the edges, and the oven does nearly all the work.
Clare made this soup on a Sunday at the end of October and took the photos on this page. She roasted a carrot in the tin with the tomatoes, a brown onion and the garlic, which rounds out the sweetness. She used about 1.4kg of fresh tomatoes, a mix of cherry and salad tomatoes, and no tinned ones at all. She blended it in our food processor and served it just as it was, without cream. The recipe below is exactly what she did.
Any ripe tomatoes will do. Cherry tomatoes give the deepest colour and sweetness, and bigger salad tomatoes add bulk. Halve anything larger than a cherry tomato so everything roasts in the same time. Leave the garlic in its skin: it steams soft in the tin and squeezes out sweet rather than sharp.
Roasted Tomato Soup
Fresh tomatoes roasted with a carrot, a brown onion and garlic, then simmered in stock and blended smooth. No tins and no cream needed.
Ingredients
- Fresh tomatoes, a mix of cherry and salad tomatoes, larger ones halved about 1.4kg
- Brown onion, cut into wedges 1
- Large carrot, peeled and sliced into rounds 1
- Garlic cloves, unpeeled 4
- Olive oil 3 tbsp
- Vegetable stock 500ml
- Sugar 1 tsp
- Salt and black pepper to taste
- Optional: double cream or crème fraîche, to serve a swirl
What it costs
About £1.26 a bowl in ingredients, and about 15p a bowl to cook.
- Tomatoes, 1.4kg £4.06
- Brown onion 33p
- Large carrot (about 150g) 10p
- Garlic, 4 cloves (about 10 to a bulb) 9p
- Olive oil, 3 tbsp 33p
- Vegetable stock, 500ml (one cube) 11p
- Sugar, 1 tsp 1p
- Salt and pepper not counted
- Ingredients for 4 £5.03
To cook: fan oven, 50 min (roast, with the oven heating up): 48p; hob ring, 15 min (bring to a simmer and cook): 10p. 58p in all.
Sainsbury’s prices on 6 November 2026, own brand, without Nectar. You pay only for what the recipe uses (3 tablespoons, not the whole bottle). Tomatoes priced as cherry tomatoes; salad tomatoes cost a little less. Salt, pepper and the optional cream are not counted. Cooking costs use the 26.32p electricity price cap (to 31 December 2026) at full rated power, so the most they would be. How we work these out: the Running Costs Index.
Method
- Heat the oven to 200°C (fan 180°C, gas 6).
- Put the tomatoes cut-side up in a large roasting tin with the onion, carrot and garlic. Drizzle with the oil, season with salt and pepper, and roast for 35–40 minutes until soft and catching at the edges.
- Squeeze the garlic out of its skins into a large saucepan and tip in everything from the tin, scraping up the juices.
- Add the stock and sugar. Bring to a simmer and cook for 10 minutes, until the carrot is completely soft.
- Blend until smooth. In a jug blender or food processor, work in batches: fill it no more than halfway and hold the lid down with a folded tea towel. A stick blender in the pan works too. Return the soup to the pan.
- Taste and adjust the salt, pepper and sugar. Serve it as it is, or with a swirl of cream.
Tips for getting it right
- Let it catch. A few blackened edges on the tomatoes are where the roasted flavour comes from. Pale, steamed tomatoes make a flat soup.
- Don’t crowd the tin. Use the largest tin you have, or two, so the tomatoes roast in one layer rather than stewing in their juice.
- Scrape the tin. The sticky juices in the corners are the best part. A splash of the stock helps loosen them.
- Blend it hot, carefully. Hot liquid expands as it blends, so never fill a jug blender or food processor more than halfway.
- Season at the end. Stock varies a lot in saltiness, and roasted tomatoes vary in sweetness, so taste after blending.
How to serve it
Clare served it plain, and it doesn’t need anything else, but a swirl of cream or a spoonful of crème fraîche is nice if you have some. For something to dip, our cheese scones are made for it, or there’s soda bread, which goes from bowl to oven in ten minutes. For another soup, try our leek and potato soup.
Keeping and freezing
- Keep: covered in the fridge for up to 3 days. Reheat it until it’s piping hot all the way through.
- Freeze: for up to 3 months. Freeze it before adding any cream, and add the cream when you reheat.
FAQs
Can you make tomato soup with fresh tomatoes only?
Yes. This recipe uses about 1.4kg of fresh tomatoes and no tinned ones. Roasting them first concentrates the flavour, which makes up for out-of-season tomatoes.
Why roast the tomatoes for soup?
Roasting drives off water, concentrates the sweetness and adds a little char at the edges. The soup tastes deeper and less sharp than one made from tomatoes simmered from raw.
Why is there a carrot in tomato soup?
A roasted carrot adds natural sweetness and body, and it rounds off the acidity of the tomatoes. It blends in completely, so you won’t notice it in the finished soup.
Do you need to peel the tomatoes?
No. The skins soften in the oven and blend smoothly. If you want it completely silky, push the blended soup through a sieve, but it isn’t necessary.
Can you freeze roasted tomato soup?
Yes, for up to 3 months. Cool it quickly, freeze it in portions and defrost it in the fridge overnight. Add any cream when you reheat it, not before freezing.
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