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Fresh summer “OMG That Was Good” tomato bisque. Although you don’t typically think of having tomato soup in the summer, I think it’s the perfect time to make it when tomatoes are at their peak.
Tomato Bisque
Tomato BisqueWith my garden tomatoes are ripe, canned tomatoes just won’t do. I serve this with a little fresh basil and some grated Parmigiano Reggiano. Simply delicious!
More Summer Tomato Recipes You May Like:
- Pasta with Chicken and Grape Tomatoes
- Heirloom Tomato Salad
- Sauteed Zucchini with Plum Tomatoes
- Tilapia with Tomato Caper Sauce
Tomato Bisque
Fresh summer "Oh My God That Was Good" tomato bisque. Although you don't typically think of having tomato soup in August, I think it's the perfect time to make it.
Yield: 4 servings
Serving Size: 2 cups
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp butter
- 1 medium onion
- 1 cup chopped carrots
- 1 celery stalk
- 3 cloves garlic
- 30 oz fresh plum tomatoes, peeled
- 32 oz chicken broth, or vegetable broth
- 3 sprigs parsley
- 10 basil leaves
- 2 bay leaves
- 2 tbsp reduced fat sour cream
- Parmigiano Reggiano for serving, optional
Instructions
- To peel the tomatoes, boil a large pot of water.
- When boiling, drop the tomatoes in the water to blanch one minute, or until the skin cracks.
- Quickly remove from the water, let it cool a few minutes and the skin will come right off.
- Chop onions, carrots, celery and garlic using a mini food processor or chopper.
- Melt butter in a large soup pot over medium heat.
- Add butter until melted, then add chopped onions, carrots, celery and garlic.
- Cook stirring often until soft, about 8-10 minutes.
- Add chicken broth and tomatoes, stirring well.
- Using a string, tie herbs together and drop into the soup.
- This will make it easy to remove later.
- Add salt and fresh pepper, reduce heat to low and simmer covered for 30 minutes.
- Remove herbs and discard, add sour cream and blend with a hand blender until smooth. (A regular blender would work, but be sure to let the soup cool before blending and fill only halfway in the blender so it doesn't explode on you).
- Ladle into bowls and top with freshly grated cheese and fresh basil.
Last Step:
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Makes 8 cups.
Nutrition
Serving: 2 cups, Calories: 125 kcal, Carbohydrates: 19.5 g, Protein: 4.5 g, Fat: 4.4 g, Saturated Fat: 2.5 g, Cholesterol: 15 mg, Sodium: 1064 mg, Fiber: 4.5 g, Sugar: 3 g
I’m so disappointed. I made this and it ended up tasting so watery… we were so confused because it’s essentially just tomatoes and chicken broth and basil, but had barely any taste…? I even added some of the commenters suggestions and added a bit more sour cream and a bit of sugar.
I feel like it needs tomato paste or something to amp up the tomato flavor. I will not be using this recipe again!
I made this and it tasted like ketchup. My husband loved it though. Next time Im blending the basil in and adding more sour cream and a pinch of sugar to cut the tomato acidity.
I would love to make this but I have to watch my salt content. I can’t see where the 1064 amount of sodium comes from. Could this be a typo? Thanks
I bet she didn’t use low sodium chicken broth or unsalted butter. I bet if you switched those two ingredients it would significantly lower the sodium in the recipe.
How would you freeze this? Do everything except the sour cream? Or make it completely and then freeze?
I love this soup! I make it all the time and take it for lunch. It is so easy and delicious – thanks for the recipe. My last couple of batches I added a container (cup) of plain, low fat Greek yogurt instead of the sour cream. The whole cup only has 80 calories, so I don’t think it changes the total much, but it adds a really great flavor to the soup. Other than that, I make it according to the recipe…every other week!
Just made this soup today and it was absolutely delicious! I used canned tomatoes because it’s not quite tomato season yet. I served this with some brown rice and a dollop of sour cream. I will be making this again in the future.
🙂
Have made this twice now in the space of one week. Everyone loves it and wants to take some home with them! Its winter right now so used to large cans of whole tomatoes since the ones in the store have no taste at this time of year. SOOOOOO GOOOOD. Can't wait to use fresh garden tomatoes
I just canned tomatoes yesterday and one of the pints didn't seal…I will be making this tonight but will use fresh basil since I have it.
I make a TON of soup. After trying this recipe, I am quite certain this is one of my favorites! I didn't have fresh tomatoes so I used a large can of whole plum skinless tomatoes and a regular size can of diced roasted tomatoes. It was so easy and yet so good. I can't wait to make more!
I eat a cup of this almost every day for the past 2 months with my lunch. You'd think I'd get tired of it but no!! I love it that much! Since it's January and we have no home grown tomatoes, I've been using Hunts garlic roasted tomatoes and I also add in some roasted tomatoes from the Deli. I also add in some tomato paste. It is amazing! I double the recipe and let it simmer on low in the crockpot for about 6 hours. I freeze it in one cup servings which makes it easy to pop into the microwave for a quick lunch. I can't wait to try it with home grown tomatoes this summer (which is why I am tripling the number of tomato plants that I plant this year).
This was great soup! Since it's November, and the plum tomatoes are not at their peak, I used a 35oz can of Cento peeled tomatoes instead of fresh and it was still terrific! (1 cube of Knorr Vegetable cube). My kids loved it!
Just made this and it was a hit for the whole family. My husband likes a chunkier soup so I added fresh corn right off the cob, fresh parm cheese and basil. Delicious! Now onto the zucchini lasagna!
Used all homegrown veggies and herbs for this delicious soup. I saved time and didn't peel my tomatoes, I pulsed them in the food processor and added them to the onion mix. Worked well and tastes great!
When I worked at a special investigations unit, there was this little cafe in the corporate building across from ours that served this bisque every Tuesday and Thursday. I patiently awaited those days and raced out to get it as soon as 12:00 came around. That's how I got hooked on bisque rather than the canned soup my mom used to make.
This easily topped that, and we couldn't get enough! Topped with a bit of Parmesan, I was in heaven. I served this as a side with your garlic lovers' roast beef sandwich with carmelized onions and provolone and both items were a HUGE hit. I can't wait to make this again!
This was delicious!!! I made it last night from fresh farmers market organic tomatoes, celery, and onion and basil from my own garden. It. Was. Fantastic!! Thank you so much. This is definitely going on my regular menu.
Do you think this would still be yummy if you don't blend it? I have a very small kitchen and sadly no blender.
Will Cherry and Roma tomatoes work for this recipe? Also, can i use the veggies from making homemade chicken broth in this soup, or should i toss them and use a fresh bunch?
OMG, I made this today. I used a large can of San Marzano tomatoes because fresh tomatoes are hard to come by this time of year and only used two cups of chicken broth. So fresh tasting…..I loved it!
I'm hoping to try this tonight but instead of using sour cream i'm going to try non fat Greek yogurt. Hopefully its good.
This was so good and easy to make! I used an immersion blender to blend everything together so I never had to remove anything from the pot. Also left the basil in, which gave it so much flavor!
Had this for dinner tonight and 2 spoons up! I actually made it last night to save time, minus the sour cream. Got home after work and warmed it up on the stove, added the sour cream and let is simmer a bit and it was wonderful. Thanks again Gina for sharing all your wonderful recipes~
I made this today! It is amazing, and I will make more this weekend to freeze for our Florida "winter." I used your roasted tomatoes in this soup. I was too lazy to pull out my food processor, so I used the "chop" feature on my blender to do the veggies. At first, I was concerned that blending the veggies into a mush rather than chopping them would ruin the texture, but it made the perfect texture. I also added about half a can of tomato paste, and a couple tablespoons of sugar, since my tomatoes weren't perfectly ripe. This is so good! I love your website and have made several of the recipes. Always excellent! ~Heather
I leave the skins on and use an immersion blender. Works great. And you get the extra fiber from the skins. I freeze my over abundance of cherry tomatoes whole. They work great for this recipe.
I can't seem to find good garden grown plum tomatoes in our area. Would it work to substitute a standard tomato (like beefsteak or heirloom)?
Gina, this was a great soup! I rarely like tomato soup, but this was great. I tweaked it a bit and substituted the sour cream with a 6 oz. container of fat free plain Greek yogurt and it made it a little creamier…and yummy. Might impact Pts+ but probably not by too much. Thanks for the recipes!
do you remove the Basil leaves or blend them in? this looks soo wonderful!!
Gina, How do you skin fresh tomatoes? btw love your blog, use it allll the time!!
Meg, I only like to make this with summer tomatoes, when they are at their peak.
i tried to make this tonight and it turned out more like a vegetable soup.. im not sure where i went wrong because i followed your recipe exactly.. even measuring out the right weight of tomatoes and everything! its still tasty.. but not the consistency of tomato bisque that i was hoping for.. any idea where i might have gone wrong? 🙁
Just made this soup and used canned tomatoes, not terrible but will for sure be making it again come summer when my garden is full of tomatoes. Thanks for all your great recipes!! This is my new go to cookbook!!
How many oz of canned tomato did you use?
I just founded out about this website this month from a coworker of mine. An to be honest I'm LOVING it every Wednesday and Sunday, I'm looking for a new recipe…..THANK YOU SO MUCH GINA. Your recipes are great works well with myfitnesspal app I use. I can't wait to try this next…Thank you again
I just came across this recipe yesterday and decided to give it a try, though I'm not huge on tomato soup. I did use canned crushed tomatoes, and it came out great! I got two thumbs up each from my very picky and vegetarian daughter (used veggie broth) and my husband who said he thinks that was the best tomato bisque he has ever had. I like it, too! Went great with a grilled ham and cheese sandwich. Thanks, Gina! Always, always love your recipes!
I just made this for the first time and it tasted amazing! Definitely putting it into my soup rotation for sure!
If it has chicken broth, it isn't vegetarian. So, it probably shouldn't be under your vegetarian list. Just saying.
right, vegetarians should use vegetable broth.
Made this soup tonight with fresh tomatoes from my garden (some roma, some regular). I only had about 24 oz of tomatoes so I did about 3/4 of the recipe.I used sunflower oil instead of butter, kept the herbs the same but used dry parsley and left my basil leaves in. I omitted the sour cream. After mixing, I added cooked brown rice (1/2 cup dry). This soup was DELICIOUS. Everyone in my family loved it. It smelt like bruschetta while it was cooking, it was just an all around awesome recipe! Thanks!
I used a hand blender and it still came out chunky. The consistency was off and even though it tasted good I just couldn't get over the consistency. I don't own a regular blender so it will have to stay as is. I was wondering how it would taste with a little dill. A small cafe around here makes the best tomato dill soup. Yummm.
Isn't this the best!!
My boyfriend declared this the best tomato soup he had ever had! I agree. Didn't have fresh basil or parsley … added dried basil and a sprig of fresh rosemary. Super good!
I just made your recipe for the homeade chicken broth. Can I use the onion, carrots, and celery from that recipe to make the Tomato Bisque?
What hand blender did you buy? I never have that problem with mine, it always comes out smooth.
So I just made this tonight – it was very very tasty! There was one problem though.
I went and bought the exact hand blender that you linked to from the post, and it didn't blend it completely! There were little bits all in it, it was too brothy, and just not as enjoyable. So I poured the entire thing into the regular blender and liquefied – and it turned out much better!
Great Beth!! I probably won't make this again until the summer, there is nothing like fresh garden tomatoes!
I'm obsessed with Paradise Bakery's tomato bisque and I only go every once in a while. When I found this recipe, I wasn't sure if it was going to be as good. I knew it would be healthier but was wondering how it would taste. I was shocked when I made it and it ended up tasting exactly the same!!! Now I can make it whenever I want, saving money and knowing that I am eating a healthier soup:-)
If you don't have a hand blender, then you should use a regular blender, it should be smooth. Blending it will make it thicker. Did you use fresh tomatoes?
My veggies in the soup turned out a little chunkier than what I expected. I made sure to cut up my veggies fairly thin and small…perhaps a hand blender would be best–I don't have one and used my blender. I also was hoping that this would be more of a "bisque" and not "broth". It seemed a little thin. Did I do something wrong?
Isn't it! I've been wanting to make this again to freeze for lunches. Maybe this week!
AWESOME! I still got soup all over my kitchen with my blender because I am graceful like that, but it turned out great.
I made a batch to eat while I am on a liquid diet for some medical tests. at least I won't be deprived of great taste!
@Allison – With dried herbs, you can use less. Start with half, then add more to taste.
@Mel – Yes, I chop them the tomatoes large chunks.
Do you chop the tomatoes with the other veggies? I wasn't sure how finely to chop them. Thanks! I'm looking forward to eating this.
If I wanted to make this with dried parsley and basil and leaving it in the soup rather than buying the fresh herbs and removing them . . . how much of each would you say I should put in?
It looks yummy! I can't wait!
I suppose you could use canned tomatoes, but I think fresh tomatoes would be so much better. Especially now when tomatoes are at their peak.
This soup is absolutely AMAZING! I followed the directions precisely, except I used dry herbs in the soup itself rather than tying off fresh ones for added flavor & color. I did have dry bay leaves on hand so I removed those when the soup was done simmering. I found a new favorite soup!
Simple but incredibly good – tomato soup is one of my favorites! And I agree, might as well make it when tomatoes are naturally ripe!
Do you think it'll taste the same with whole canned tomatoes? I could go to the Farmer's Market and buy some but………..if canned works, why not?
@Suzy- It's hard to say since I used a variety of sizes and tomatoes. I weighed it after I removed the skin. If you don't have a scale, keep in mind that a large can of tomatoes is 28 oz, so judge by that. Maybe 8-10?
@Joanne, thanks! Of course that's ok, I appreciate it.
@Jennifer, no the cheese is extra. My husband didn't think it needed cheese so it's up to you if you want to add it. I think it's a must!
@Laura- I basically blanch them, remove the skins and put them in gallon freezer zip lock bags. Works great!
Is it really necessary to remove the skins? I normally cook tomatos skin on, especially if I'm pureeing later.
How do you freeze your fresh tomatoes to use later?
Does the 2 points per serving include the Parmigiano Reggiano, or do I need to add a point?
Wow this sounds like heaven! i'm going to give it a try for sure.
I shared your blog with my Weight Watcher group today. Hope that was ok. I'm sure many will be popping in to read all the wonderful food you make.
Hugs,
Joanne
approx how many tomatoes = 30 oz?
Is it really 2 cups to the serving?
(2 cups = 2 points)?
I've been on such a tomato soup kick lately, and I'd love to add this one to the line up 🙂
I would buy ripe tomatoes if possible or use San Marzano if I must. I plan on freezing as many tomatoes as possible from my garden to use throughout the year. Maybe one day I'll learn how to can!
Gina, what type of canned tomatoes would you substitute in the wintertime?
This looks phenom!
i love a good cup of soup wiht a light sandwich for dinner every now and then… im sure this freezes beautifullY@
Can't wait to try this one. My tomatoes are already gone, but I have them in the freezer for use. The basil is everywhere so this will make a quick supper for us soon.
This sounds so light and delicious!!! I will definitely have to try this one out 🙂
Basil and Bay leaves are very different and have completely different flavors. Bay leaves are hard to find fresh, I usually buy them dry.
@Sally- Yes you could, but I think the flavor of the butter adds to the soup.
@Jennifer, sure vegetable broth would be fine for vegetarians!
This is definitely a winner and a keeper! I was wondering what to do with all those plum tomatoes I have in the garden. However, hot soup in the midst of a mediterranean heatwave??? So, I'm going to replace butter with olive oil and leave out sour cream ( will mix it in when serving) and make it and preserve it in jars for the winter ( just like when making jams!) Oh boy! Are we going to have fabulous tomato soup this winter!
I need to start making my own tomato soup–it's SO much better than canned.
I have a ton of tomato's but hot soup just isn't my thing in the summer. I wonder if this would freeze well?? what a treat for a cold winter day!
Hi Gina, I have made several of your recipes and they are so amazing! Do you think vegetable broth would work ok in this recipe? (I'm a vegetarian and would prefer not to use chicken broth.)
Hi Gina, can olive oil be used instead of butter.
Sure!
What's the difference between 'basil leaves' and 'bay leaves'? I thought they were one and the same??? What do I know…
Looks very good. Have to try this one!
completely different herbs. basil can be processed and eaten, bay has to be removed.
That looks SO tasty!! 😀
it looks great! I just made a tomato soup yesterday too.
I love serving it with a sandwich thin toasted with melted pepper jack cheese in the middle. A bowl of soup + my low cal cheese sandwich is only 5 points total! So delicious!!!