Remember when you were a kid, walking home from school in the rain and you came in the front door and your mom had tomato soup and grilled cheese waiting for you? I do. But the tomato soup was from a can, comforting yes… delicious? Well…maybe when you were a kid it was. But we are grown ups now and need soup that is a little…how shall I say…more refined. So get ready to kick it up a notch…or ten… with this Creamy Carrot Tomato Soup: Comfort Food at it’s Finest!
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Creamy Carrot Tomato Soup: Comfort Food at it’s Finest!
Soup should begin with the freshest ingredients.
Start with the freshest juiciest tomatoes you can find. Then dice…and dice…and dice some more! Yep, it’s a lot of tomatoes.
Time Saving Tip:
If dicing by hand is just too much you can put 2-3 tomatoes at a time into the food processor and give a whirl, saving your self some time! Instead of using a lot of sugar to cut the acidity of the tomatoes I opted to use only 1 tablespoon because I let sweet carrots to do the job instead!
To add a cheesy flavor I use an old soup trick, I cut the rind off a wedge of parmesan and put it in the soup as it simmers. The rind melts, adding flavor but stays in one piece. It is removed and discarded before blending the soup. (To see a tear free way to chop an onion, watch a 90 second video here)
Straining Out The Seeds:
You can carefully blend soup in portions in the blender or use an immersion blender to blend right in the pot. Once blended strain out the skin and seeds. Don’t skip this step! Just place the screen colander over and bowl and use the back of a ladle to push the soup through the screen, discarding the solids.
Et Voila!
A gorgeous, nutritious Creamy Carrot and Tomato Soup! If you want to round out this meal with even more comfort food, serve this soup with my Gourmet Grilled Cheese Sandwiches.
The Recipe: Creamy Carrot Tomato Soup
You will need a stock pot, a screen colander an immersion blender or traditional blender. I love my Blendtec.
A creamy dreamy comforting soup made from scratch! Freezes beautifully. Dairy free option below.
- Dairy free option: skip the Parmesan and use coconut milk instead of cream or half and half
- 8 large carrots, peeled and sliced (1/4 inch thick)
- 5 lbs of the biggest juiciest tomatoes you can find, diced by hand or in the food processor
- 3 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
- 1 yellow onion, chopped
- 1 Tablespoon brown sugar
- 1/3 cup cream or half and half (or coconut milk)
- Rind of Parmesan cheese (skip if you are dairy free)
- 2 teaspoons Herbs de Provence
- ¼ - ½ tsp cayenne pepper, depending on how much of a kick you want
- Sea salt and pepper to taste
- 4 Tablespoons butter
- ½ cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese (for topping)
- Packaged crispy onions
- Olive oil
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Place sliced carrots, 2Tablespoons butter and 1 tablespoon olive oil in large stock pot and sauté on medium heat for 10 minutes.
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Add chopped onions and another tablespoon olive oil and sauté for five more minutes. Vegetables should now be soft.
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Add minced garlic, sugar, Herbs de Provence and tomatoes.
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Cut the rind off a Parmesan wedge, place rind in center of soup mixture. The rind will not dissolve and will be removed later.
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Cover and allow to simmer for 25 minutes.
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Remove rind with a large spoon and discard.
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Place tomato carrot mixture in blender or use a hand blender to blend till smooth. Depending on the size of your blender, you may need to divide to blend.
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Place a screen colander over large bowl.
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Using a soup ladle scoop three ladlefuls of soup into screen colander, then use the back of the ladle to push soup through the screen, straining out all the skin and seeds. Do not skip this step!
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Discard the solids and repeat till all soup is strained. Return strained soup to pot, add cream, cayenne pepper and remaining butter, reheat.
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Salt and pepper to taste.
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To serve: pour into bowls and top with Parmesan and crispy onions (the onions are not gluten free)
MAY I PLEASE ASK A FAVOR?
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Looks delicious. I am so eager to try it.
Give it a go! It really is delicious!
Of course I didn’t read that far! Thank you now I’m ready. Can’t wait til it’s done!
No worries! Hope it turns out great!Linda
Am I missing something? At what point do you add the cream?
Hi Elina:)
The instruction for adding the cream is there. You add it after blending and returning the soup to the pot. Thanks, Linda
When, if ever, do I put in broth or water as soup base?
In this soup we don’t use broth or water:)
I just made this soup for dinner last night. I expected it to be good, but it was actually amazing! So fragrant… so delicious! Thank you & Congratulations 🙂
I am gonna try this for me and my daughter.. So yumm ..
I made this soup over the weekend. It was delicious. It was my first time making a carrot tomato soup and only because I had the two vegetables old and wrinkly. This soup was able to extract so much flavor. I did one thing different, that I added a couple of cups of water. I will continue to do that because even with the water the soup was really thick and hard to press through the sieve. I also added half and half for my son’s portion and it was just so yummy.
I am so glad!
Hi Linda ! Delicious and healthy recipe of carrot and tomato soup you have shared. It is so easy to prepare and my mouth is watering just looking at it. Thanks for sharing this delicious soup recipe.
You are welcome!
I really appreciate this tomato recipe. I had made this recipe last week. I expected it to be good, and it was made very tasty and delicious. Thank you so much.
I am very glad to read this tomato recipe because I love tomatoes. I am super excited to make this recipe for me. This is an excellent post Thanks for sharing it. Keep sharing more yummy recipes.
Chop, chop, and more chop!! But if the cooking armore is the indicator of its deliciousness, it will all be worth it ?
Thanks! Enjoy!
I am eager to try this recipe and please forgive my ignorance but what measurement is T?
It stands for one Tablespoon:)
I made this last night with the rest of the ripe tomatoes from my garden. It was delicious–thank you!
I ended up saving the strained solids and added some olive oil, salt, and pepper to make a yummy spread for crusty bread.
Oh that’s a great idea!
No water in this soup ?
Nope. It doesn’t need water. In fact I can’t think of a soup on my blog that has water! Some have broth but none have water:)
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Thanks so much!
How much is 8 large carrots in weight, please? I have carrot sticks to use up – thank you!
No idea. You’ll sort of have to eyeball it. As long as you are somewhat close it should be fine 🙂
I will make this according to your recipe. thanks for sharing.
Any suggestions on what to do to make this a few days in advance? Does this soup freeze well?
Hi, you can make it a few days in advance and keep it in the fridge and it will be fine. If you need to keep it longer, then I recommend freezing it. Freezing works really well with this recipe.
his was delicious, especially with your jack cheese and pesto grilled cheese! Don’t worry if you don’t have fresh tomatoes. I’m sure good canned would work. I scoured my freezer and used up the last of my frozen tomatoes, including a jar of “juice” and one of puree–with no loss of deliciousness. I resisted, but decided to sieve as you suggested, which results in a smoother texture. Ended up with very little tomato residue in the strainer and, surprisingly, no seeds, even though most of my tomatoes had seeds and skins! Hmm-m–the seed fairy must’ve made off with them. Like one of your readers suggested, I’ll make a dip or spread with the tomatoy paste remains. And, I did end up adding some homemade veggie stock to thin it to a more appealing for us consistency. Finished with a dollop of sour cream in place of the parm. I had made 1.5 x recipe–enough to gift containers to a handful of single and elderly neighbors. Lookin forward to summer when I can use fresh-from-the-garden ingredients!
I am so glad you liked it Jan! Thank you.