Easy Three Ingredient Tomato Soup

This easy tomato soup recipe is the best you’ll ever make, and it’s shockingly simple. It calls for just three main ingredients: butter, onion, and tomatoes.

Inspired by Marcella Hazan’s famous tomato sauce, we aren’t exaggerating when we say this makes one of the best bowls of tomato soup we’ve ever had. Don’t let the short ingredient list fool you—this soup is absolutely delicious! You might not think three basic ingredients can combine to make such a velvety, delicious soup, but they absolutely do.

This homemade tomato soup is truly one of our favorite soup recipes on Inspired Taste. If you love roasted tomatoes, be sure to check out our roasted tomato soup recipe. Or, for a summery chilled option, we highly recommend our tomato gazpacho.

Key Ingredients

• Tomatoes: We love canned tomatoes for this soup. Because they are always in season, we can enjoy this tomato soup recipe year-round. San Marzano or Muir Glen are our go-tos. If you prefer to use fresh tomatoes, you’ll need about 10 to 12 medium tomatoes (about 2 pounds). There is no need to peel them—everything gets blended in the end, anyway!
• Onion: We cut half of a large onion into thick wedges and let them simmer with the tomatoes until they become sweet and soft. The onion adds a lovely flavor and helps make the soup incredibly creamy.
• Butter: We don’t add any cream or milk here, and use butter instead. The butter simmers with the tomatoes and onions, making the soup rich and velvety.

Find the full recipe with measurements below.

How to Make Tomato Soup

This tomato soup recipe comes together in three incredibly simple steps:

1. Toss the butter, onion wedges, canned tomatoes, and water into a large pot.
2. Bring everything to a low simmer and let it cook for 40 minutes.
3. Blend the soup until smooth, season to taste with salt and pepper, and serve!

Our Secrets for the Best Tomato Soup

Tip 1: Switch up the liquid. We typically use water for this easy recipe, but you can swap it out for vegetable broth, tomato broth, or chicken broth for more flavor. To increase the protein a bit, use bone broth.

Tip 2: Simmer on low heat. Bring everything to a low simmer and cook for 40 minutes (don’t rush it). The photo and video show that the soup becomes super creamy. That’s thanks to the butter. The onions also get a chance to really soften, which adds to the silkiness of our soup once it is blended.

Tip 3: Blending the soup. We usually use our immersion blender to puree the soup right in the pot. If you don’t have one, a standard countertop blender works perfectly fine, too. Just remember to remove the center insert of the lid. Then, hold a folded dish towel over the hole while you blend to let the steam escape and keep the lid from popping off (which is such a mess… we know from experience!).

Tip 4: Add basil if you’d like. Since publishing this recipe many years ago, lots of our readers have asked if they can blend in some basil. Our answer is always, of course! To turn this into tomato basil soup, add 10 to 15 fresh basil leaves right before blending.

Serving Suggestions

Our family loves serving tomato soup with a classic grilled cheese sandwich, but it is also excellent topped with homemade croutons or served alongside a slice of homemade focaccia or buttery garlic bread. We also love serving this soup next to crisp, fresh salads, like our Italian chopped salad, Caesar salad, or wedge salad.

More Easy Soup Recipes

• Vegetable Soup
• Creamy Chicken Noodle Soup
• Tortellini Soup
• Chicken Noodle Soup