It was really cold here last weekend. Well, cold for October in North Carolina. The weather here is really great for the most part, so any time we have any sort of dip, I jump at the chance to make soup. So when the weather dipped, I was super stoked to make my Simple Homemade Tomato Soup.

This recipe is really easy to make, hence the name.

If you don’t like tomato soup, stick with me. Because I’m not actually a fan of tomato soup except my tomato soup. This is hands down my favorite tomato soup and I’ll make it all the time.

The big secret is really letting the tomato soup sit and cook on the stove as long as the recipe says. That thickens the tomato soup and allows the flavors to build. If you take the tomato soup off the stovetop too soon, you’ll end up with a pretty thin and bland tomato soup.

And no one likes thin and bland.

Simple Homemade Tomato Soup

Simple Homemade Tomato Soup Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup breadcrumbs
• Olive oil
• 1 medium onion
• 3 cloves garlic
• 28 oz. can stewed tomatoes with basil
• 3 cups water
• 3 chicken bouillon cubes
• 1/2 tablespoon brown sugar
• Ground pepper
• Crushed red pepper
• Two pinches of salt
• Fresh oregano
• Fresh basil

How To Make Simple Homemade Tomato Soup:

Finely dice the onion. 

Sautee the onion in a large pot, with a drizzle of olive oil, about ten minutes until the onions start to get translucent.

Chop the garlic and add it to the pot. Let the onion and garlic cook until the onions start to caramelize.

Add the three chicken bouillon cubes and three cups of water to the soup.

Finely chop the stewed tomatoes.

Add the tomatoes and the liquid from the tomato’s can to the soup. Bring the soup to a low boil.

Stir in the brown sugar, pepper, crushed red pepper, and a pinch of salt.

Boil (at a low boil) for 15 minutes.

Add a second pinch of salt. Boil for an additional 15 minutes.

Remove the soup from heat.

Chop up the fresh oregano and basil and gently stir the herbs into the soup.

Stir in the breadcrumbs until they are completely combined. This will thicken the soup.

Serve hot.

Optional: Stir in a hearty amount of grated Parmesan cheese before serving, and it’s a delicious addition.

Tips for making this Simple Homemade Tomato Soup

So many of my tips for this homemade tomato soup really have to do with the onion. Why? Because if you mess up the onions, you can completely ruin the soup.

For the onions:

So, first, when I say finely chop the onion, I’m not exaggerating. The smaller you cut the onion, the better because smaller pieces will incorporate into the soup a lot better than large chunks will.

When you’re cooking the onion (both alone and with the garlic), that’s really your only chance to cook down your onions. So don’t rush that part. If you cook them long enough, they’ll melt into the soup.

When you add in the liquid, it basically stops cooking the onion. So if you rush cooking the onions and add the liquid, you’ll end up with undercooked onions that have a lot of bite to them and really take away from your soup.

For the tomatoes:

Canned tomatoes work so much better than fresh tomatoes in this soup. And that’s great because you can buy canned tomatoes when they’re on sale and keep them in the pantry until you want to make this homemade tomato soup. You can’t store fresh tomatoes for that long.

I prefer to use stewed tomatoes in my tomato soup. They usually come halves, and I’ll take the halves out with a slotted spoon and chop them on a cutting board before adding them to the soup. Finely chopping the tomatoes means that you’ll end up with a smoother soup.

You can use diced tomatoes if that’s all you have on hand, but diced tomatoes are so hard to chop. So there’s a good chance you’ll end up just dumping the entire can into the soup and you’ll end up with a soup filled with tomato chunks. If you do, you can use an immersion blender when the soup is done, but that’s honestly an unnecessary step. And really, who has an immersion blender anyway?

For the herbs:

We have really overachieving basil and oregano plants in our garden, so we are spoiled by fresh herbs. But fresh is better. Fresh herbs add such a bright flavor to your soup that you don’t get when you use dried herbs. Even fresh dried herbs don’t do the trick.

The later you add your fresh herbs in a recipe, the more of the herb flavor you’ll have in your final product. So for this soup, add the fresh herbs pretty much after the soup is finished, and they’ll add a really great flavor.

When you stir the fresh herbs into the soup, stir them slowly. Fresh herbs can turn your food green. Don’t ask me for the science behind this. I just know it has happened to me way too many times when I’ve made homemade salsa.

For the bouillon cubes:

I love bouillon cubes for the convenience of them. I always have a pack of chicken bouillon cubes and a pack of beef bouillon cubes in the pantry. One cube and one cup of water make a cup of broth. That’s easy enough for me.

If you have chicken broth or chicken stock handy, you can substitute three cups of chicken broth or chicken stock into the recipe and skip the water and bouillon cubes. That works.

Can I make this vegan tomato soup?

The only ingredient keeping this simple tomato soup from being a vegan tomato soup is the chicken bouillon cubes. Personally, I think they add so much flavor to the soup that that’s what I use every time.

If you wanted to make this vegetarian or vegan, you could use no chicken base bouillon cubes. I haven’t personally used any of those (because we’re not vegetarian or vegan), but I know people who have used them and had only good things to say.