Homemade Tomato Soup with Canned Tomatoes

Making homemade tomato soup with canned tomatoes is easy, crock pot friendly, and made with bacon, onions, carrots, and tomatoes.

It's super easy to make homemade canned tomato soup, and this is an awesome no-fuss recipe that doesn't involve roasting tomatoes. But MAKE SURE you make a grilled cheese or something like Soft Fluffy French Bread or Cheddar Garlic Biscuits to go with it.

White bowl of cooked homemade bacon tomato soup in white bowl.

For this tomato soup recipe I used whole peeled canned tomatoes (better quality tomatoes than diced), carrots, and onions for a little aromatic loveliness, and OH HI BACON. The bacon isn't meant to be crispy in this recipe, it's simmered in and blended with the soup and adds a lovely salty, bacony second in command flavor right behind the number one, tomato.

You'll notice there is no added salt in this homemade tomato soup, this is largely due to the bacon and chicken broth. You can easily adapt this recipe to be vegan/vegetarian by omitting the bacon and substituting with vegetable broth.

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What To Expect
🛒 Key Ingredients
✏️ Substitutions & Variations
🧑‍🍳 Instructions
📌 Top Tips & Hacks
❓Frequently Asked Questions
🥣 More Easy Soup Recipes
📝 Printable Recipe
💬 Comments

What To Expect

Taste: Tomato is the dominating flavor, balanced out by the carrots and a subtle bacon flavor as an undercurrent.
Ease: Just a step above easy, since it involves more than just opening cans and warming up food. Chopping a few vegetables, simmering, and blending are all pretty simple tasks, it just takes a bit of time.
Time: It takes a few minutes to prep the ingredients and get the soup started, 20-30 minutes to simmer, and a minute or two to blend up the soup.

🛒 Key Ingredients

Ingredients for canned tomato soup in glass bowls labeled.

Bacon - thick cut, not a sweetened variety. Not much is needed to add a salty flavor to the soup.
Carrots - balance out the acid in the tomato, is an aromatic addition to the soup along with the onions. It helps the soup taste a little more mellow on the tongue and less acidic.
Tomato paste - a concentrated tomato flavor that helps it really POP and thicken up the soup a little so it isn't watery.
Whole-peeled tomatoes - I like Cento San Marzano, RedPack or Market Pantry brands.
Basil & bay leaf- adds just a bit of rich, classic Italian flavor we know and love.
Chicken Broth - adds both volume and flavor beyond just regular water. Umami!

See the recipe card below for full information on ingredients and quantities.

✏️ Substitutions & Variations

Chicken broth - may substitute with vegetable broth.
Bacon - can be left out altogether and replaced with a ½ teaspoon of vegetable bouillon for a vegetarian friendly option.

🧑‍🍳 Instructions

Raw carrots, onions, and bacon in red cooking pot.

Step 1. In a large cooking pot over medium heat, cook bacon, carrots, and onions until vegetables are tender and bacon is cooked, about 5-7 minutes. Bacon won't going to be crispy due to moisture from vegetables, this is fine. Drain excess bacon grease (or leave in for extra flavor).

Cooked carrots onions, and bacon in red pot with tomato paste.

Step 2. Add tomato paste and cook over low/medium heat for 1-2 minutes until it's nice and caramelized.

Tomato soup with bay leaves and spices on top.

Step 3. Add chicken broth, whole peeled tomatoes, bay leaf, garlic, and basil. Mix well to break up tomatoes a bit.

Cooked tomato soup with bay leaves in red pot with wooden spoon.

Step 4. Cover with lid to simmer for 20-25 minutes on low heat, stirring every 5-10 minutes.

Immersion blender in red pot of cooked tomato soup.

Step 5. Find and remove bay leaves, then blend until desired consistency is reached; completely smooth or leave tomato and vegetable chunks for some texture (which is what we like). If using a normal blender, this can be done in batches. If using an immersion blender, just blend in the cooking pot and be careful to keep the blender under the soup surface to avoid splattering hot soup.

Wooden ladle of cooked homemade tomato soup with basil.

📌 Top Tips & Hacks

Use whole canned tomatoes. Whole tomatoes are usually better quality than tomatoes that have been diced and canned.
Putting carrots in tomato soup helps to balance out the acid. Instead of adding sugar like in many other tomato soup or tomato sauce recipes, the carrots work in a natural way and are much healthier.
Use an immersion blender instead of pouring the soup into a large blender. So much easier than pouring a big pot of soup in and out of a stand blender!

Red pot of homemade canned tomato soup with parmesan and olive oil drizzled on top.

❓Frequently Asked Questions

What can I add to tomato soup to make it taste better?

Fresh basil, fresh grated parmesan or pecorino romano, sun dried tomatoes, or heavy cream. For this recipe I use onions and carrots as aromatics to help balance it out a little. Oh yes, and BACON for obvious reasons.
You could also add a couple of tablespoons of homemade pesto rosso sauce to make it EXTRA fancy!

Is tomato soup better with milk or water?

That depends on what flavor you want for your soup. If you want a creamy base, I would use whole milk or heavy whipping cream. If you do not want a creamy base, plain water, vegetable, or chicken broth would work wonderfully well.

Can I freeze tomato soup?

You can freeze tomato soup in an airtight container for up to 3 months, I think it's better to use it before then. Much longer and you'll want to make sure it isn't freezer burned.

Can you use beef broth instead of chicken broth in tomato soup?

Yes, it shouldn't make too much of a difference in taste, although beef broth can have a stronger flavor than chicken broth or chicken stock.

🥣 More Easy Soup Recipes

We have a few family friendly easy soup recipes, here are some of our favorites!

Did You Try This Recipe? ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Make sure to leave a star rating and a comment below the recipe card. I love hearing from you, and it is so helpful to other readers! Better yet, share it with family and friends. Thank you!!