Roasted Garlic Tomato Soup

We are very excited to share this creamy roasted tomato soup recipe with garlic today because it tastes so good! 

It is one of our favorites during cold months. We make it often as it requires almost no effort. A great lazy meal when served with a toast or grilled cheese on a busy weeknight.

Why You Will Like This Recipe

• It is easy to make. There aren't a lot of peeling and chopping steps. Cut tomatoes in quarters without peeling them, roughly slice onions  and cut two heads of garlic crosswise with their skin on. Put everything on a baking sheet, roast them until tender and blend them up. 
• It requires a few simple ingredients that you can easily find. 
• It has a great flavor coming from roasted vegetables. Especially the sweet, earthy and buttery taste of roasted garlic matches perfectly with the roasted tomatoes.
• It is ready in about 40 minutes. And in 30 minutes of this duration, you don't do anything. Just wait for the vegetables to get charred and tender in the oven.
• It is freezer friendly. So you might want to double the recipe to freeze some of it.

About The Ingredients

You don't need many ingredients to make this garlic roasted tomato soup. This recipe will show you how simple food could be delicious.

• Tomatoes: We use vine tomatoes because we love their taste. Cherry tomatoes and Roma tomatoes work fine too. You can use any of them or a combination of all these. Just make sure the tomatoes are red and nice.
• Onion: Any type is fine. We use one medium.
• Garlic: We use two garlic bulbs (about 15-20 cloves garlic) and this is definitely not too much. Remember, we are not using them raw. Garlic has a very nice sweet, creamy and buttery taste when it is roasted. 
• Spices: We use salt, pepper and paprika. You can use red pepper flakes (crushed chili) to give your tomato soup a little heat.
• Thyme: We use fresh thyme on the vegetables before roasting them. Oregano or rosemary works fine too. 
• Basil: We put a handful of fresh basil leaves in the blender along with the roasted vegetables to puree them all.
• Water: We use plain water as this roasted tomato and garlic soup is already packed with flavors. If you want even more flavor, use vegetable broth) or chicken broth  (chicken stock) as we do in our Roasted Carrot Tomato Soup. 

Optional Add-Ins

• Heavy cream: Our recipe for roasted creamy tomato soup doesn't contain any cream. For us, the creaminess of roasted garlic and sweetness of roasted onion complement the tangy flavor of tomatoes perfectly. If you want a creamier taste, stir in ½ cup of heavy cream or full-fat coconut milk right before removing the soup from the heat.
•  Feta cheese: We love crumbled feta cheese on our tomato soup but it is completely optional. You can use grated parmesan cheese if you want.

Instructions

This roasted tomato garlic soup is super easy to make with 3 simple steps: Roast, blend and simmer. And what we love even more about this recipe is that you don't have to peel or chop tomatoes and garlic. 

So let's move on to the steps.

1. Roast the vegetables: Cut the tomatoes into quarters, roughly slice the onion and halve the garlic bulbs crosswise. Place them on a baking sheet. Make sure to put the garlic cut side down to prevent it from burning. Sprinkle thyme, paprika, salt and pepper. Drizzle olive oil over them and toss. Bake in a preheated oven (400 F / 200 C) for 30 minutes or until tender. 

2. Puree the roasted vegetables: Let the roasted vegetables cool for 5 minutes and then transfer onions and tomatoes into a food processor (or a high powered blender). You don't need to remove the skin of roasted tomatoes. Squeeze the garlic cloves over them and discard their peel. Add a handful of fresh basil and half of the water (1 cup). Blend until smooth. If you don't have a food processor, put everything in a large pot and blend with an immersion blender.

3. Simmer the soup: Transfer the pureed soup into a pot. Pour the remaining water (1 cup) into it and let it simmer for 5 minutes. Remove from heat, taste and adjust the seasoning to your taste. Serve immediately.

Variations

Tomato and Roasted Garlic Soup: You don't have any fresh tomatoes on hand? Make the soup with a can of crushed tomatoes. You can still roast a bulb of garlic (or more) and blend it with the other ingredients. 

1. Wrap garlic bulbs (halved) in foil and roast them for 35-40 minutes. If you want, you can add onions in the foil too. Alternatively, you can wrap the garlic bulbs in foil and roast in the air fryer that is set to 390 F / 198 C for 20-25 minutes.
2. Combine the roasted garlic, onions, canned tomatoes and fresh basil in a blender and blend them until smooth. 
3. Heat oil in a pot, transfer the tomatoes mixture into it, add in water and spices, bring it to a boil, reduce the heat and let it simmer for 5 minutes.

Expert Tips

Don't peel the tomatoes. It is really unnecessary for this roasted tomato and garlic soup. Everything is well blended and you don't even notice the tomato skin is there. Plus it is a good source of fiber. 

Don't peel garlic. Just remove the papery outer skin of them if you want. It is much easier to peel them when they are roasted. Just squeeze and you will see how the cloves easily come out.

Place the halved garlic bulbs on the baking sheet cut side down. This prevents the cloves from burning.

Pour 1 cup of water into the blender along with the roasted vegetables. It helps them blend easier.

Serving Suggestions

We love serving this sheet pan tomato soup with some cheese on the top. Use crumbled feta cheese or grated parmesan cheese. Some extra fresh basil leaves on the top is great too.

This is a hearty roasted garlic tomato soup, so the best thing to serve it with is a grilled cheese sandwich. You have the most satisfying lunch or dinner this way. If you want to get even more creative, you can make French toast sandwiches and serve them on the side of your soup.

Alternatively, serve it with some homemade bread. Our favorite bread recipes that can be paired with this roast tomato garlic soup are:

• Easy No Yeast Bread
• Homemade Dinner Rolls
• No Yeast Bread Rolls
• Cornbread With Cornmeal
• Bazlama (Turkish flatbread)

Also, it would be great to serve it with some salad like arugula salad with figs, Turkish coban salatasi (shepherd salad) or wheat berry salad.

More Hearty Soup Recipes

• Tomato Soup With Fresh Tomatoes
• Turkish Red Lentil Soup
• Roasted Carrot and Tomato Soup
• Cabbage Roll Soup