The Best Tomato Basil Soup

This Tomato Basil Soup is perfectly creamy, with flavorful fresh tomatoes, garlic, onion, and basil.

Techniques

• Adding Cream to Tomato Sauce.
• Reduce Acidity by using Baking Soda.

How it Works

Adding Cream to Tomato Sauce

Using heavy cream or any milk dairy product with tomato sauce can be a recipe for disaster if you aren’t using the correct technique. Adding acid to milk causes the milk proteins to denature and coagulate.

So, how do you add heavy cream without the milk proteins curdling? The trick is to temper the cream.

You can do this by very slowly adding the cream to your tomato sauce while continuously stirring. This reduces your chance of curdling. Another method for reducing curdling is to add your acid slowly to your milk instead of your milk to your acid. This prevents you from “shocking” your milk and curdling it.

Reduce Acidity with Baking Soda

Tomatoes have a pH of around 4.6, which is rather acidic. During the cooking process, the acidity of the tomatoes can overwhelm the tomato flavor.

One technique for reducing the acidity is to add baking soda to the soup. Baking soda has a basic pH, and adding it will help increase the soup’s pH. Additionally, increasing the pH (and reducing the acidity), you can reduce the risk of your cream curdling.

What you Need for Tomato Basil Soup

• Tomatoes: I used a standard Globe or Grocery store Tomato in this recipe. You can mix it up with an Heirloom or on Roma tomato.
• Chicken Broth
• Tomato Paste
• Sundried Tomatoes: I use the jarred sundried tomatoes.
• Onion
• Garlic
• Fresh Basil: A basil plant is the best way to acquire fresh basil. Plus, you can use it all summer long!
• Salt
• Baking Soda: This is optional but helps to reduce acidity.

How to Make Tomato Basil Soup

Dice three medium-large tomatoes and finely chop ½ cup of onions, ½ cup of sundried tomatoes, and 4 cloves of garlic. Finely slice ½ cup of fresh basil.

In a medium pot, drizzle in olive oil and add 1 tablespoon of tomato paste. Let the tomato paste brown for 1-2 minutes. Add the onions and garlic to the medium pot and let it cook until the onions have started to turn translucent.

Add the finely chopped sundried tomatoes and allow them to brown slightly (this should take about a minute), then add the diced tomatoes. Cover the pot and allow the mixture to simmer for 20 minutes.

Remove the lid and add salt, chicken broth, and the fresh basil and stir. Cover and let simmer for another 2-5 minutes.

If you desire a smooth tomato basil soup, then you can use an immersion blender, blender, or mini food processor at this point. Either use the immersion blender directly in the pot or transfer the soup to a blender. Blend until the soup is smooth. Transfer back into the pot.

Optional: Add the ½ teaspoon of baking soda to help reduce acidity and allow the natural tomato flavor to pop through. This also helps reduce the change of cream curdling. The soup should foam up initially; just keep stirring in the baking soda until the foam has gone down.

Now, you can add the cup of cream to the soup. Add the cream slowly while whisking to temper it and reduce curdling.

Top with fresh basil and serve!