This Roasted Grape Tomato Cream Soup is more robust in flavor than in calories. With deep flavors like rosemary and balsamic vinegar, this soup with be your next grill cheese’s best friend!
Sometimes the best things come in small packages: an engagement ring (if it’s from someone you like), gift cards, toddlers (because they’re just the cutest…unless there’s snot on their face), love notes, and grape tomatoes.
Yep, I said grape tomatoes. They’re so much better than their bigger vine ripened or steak tomato cousins that are undoubtedly beautiful but much less flavorful.
Don’t get me wrong, nothing beats a plump and juicy steak tomato on a beefy burger or a cold vine ripened tomato on a pesto turkey sandwich, but for salads and snacking, it’s grape or cherry tomatoes all the way! Those little tomatoes pack some major flavor in their tiny bodies. Kinda like how I pack a whole lot of attitude in my petite frame. Just ask Ben; he’ll concur.
So when I bought a honkin’ sized container of grape tomatoes from Costco the other day, and only half the container was gone by the time everyone got sick of snacking on them, I figured, “Why not make tomato soup?!”
If grape tomatoes are so much more flavorful than larger tomatoes, this soup has got to be great, right?!
RIGHT!
This Roasted Grape Tomato Cream Soup is spectacular! It is so robust and tangy and creamy and earthy. It’s just plain lovely.
What makes this soup even more amazing is roasting those juicy grape tomatoes in olive oil and balsamic vinegar before pureeing them into a soupful bliss. The vinegar reduces to become almost a tangy caramel that gets blended in with all that roasted tomato juice.
Adding a bit of coconut sugar or dark brown sugar will also cut the tang from the tomatoes and balsamic vinegar while still keeping that almost burnt sweetness. Delicious!
This soup is wonderful even before you add the half and half, so if you are looking for a lighter or dairy free option just omit the half and half and add a little extra water to achieve your preferred consistency. But if you don’t mind a little extra richness, like me, pour on baby!
The other thing I love about making soups lately is that you can prep dinner ahead of time and leave the soup warm in the crock pot all day. It’s such a relief, physically and mentally, to come home from an evening gymnastics practice or dance rehearsal and have dinner already made.
Throw together a salad and add some chips, crackers, croutons, or gluten free toast to your soup and tummies will be happy and full. That’s a dinner winner in my book!
Plus, what kid can live without a classic tomato soup?! Since most the canned tomato soups in the grocery store contain wheat starch, and I try to cook from scratch most of the time anyway, Braelyn doesn’t get many nights where she can eat a comforting combo of tomato soup and grilled cheese. Talk about deprived! Those were my favorite nights as a picky kid.
But deprived no more! This recipe really will fulfill all your tomato soup fantasies and leave you pushing straight past the canned soup aisle without a stitch of Campbell’s regret or resentment. Who needs those cans anyway?!
What do you like to eat with your tomato soup?
- 2 cups grape tomatoes
- 2 garlic cloves, peeled and cut in half
- 1 large red bell pepper, seeded and roughly chopped
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 2½ teaspoons balsamic vinegar, divided
- 1 teaspoon salt, divided
- ¼ teaspoon pepper, plus more for seasoning
- ½ teaspoon dried rosemary
- ¾ teaspoon onion powder
- ¼ teaspoon paprika
- dash of cayenne
- 1½ tablespoons coconut sugar
- ½ cup half and half
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line a cooking tray with aluminum foil and spray with cooking spray.
- Scatter tomatoes, garlic cloves and bell pepper on baking sheet. Drizzle with 1 tablespoon olive oil and 1 tablespoon of balsamic vinegar. Season with about ¼ teaspoon salt and a few shakes of pepper. Using your hands, mix veggies around to coat all with oil, vinegar, and seasonings.
- Roast veggies for 25 minutes or until tomatoes are soft and peppers are tender.
- Transfer cooked veggies, along with as many juices from the pan as you can get, into a blender. Add ¼ teaspoon pepper, rosemary, ¾ teaspoon remaining salt, onion powder, paprika, dash of cayenne, 1½ teaspoons balsamic vinegar, and 1½ tablespoons coconut sugar.
- Puree mixture until completely smooth.
- Transfer mixture to a pot. Slowly stir in half and half. Bring heat on stove top to medium. Heat the soup through and serve hot.
