I don’t know if I’ve told you, but I’m a little bit of a tomato soup fanatic. I’ve made several tomato soup recipes for Budget Bytes over the past ten years, but this week I tried something a little different. This Secret Ingredient tomato soup has not one, but two secret ingredients that make it ultra rich, without using any dairy, or animal products at all, in fact. This super luscious, warm and comforting, thick and delicious Secret Ingredient Tomato Soup is 100% vegan.
Shown garnished with Easy Baked Homemade Croutons and fresh tyme.
What are the Secret Ingredients??
After the success of my Easy Rosemary Garlic White Bean Soup, which uses puréed cannellini beans to thicken and make the soup extra creamy, I wondered how puréed beans would work in other soups. The cannellini beans did a great job giving this tomato soup body and richness, without having to use butter or cream.
The second secret ingredient is nutritional yeast. If you’ve never had nutritional yeast before, it’s a flakey dehydrated powder that has a slightly nutty or cheesy flavor (it also happens to be high in B vitamins!). The slight cheesy flavor of the nutritional yeast was the final magic touch that took the flavor of this soup over the top. The flavor is super subtle, but rounds out the base notes to keep the flavor deep and rich.
Can I Use a Different Type of Bean?
While I haven’t tried other varieties, I will say that cannellini are particularly smooth and creamy. I wouldn’t expect other beans to give quite as good results.
Can I Freeze This Tomato Soup?
Yes, this tomato soup should freeze beautifully. Just as a reminder, make sure to cool the soup completely in the refrigerator before transferring to the freezer. It’s always a good idea to divide the soup into smaller portions for faster cooling.
Secret Ingredient Tomato Soup
Servings 4 1.25 cups eachIngredients
- 2 Tbsp olive oil ($0.32)
- 1 clove garlic, minced ($0.08)
- 1/2 tsp dried oregano ($0.05)
- 1/2 tsp dried basil ($0.05)
- 1/4 tsp dried thyme ($0.03)
- 1/4 tsp dried rosemary ($0.03)
- 1 pinch crushed red pepper ($0.02)
- freshly cracked black pepper ($0.02)
- 3 oz. tomato paste ($0.27)
- 1 Tbsp brown sugar ($0.04)
- 1 28oz. can crushed tomatoes ($0.89)
- 2 cups vegetable broth ($0.26)
- 1 15oz. can cannellini beans ($0.49)
- 1 Tbsp nutritional yeast ($0.06)
- 1/4 tsp salt, or to taste ($0.01)
Instructions
- Add the olive oil, minced garlic, oregano, basil, thyme, rosemary, crushed red pepper, and some freshly cracked black pepper (about 10 cranks of a pepper mill) to a soup pot. Cook and stir the herbs and oil over medium heat for about one minute, or until the garlic is soft and fragrant.
- Add the tomato paste and brown sugar. Continue to stir and cook the tomato paste mixture over medium heat for 2-3 minutes.
- Pour the crushed tomatoes and vegetable broth into the pot and stir to combine. As the soup begins to heat through, add a can of cannellini beans (with the liquid from the can) to a blender and purée until completely smooth. Pour the pouréed beans into the soup and stir to combine again.
- Place a lid on the pot and allow it to come up to a simmer. Once simmering, turn the heat down to medium low and let it simmer, stirring occasionally, for 20 minutes.
- After simmering for 20 minutes, add the nutritional yeast and stir to combine. Taste the soup and add salt to taste (about 1/4 tsp). Serve hot.
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Nutrition
Scroll down for the step by step photos!
How to Make Secret Ingredient Tomato Soup – Step by Step Photos
Start by adding 2 Tbsp olive oil, 1 clove of garlic (minced), 1/2 tsp dried oregano, 1/2 tsp dried basil, 1/4 tsp dried thyme, 1/4 tsp dried rosemary, a pinch of crushed red pepper, and some freshly cracked black pepper to a pot. Cook and stir over medium heat for about one minute, or just until it begins to sizzle and the garlic becomes fragrant.
Next, add 3 oz. tomato paste (just eyeball 1/2 of a 6 oz. can, or about 5 Tbsp) and 1 Tbsp brown sugar to the soup pot with the oil and herbs. Continue to cook and stir for 2-3 more minutes.
The tomato paste and oil mixture looks weird, and won’t really mix together, but don’t worry, you’re doing it right.
After cooking the tomato paste for a few minutes, add 1 28 oz. can of crushed tomatoes and two cups of vegetable broth. Stir to combine and let it begin to heat through, still over medium heat.
Pour one 15 oz. can of cannellini beans, with the liquid in the can, into a blender and purée until completely smooth.
Pour the puréed cannellini beans into the pot with the tomato soup and stir to combine. Place a lid on the pot, and allow it to come up to a simmer. Once simmering, turn the heat down to medium-low, and let it simmer for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.
After simmering for 20 minutes, add 1 Tbsp nutritional yeast and stir to combine. Taste the soup and add salt to your liking (I added 1/4 tsp). You can also add more nutritional yeast for extra cheesy goodness, if you like!
It’s sooooo rich and delicious!!
Delicious and easy! I used a can of “great northern beans” and it turned out just fine.
Pro tip: Freeze the remaining tomato paste in 1 tbsp portions! Put it in dollops on a piece of parchment paper. Once it’s frozen, transfer it to a bag or container for longer term storage. Mine lasts about 3 months that way and then it’s real easy to just grab however many tbsp I need and plop them into a soup or sauce.
I used butter beans for this and it worked great. I blended the beans right in the can with an immersion blender. (You may need to pour off a bit of liquid if the can is too full to put the immersion blender stick in it without overflowing.) I’ll probably use great northern beans next time and I think it will work fine. This is a great recipe to use up a random can of white beans.
This was DIVINE! I didn’t have yeast so used parmesan cheese but otherwise followed it exactly. So healthy, inexpensive and tasty! WOW! Thank you SO much for the step by step instructions with measurements. It’s a huge pain to have to scroll up and down while trying a new recipe. You’re my HERO! I’m shopped to try a new recipe of yours every day this week. I cannot wait for the next one!
Do you think it would work to add the beans to the pot whole, then puree the entire soup with a stick blender? Trying to make this in a camper van without a full blender!
Fantastic! We have been trying to eat more plant based and this is great option. We enjoy the creaminess without the cream. Yum.
Soup was just “ok” in our minds. Prepared exactly to published specs, it was too “spaghetti sauce” like to be a “soup”, although the pureed beans were the saving grace. This probably could be improved by eliminating the tomato paste. Too heavy. Edible, and tasty enough, but nowhere near the top of my list of tomato soups.