Despite its “swampy” appearance, this soup is simply one of the best things I’ve ever eaten. If you like tomato soup, you’ll adore Swamp Soup. It’s like tomato soup on steroids and with a grilled cheese built right in. The broth is incredibly thick and hearty, it’s full of tons of vegetables that add texture and flavor, and let’s not forget those creamy, gooey bits of swiss cheese in every other bite. It’s TO DIE FOR.
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Soup-er Fast, Soup-er Good.
My favorite thing about this soup is that it’s incredibly fast and easy. It’s ready to eat as soon as it’s heated through, although you can always let it simmer a bit longer, if you want. And if you have some chopped carrots and celery stashed in your freezer (scroll down to the step by step photos if you’re wondering why you’d ever have that in your freezer), it goes even faster!
How to Serve Swamp Soup
As mentioned above, this soup has melty chunks of Swiss cheese floating around in every bowl. While you can add the Swiss cheese to the whole pot, if you don’t plan to serve it all in one sitting, I suggest adding the cheese to each bowl just before serving (after reheating). You’ll probably also want some sort of cracker or crusty bread for dipping!
Can I freeze it?
Yes indeed! This soup is great for stocking your freezer. After cooking, divide your soup into single servings, cool it completely in the refrigerator over night, then transfer to the freezer the next day. You can freeze in quart-sized freezer bags or any freezer-safe meal prep container.
Substitutes for Swiss Cheese
I love the subtle flavor of Swiss with this soup, but if Swiss isn’t your jam you can use mozzarella instead. Mozzarella melts in a similar way to Swiss, so you’ll get the same effect in the soup. Plus, mozzarella also goes great with tomato. If you don’t care about the melty aspect, a little crumbled feta would also be amazing sprinkled onto every bowl.
Love tomato soup? Check out my Secret Ingredient Tomato Soup, too!
Swamp Soup
Servings 8 about 1.25 cups eachIngredients
- 3 cloves garlic ($0.24)
- 1 yellow onion ($0.32)
- 1/2 lb. carrots (about 4 medium) ($0.30)
- 3 ribs celery ($0.46)
- 2 Tbsp olive oil ($0.32)
- 1 Tbsp dried basil ($0.30)
- 1 Tbsp dried oregano ($0.30)
- 3 8oz. cans tomato sauce ($0.75)
- 3 15oz. cans diced tomatoes ($1.35)
- 1.5 cups vegetable broth ($0.20)
- 1 10oz. pkg frozen chopped spinach ($0.99)
- 8 oz. Swiss cheese ($1.69)
Instructions
- Mince the garlic, dice the onion, peel and slice the carrots, and slice the celery. Add the onion, garlic, carrots, and celery to a large soup pot with the olive oil and sauté over medium heat for about five minutes, or until the onions are soft.
- Add the tomato sauce, diced tomatoes (with juices), vegetable broth, basil, and oregano to the pot. Stir to combine, then allow the soup to come to a simmer.
- Once the soup is simmering, add the frozen spinach (no need to thaw). Stir the spinach into the hot soup until it has melted and heated through.
- Once the spinach is thoroughly mixed into the soup, give the soup a taste and add salt if needed. I did not add any, but this will ultimately depend on the sodium content of your canned goods and vegetable broth.
- Dice the swiss cheese into small cubes. Add a small handful of cubes to each bowl, then ladle the hot soup over top. Serve and enjoy!
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Equipment
Nutrition
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Scroll down for the step by step photos!
How to Make Swamp Soup – Step By Step Photos
Dice one yellow onion, peel and slice 1/2 lb. carrots (about four carrots), slice three ribs celery, and mince 3 cloves of garlic. Add the onion, carrots, celery, and garlic to a large soup pot with 2 Tbsp olive oil.
Since most of my soups begin with 1/2 lb. chopped carrot and 3-4 ribs of celery, I just go ahead and chop up the rest of my carrots and the bunch of celery, and freeze it for the next time I make a soup. That way I don’t have to do as much chopping later. I just dump the bag of frozen veggies into my soup pot and go!
Sauté the onion, carrots, celery, and garlic over medium for about five minutes, or until the onions are soft.
Next, add three 8 oz. cans of tomato sauce, three 15 oz. cans of diced tomatoes (with juices), 1 Tbsp dried basil, 1 Tbsp dried oregano, and 1.5 cups vegetable broth to the pot. Stir to combine, then allow the soup to come up to a simmer.
Once the soup comes up to a simmer, add a 10 oz. block of frozen chopped spinach (no need to thaw). You can use frozen bagged spinach, too, just estimate about 10 oz. Stir the spinach into the soup until it thaws and heats through.
Once the soup is heated through, give it a taste and add salt if needed. Mine did not need any additional salt, but that will depend on your taste buds and the salt content of your canned goods and vegetable broth.
Chop an 8 oz. block of Swiss cheese into small cubes. If you’re going to serve the entire pot of soup at one sitting, go ahead and stir the cubes of cheese into the soup pot (with the heat turned off). The residual heat will melt the cubes. If you’re going to be eating one or two bowls at a time, add the cheese cubes to each bowl, then ladle the hot soup over top.
Sooooo gooey and good!
This soup was so good! I regret not making it for the crowd I was feeding on Thursday.
I make this every year in honor of the season premier of Swamp People! My husband loves it!
This is a “clear the fridge” soup for me. Most veggies I have around at any given time work very well with it, like potatoes, red bell peppers, kale instead of spinach, beans, or zucchini (which is one of our favorites).. Also leftover cooked pasta, cooked chicken, various kinds of cheese, just whatever needs to be used. I make it regularly, and it’s always diiferent and always good.
This looks fantastic! I have some celery and carrots that have seen better days but would be great in soup.
Can this be made in an Instant Pot or Slowcooker. I want to share it at work. If not is it ok to transfer to a Crock-Pot to keep it warm?
the soup is great! As a native Floridian, I laughed out loud at the disclaimer. go gators!
Hi Beth,
I love your soup recipes ! A few weeks back , we had garden vegetable soup with barley at work and it was pretty good. So, I am trying to find a tomato based vegetarian soup recipe that would go along well with barley. I think this would do well , any thoughts?
Thanks!
I bet this Garden Vegetable Quinoa Soup would be good with barley in place of the quinoa! Or my Chunky Lentil and Vegetable Soup. Either barley with the lentils or in place of the lentils. :)
This is a really great soup. This made enough for my family to have once and freeze half. Tonight we ate from our frozen portion. I added extra chicken broth and it tasted great. A little too much tomato flavor without this. I really enjoy this soup but my meat and potatoes family say it is not a favorite. Your recipes are great and I am determined to get them eating vegetables!
DH and I adored this recipe as is–we paired it with some garlic toast–but there’s no reason you couldn’t add some browned crumbled hamburger meat or Italian sausage, even left over chicken. I personally think a can of drained and rinsed garbanzos would be good, too.
Thanks to Beth for another winter winner
This is one of my favorite of your older recipes! Tonite I changed it up a bit because I had frozen kale and Monterey Jack on hand. It turned out awesome.
Can this be made in the instant pot?
I want to try this soup… was wondering if I could put Italian sausage in with it and would it go ok with a meat added in?
Yes, I think Italian sausage would go well with this soup. :)
WOW!!!!! The Swamp Soup is so freaking delicious!!! It’s very filling and healthy. I’ll make this soup again later. Thank you, Beth!!!! :-)
Delicious and super quick
Dude, this soup is on POINT! Beth, your recipes are fantastic, but your soups are superstars! This is the second soup I’ve made off your blog and I’m so impressed. I tended to back away from homemade soups in the past since they were usually watery and bland. Not yours!
This is another one of your older recipes that i always come back to! I’ve started making this soup with extra spinach, and using fire roasted tomatoes with chiles for at least one of the diced tomato cans. Also – gouda cheese, as well as mozzarella work great as the “cheese” portion! Thanks so much for the continued cooking inspiration!