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
- Dutch Oven
- Liquid Measuring Cup
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!
Only change I made was to let the soup sit for ~30 min to let the flavors get to know each other a little more. It stayed super hot in a dutch oven even with the heat off. I got 6 large dinner-sized servings.
Making this today – I feel like this is one that will do well in the crock pot – though it’s fast on it’s own, I have it in there to be ready whenever folks are ready to eat later today.
Note that I have people (including myself) who despise the texture of cooked carrots, so I always grate them into soup recipes and that solves the problem. Otherwise, I generally left everything as is. I think an option I might include at some point for this would be a can of beans – I think either cannellini or chickpeas would go well in this.
I love this soup and make it on a regular basis. When I take it to work and reheat it everyone wants to know where they can get the recipe for the great smelling soup.
Made this today. Good! Maybe a little less exciting than other recipes from this site, but a solid weeknight meal.
Soooo good… I did do a few minor things differently but it turned out delicious! I used fresh spinach and fresh basil, tomato paste, a few tablespoons of brown sugar, and a touch of heavy cream drizzled on top prior to serving. I served on the swiss cheese as directed and paired it with crusty bread! I can’t wait to eat this all fall.
First recipe I ever made where I didn’t use salt and it came out perfectly seasoned! My partner even had seconds and he’s a real meat and potatoes guy! This is something I’ll be making forever!
The color of my soup turned out a really unappealing muddy brown (because red+green=brown!). But the taste was good, even better the next day! I used frozen spinach that needed more cooking time than the recipe called for. Next in line for my winter soup challenge will be the Golden Lentil Soup with Coconut Milk, I can’t wait!
Really good. I used fresh spinach, and added frozen corn, and a sweet potato and skipped the celery. Everyone in my family liked it. I thought garbanzos and frozen cauliflower might also be good, but not everyone in my family loves those. Thanks for a new favorite soup recipe.
Super yummy! If I ever make it again im going to add beans or chicken lol
I’m no cook but I was looking for a good throw together soup for lunch and this is it. Yes, also forgiving and versatile. FYI to the 1 star review, I find that the quality of the canned tomatoes make all the different in the world along with the quality of the seasonings. When I make salsa I always use Muir Glen and used it in this recipe. Love Pensky’s spices.
So good and so simple. Added a lb of ground turkey and it was amazing! I added the turkey to the pot first and cooked it a bit then followed the other instructions in the recipe. Used a mix of fresh spinach and kale and mozzarella cheese. I had it with a side of rice with avocado which was great!
Wao. Nice idea. Thanks for the tio
I love most recipes here, but I did not like this at all. It tasted like a big pot of canned tomatoes. There was no flavor to it. And, of course, I have tons of leftovers. I think I may add some meat and additional seasoning to it and serve it over pasta tomorrow. Seems like it would make a decent base for a bolgnese. I will not make this again.
Loved this! Made it as written, but threw in a can of rinsed chickpeas at the end for protein. Highly recommend!
Made it again with the chickpeas and used kale instead of spinach because it’s what I had. Excellent again!
This is a winner! I adore this recipe and my partner requests this soup regularly. The recipe is so forgiving – you can changes amounts, add different veggies and seasonings. I always use the instant pot (8 minutes for lightly cooked veggies, 11 minutes for soft veggies). Reminds flavors remind me of pizza!
Made this soup for my work lunches this week, and it turned out amazing!! I usually don’t really like soup for lunch because it never seems to fill me up, but this is hearty enough that I wasn’t hungry 10 minutes later. Will definitely be making this again!
I did switch out the frozen spinach for fresh (about 1/2-3/4 of a bag, chopped) and fresh mozza for the swiss, both worked great!