Simply the best way to make roasted cherry tomato soup, this tastes like summer in a bowl! My recipe has a smooth, creamy texture with a sweet tomato basil flavor, and is incredibly easy to make.
Making the perfect cherry tomato soup was my first mission for the 2025 summer season, and I believe this recipe nails it! You can make it with cherry tomatoes, grape (baby plum) tomatoes or baby heirlooms. Any tomato that is on the smaller side is welcome here.
How to Make Cherry Tomato Soup with a Smooth Texture
Cherry tomatoes are an absolute favorite ingredient around here but for soup? They’re not the obvious choice, because usually for soup and sauce making we want tomatoes with more flesh to them, to give us a fuller texture. And tomatoes that can be easily peeled and deseeded, like in my heirloom tomato soup recipe, will give us the smoothest finish. This presents us with some challenges. Usually if I cook with cherry tomatoes, I lean into the chunky (like with my cherry tomato spaghetti sauce) but this time I needed to get a legit soupy texture outta them.
I tried this a few ways and ultimately landed on the perfect solution: bringing in a little bit of sweet potato. Because sweet potato does have the most perfect texture for soup (try my sweet potato soup if you need evidence of this). It is just naturally so creamy, full bodied and super smooth when blended. So we use enough for the soup to benefit from that enhancement, but not enough that it competes with the tomato flavor. Another benefit is that the soup tastes legit creamy with no cream at all!
That said, we still have to put the time into blending it! I stand there with my immersion blender for a good long time. But because the sweet potato gives us such a solid base, there is a little more room for error.
Ingredient Swaps & Variations
- If you don’t have any fresh basil, try swirling in a little premade pesto at the end. Or just leave it out entirely – it’s still delicious without any.
- If you don’t want to use the sweet potato, or just don’t have any, make the soup without it but add in some heavy / double cream or even mascarpone to help get a rich, creamy finish.
- You can use pecorino, parmesan or any Italian hard cheese (look for something without animal rennet if you need the soup to be suitable for vegetarians!). I used a vegetarian friendly pecorino, which is very salty and strong, so I only used 1/2 a cup. If you have a less strong cheese you may want to increase the amount.
- You can replace the shallot with brown or white onion, no problem.
- I haven’t included any sugar in this recipe, but you may wish to add a teaspoon of sugar if your tomatoes aren’t perfectly sweet to avoid the soup from tasting too acidic or tart.
- Feel free to add some extra veggies to the soup, such as celery or carrot or pepper. I never do this myself because I like to preserve the tomato flavor but your soup is your own to experiment with!
Perfect pairings for your cherry tomato soup
- Some fresh bread or rolls are all you really need, but this Hot Honey Mushroom Grilled Cheese would be pretty epic for dipping.
- If soup and salad is more your thing, this Sweet Pepper, Chickpea & Mozzarella Salad would be a lovely simple summery accompaniment, or this Vegetarian Italian Salad with Crispy Chickpeas if you’re in more of an “extra” kind of mood.
- To add some extra protein, consider halloumi croutons! Just fry up some cubed halloumi and add them to the top of the soup.
Roasted Cherry Tomato Soup
Ingredients
- 2 lbs (900 g) cherry tomatoes
- 5 tbsp olive oil, for roasting – plus a little more for sauteeing
- 2 shallots, sliced
- 6 cloves garlic, peeled but left whole
- 2 tsps Italian seasoning
- 1 tbsp tomato paste
- ½ tsp balsamic vinegar
- ½ cup (80 g) cubed sweet potato, the cubes should be around the same size as a cherry tomato
- 2 cups (475 ml) vegetable stock
- ½ cup (50 g) parmesan, pecorino or Italian hard cheese, plus more for topping
- 1 handful basil
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 390F / 200F / 180F Fan.
- In a large, deep roasting tin, add the cherry tomatoes, sweet potatoes and whole garlic cloves and toss with the olive oil. Add salt and pepper to taste. Place in the oven for 30 minutes.2 lbs cherry tomatoes, 6 cloves garlic, 1/2 cup cubed sweet potato, 5 tbsp olive oil
- Meanwhile, grab a medium or large soup pan. Saute the shallots in olive oil or butter until soft, then add the Italian seasoning and tomato paste. Saute for another moment or two to bring out the flavor of the tomato paste. Add extra oil if you need to. If it starts to stick, a splash of wine or stock will help loosen it up. Set aside until the tomatoes are finished roasting.2 shallots, 2 tsps Italian seasoning, 1 tbsp tomato paste
- The tomatoes are ready once they are bursting and a little browned. The sweet potatoes and garlic should be soft.
- Pour the roasted tomatoes, garlic and sweet potato into your soup pan. Make sure to pour every last bit of the roasting juices out too! (If you're going to be using a jug blender rather than an immersion blender, see the notes section because the next few steps will be different for you)
- Turn the heat back on, add vegetable stock and balsamic vinegar to the pan, and simmer for 10-15 minutes (if you have time – you can get straight to pureeing if you need to).2 cups vegetable stock, 1/2 tsp balsamic vinegar
- Puree the soup with an immersion blender until it is smooth. It can take a little time. I consider it done once I stop seeing little pieces of skin in the soup.
- Stir the cheese though until it's melted and then add the basil and pulse until the basil is chopped up but still in visible pieces.1/2 cup parmesan, pecorino or Italian hard cheese, 1 handful basil
- Serve with additional cheese and basil for topping if you wish.(Other topping ideas: a swirl of cream, pesto or some croutons!)
