I absolutely love ordering Tomato Bisque when out at restaurants and was pleasantly surprised at how tasty the outcome can be at home too. We are at the very tail end of tomato season here in N.C. (thanks to the warm fall weather we’ve been having) so we
did use fresh tomatoes, but this recipe can easily be made with canned tomatoes as well. I should also mention that my kids (who are not even tomato fans other than spaghetti and pizza sauce) loved this dish! They even asked for seconds. So enjoy and don’t forget to freeze the leftovers.
Tomato Bisque
Serves: 6 – 8
Ingredients
- 4 tablespoons butter (we used unsalted)
- 1 onion, diced
- 2 slices bacon, proscuitto, or ham, minced
- 4 cloves garlic
- 5 tablespoons whole-wheat flour
- 5 cups chicken broth/stock
- 1 28-ounce can of whole, peeled tomatoes (with liquid) or about 5 – 6 medium-sized fresh tomatoes that have been boiled for 1 minute and then peeled…either way they need to be roughly chopped before using
- 3 parsley sprigs
- 3 fresh thyme sprigs
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 cup heavy cream (or less if desired)
- 1 teaspoon salt (or more if you are using unsalted homemade broth)
- Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Instructions
- Heat the butter in a large soup pot over medium-high heat. Add the diced onion and cook for about 5 – 6 minutes or until it starts to get soft.
- Add the bacon (or other meat) and the garlic and stir for another minute or two or until the meat gets crisp.
- Add the flour and stir vigorously for 2 – 3 minutes.
- Pour in the broth and tomatoes and bring to a boil while whisking constantly.
- Throw in the herbs and simmer on low heat for 30 minutes.
- Remove the herbs and puree the soup either in a blender (in batches) or with a handheld immersion blender (if you like to make soups this is a great tool to have by the way!)
- Stir in the desired amount of heavy cream and salt & pepper to taste. Serve warm.
Is the bacon necessary? As my daughter & I don’t ham/bacon Also, can I sub chicken broth for veggie?
Hi Jaimie. Yes, I think you should be able to substitute the broth. As for the bacon, you can leave it out, it will just alter the taste slightly. Hope you enjoy it. Jill
Hello, made the homemade veggie spaghetti sauce last night! My picky husband loved it!! It taste so fresh! One question, for the soup recipe, when using 3 sprigs of parsley do I include the stems as well or remove parsley leaves off of 3 sprigs? thanks, sandra
Hi Sandra. Glad you all enjoyed the spaghetti sauce. I always remove the parsley leaves and use only those. Jill
I always include the stems — they are full of flavour! SInce it is blended anyway – save teh pretty leaves for garnish.
Fantastic recipe. I doubled it for freezing,added basil and a little tomato paste , and cut down on the creme. Ill add more in when serving, just to freshen it up! Thanks for sharing !!!
[...] Tomato Bisque Soup [...]
Do you have to use heavy cream or would whole milk work? Want to make this tomorrow but I don’t have heavy cream on hand.
Hi Allison. You could try and substitute the whole milk, I just think the end product won’t be quite as thick and creamy, but, it could still work. Jill
What are the calories per serving?
Hi Susan. We do not track the nutritional information. Here is a little more information that might help you…http://www.100daysofrealfood.com/2011/04/29/mini-pledge-week-8-stop-eating-when-you-feel-full/. Jill
I have Celiac Disease and can not use whole wheat flour. Can I substitute gluten free flower or can I use corn starch instead?
Hi, Tara — I made this soup over the weekend with corn starch and it turned out just fine. Instead of the 5 tablespoons of flour, I used 2.5 tablespoons of corn starch. I didn’t add it right to the pot, I dissolved it in some of the juice from the canned tomatoes, first, then added that slurry mix to the pot, stirred as directed, and then added the rest of the liquids. Turned out great without any big clumps. Good luck!
Hi Tara. I would use arrowroot powder instead. Jill
I loved this recipe — a big hit in our house this weekend. It was easy enough to make gluten-free, too. Instead of the flour I used a slurry of 2.5 tbsp of corn starch in some of the tomato juice. This will be a staple in our house! Thank you.
Could I used Diced tomoatoes instead of whole?
Hi Lesley. It might change the texture a bit but give it a try. Let us know how it turns out! ~Amy
I made this the other day – so good I thought I’d gone to heaven!!! Thank you for a fantastic recipe!!
I made this tonight and everyone, including my husband, loved it! I’ve always said that bacon makes everything better and it sure did for this recipe. Thank you for sharing it:)
Made this last night and it was so good. Not the best for my low fat diet, but was so worth it since we had 6 inches of snow last night. I used all dried spices and it was still very flavorful. My husband and I, my 16mo old daughter, a 4yr old, and 10yr old all ate it up. (Nice to pair with grilled cheese, too)
I just made this recipe, and it is delicious! I would like to add a warning, though, for people like me who haven’t put soup in a blender before. Do not fill the blender all the way up, even if you normally do with cold items! Apparently the heat makes the food act differently (fairly obvious, I know, but I wasn’t thinking.) My blender lid blew off, even though I was holding it down, and the hot soup splashed all over me. My wrist is burned from where I was holding the lid. I don’t consider this to be anyone’s fault but mine. I just want to prevent others from making the same mistake. Once I only filled the blender halfway up, it worked perfectly. Thanks again for a great recipe!
I just made this and it is absolutely delicious! I am vegetarian, so I substituted the chicken broth with Organic Veg Broth, and the heavy cream with a splash of Coconut milk. I wasn’t sure how it would turn out, or if the texture would be too watery, and it was A-mazing. I wish I had doubled the amount for freezing portions. It was that good… Thanks for the recipe!
Phenomenal flavor! I used canned tomatoes and worried it wouldn’t be as good, but it was delicious. My family gobbled it up. I have a question about the consistency though. I’m assuming the flour is in the recipe to thicken the soup. I followed the recipe exactly (apart from omitting the bacon) and found that when I pureed the soup with an immersion blender, it brought it back to a very thin consistency … almost brothy. The cream thickened it a tad, but not much. I’m wondering if I did something wrong … Thanks so much!!