This creamy vegan tomato soup gets its texture from homemade cashew cream and its rich flavor from roasted tomatoes, red pepper, onions and garlic. It also makes use of gorgeous fresh tomatoes – not sure about you, but we have SO many in our garden right now! The perfect dish for a rainy late summer/early fall day. (P.S. – best served with vegan grilled cheese!)
How to make vegan cashew cream: the base for creamy tomato soup
The base for super creamy vegan tomato soup is cashew cream. This signature vegan sauce is a surprisingly easy, but truly delicious, hack for vegan cooking. It’s just four ingredients, including water and salt. But it adds unbelievable richness to dishes like this vegan tomato soup, and more. On its own, it’s even a wonderful savory dip for veggies or crackers.
Furthermore, cashew cream works in both savory and sweet recipes. We love using soaked cashews as a base for creamy vegan ice cream too. The only thing to remember before you get cooking this soup is that the cashews should soak for at least a couple of hours. You can leave them to soak for even longer in the fridge, if you want to set things up the night before.
After soaking, the raw cashews are nice and soft. They blend easily into a light, whipped sauce that’s hard to believe is dairy-free.
How to make vegan tomato soup in the oven
Yep, you read that right. For the most part, this easy vegan soup comes together in your oven. In fact, this recipe doesn’t need any stock pots or pans. And if you’re enjoying this hearty soup right away, you can leave your stove off altogether. Otherwise, you might just want it to reheat leftovers 🙂
We love that this creamy tomato soup requires just two baking sheets. You’ll toss your roma tomatoes on the first one. We’re growing romas in our garden this year, and love how well they roast up without releasing too much water.
On a second baking sheet, you’ll roast red bell pepper, onion and garlic. Then, get ready for a mouth-watering smell to fill your house. Finally, all that’s left is to toss all of your roast vegetable goodness into a blender, and blend away!
How to season roasted tomato soup perfectly
While cooking this roasted tomato soup, we like to season as we go. That means using a healthy drizzle of olive oil over all the veggies before roasting, along with a sprinkle of salt. We also pile plenty of chopped fresh herbs over the roasting veggies. These melt into the veggies while roasting, building flavor you’ll love in the finished product.
The second layer of flavoring comes during the blending phase of this recipe. After blending all the herbed roasted veggies together, be sure to taste the soup. Blending really enhances the flavor of the veggies, so you want to taste before adding more salt.
If you’d like to season more, we recommend adding a pinch of salt and a few cracks of pepper and letting the soup sit in the blender for five minutes. This gives the veggies and cashew cream time to absorb those seasonings. Then, taste again and repeat if necessary, until you’ve seasoned the soup to your desired taste. If you don’t let it sit, you might end up over-salting!
A match made in heaven: Creamy vegan tomato soup & vegan grilled cheese
Once your soup is roasted and blended, there’s only one thing left to do. Make a quick grilled cheese, of course! This step is so simple, you probably don’t need a recipe. Just grab your favorite sandwich bread (gluten free if necessary, and we love Canyon Gluten Free in that case). Add your favorite vegan cheese (may we recommend Chao slices or Miyoko’s vegan mozzarella?), and get grilling!
There is one secret you may not know when it comes to making melty vegan grilled cheese sandwiches: add a bit of water to your pan during grilling. You’ll start by browning both sides of the sandwich on a hot pan with a bit of vegan butter or oil. Then, after flipping and browning both sides, add about a tablespoon of water to the pan. Cover with a lid and let the sandwich steam for a couple of minutes. This will help the vegan cheese melt into a delicious, gooey grilled cheese.
If you want to really step up your grilled cheese game, you could always whip out a few extra ingredients and make this vegan caprese grilled cheese! It would go wonderfully with creamy tomato soup.
For serving, since we can’t get enough cashew cream, we stirred a swirl of the creamy stuff on top of each bowl of soup. We also topped our bowls with a sprinkle of more fresh herbs, and of course, a heavy dip with our grilled cheese.
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This creamy vegan tomato soup gets its texture from homemade cashew cream and it’s rich flavor from roasted tomatoes, red pepper, onions and garlic.
Ingredients
For Cashew Cream:
- 1 cup raw cashews
- 1 cup water
- 1 tsp lemon juice
- 1/2 tsp agave syrup
- 1/4 tsp salt
For Creamy Tomato Soup:
- 4 lbs roma tomatoes, cut in half lengthwise
- 1 red pepper, quartered
- 1 medium yellow onion, sliced thinly
- 3–4 garlic cloves, unpeeled
- 1/3 cup olive oil
- 2 tbsp fresh basil, chopped and divided
- 2 tbsp fresh oregano, chopped and divided
- 2 tbsp fresh thyme, chopped and divided
- 2 tbsp tomato paste
- 2 tbsp red wine vinegar
- 1/2 tbsp coconut sugar
- Salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- To make the cashew cream, soak cashews for 2-3 hours. Drain and blend with one cup of water, lemon juice, agave, and salt until creamy.
- Preheat oven to 400F. Place tomatoes seed side up on parchment-covered baking sheet. On a second parchment-covered baking sheet, place red pepper, onion, and unpeeled garlic cloves. Drizzle olive oil over the vegetables. Use a basting brush coat the veggies well with olive oil. Sprinkle with salt and cracked black pepper. Sprinkle half of the chopped herbs over the veggies for roasting. Roast for 30-35 minutes, stirring onions 2-3 times during roasting.
- After roasting, peel the garlic. Add the roasted tomatoes, pepper, onion, and garlic to a high-speed blender. Add the remaining herbs, tomato paste, red wine vinegar, coconut sugar, and 1 cup of cashew cream and blend until smooth and creamy. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Let the soup rest for 5 minutes to allow the salt to absorb fully. Taste and repeat until you’re satisfied with the seasoning.
Keywords: creamy vegan tomato soup
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