Tomato Bisque Recipe

Article by Alice K. Thompson

Tomato bisque is creamier than standard tomato soup, and our version has flavor secrets that make it anything but average — with plenty of five-star reviews to prove it. Our easy recipe starts by cooking just a little bacon in your soup pot, then layering in onion, carrot, celery and garlic for a flavorful base. Our test kitchen recommends canned tomatoes for the perfect balance of convenience and deep tomato-y flavor, making this a year-round favorite. Add cream for silky richness and you have a perfectly comforting, elegant bowl of soup.

How to Make Tomato Bisque Like a Pro

A few simple tips and techniques guarantee you an irresistible soup. Here’s what our expert recipe developers want you to know.

Use whole canned tomatoes for consistent flavor. When it comes to canned tomatoes, our recipe developers agree that whole peeled tomatoes offer the best overall quality. Be sure to add them to the soup with all their tasty liquid.

A mirepoix adds depth. The classic combination of diced onion, carrot and celery, known as mirepoix, is slowly cooked in butter to sweeten and deepen the base of this soup. The idea is to develop and intensify the vegetables’ flavors without caramelizing them, so do this step with the lid on since trapping steam discourages browning.

Cool before blending — or use an immersion blender. When blended, hot liquids can create so much pressure in the carafe that the lid can blow off, spattering soup over you and your kitchen. Be safe and cool the soup first, or opt for an immersion blender (aka stick blender), a handy appliance for blending soups right in the pot.

Strain for a silky texture. After blending, pouring the soup through a fine-mesh sieve helps give the soup the perfect smoothness bisques are famous for.

How to spice up tomato soup. To some diners, no comfort food is perfect without a hit of spice. If you fall into this camp, try adding a three-finger pinch of red pepper flakes with the tomatoes or a generous amount of your favorite hot sauce. Or simply stir in cayenne to taste when you season with the salt and pepper.

Make it vegetarian or vegan. Leaving out the bacon will still give you a flavorful, deeply satisfying soup; just skip the step of cooking the bacon entirely and use vegetable broth and you’ll have a fabulous vegetarian soup. For a vegan version, replace the butter with olive or canola oil and the cream with a plant-based cream substitute or coconut milk.

What to Serve with Tomato Soup

• Grilled cheese is the most famous comfort-food pairing for tomato soup, and a bisque-and-sandwich combo is a next-level indulgence.

• You can also play up bisque’s French roots by pairing it with quiche or savory crepes for everything from brunch to lunch to a weeknight dinner.

• Go light with any number of soup and salad pairings, from Caesar salad to chopped salads to simple greens tossed with tangy vinaigrette.

• Or just add store-bought or homemade bread or rolls, choosing crusty or chewy ones to best complement the soup’s silky texture.

Tomato Bisque vs Tomato Soup

The term “bisque” is French in origin and traditionally meant a shellfish soup in which shells were actually blended in to help thicken it. Today the term is broadly applied to many smooth, creamy soups: Tomato bisque, butternut bisque or mushroom bisque are all popular, no shells required. What a bisque does need is creaminess: Without cream it’s tomato soup, and with cream it’s tomato bisque — a term that’s also interchangeable with cream of tomato soup.