20-Minute Tomato Bisque Recipe

If you want the taste of a homemade tomato bisque, but don't have a ton of time, this recipe is for you. Recipe developer and health coach Miriam Hahn brings us this recipe for 20-minute tomato bisque. That's right! In only 20 minutes, you will have homemade creamy tomato bisque on your stovetop. No need to succumb to store bought tomato soups. Let's face it — homemade always tastes better.

Hahn tells us "I love to serve this soup on a cold day for lunch with sandwiches, or for dinner with a huge salad. It is a great meal-prep recipe. You can make it on the weekend and have it all week for lunches." This meal prep tip is a major hack. We love the idea of preparing a soup like this on the weekend to help set us up for success during the week. Let's bring an end to sad desk lunches!

To make this tomato bisque, you can start by gathering your ingredients. For this recipe, you will need avocado oil, an onion, celery, garlic, shredded carrots, vegetable or chicken broth, fire roasted tomatoes, sugar, dried basil, red pepper flakes, black pepper, cream cheese, fresh basil, and an optional topping of croutons. Hahn likes to add cream cheese to this soup, instead of the more traditionally-used heavy cream, because "it gives the soup a creamier texture, great flavor, and a little more body. Any type of cream cheese will work."

In a soup pot over medium-high heat, add the avocado oil. Once it is hot, add the chopped onion, chopped celery, chopped garlic, and shredded carrots. Saute these veggies for about 5 minutes. Like every good soup, this one starts with a mirepoix, which helps to create the flavor foundation of the soup.

Then, add all the remaining ingredients to the pot. Add in the broth, tomatoes, sugar, basil, red pepper flakes, black pepper, and cream cheese. Hahn notes "I love using fire-roasted tomatoes in this recipe because it adds a little kick of roasted flavor, as if you roasted the tomatoes in the oven." 

After all the ingredients have been added, give the mixture a stir and bring it to a boil. Then, lower the heat to a simmer and cook for 10 minutes, covered.

Once the soup has simmered for 10 minutes, it's time to blend things up. While you can use a standard blender, Hahn likes using an immersion blender. She tells us "I use an immersion blender for a couple of reasons. When you are transferring soup to an upright blender it can be messy, and in most cases you have to blend it in batches. Using an immersion blender is much quicker because you are blending right in the pot you cooked it in and you don't have another dirty appliance to clean." 

So, go ahead and blend the soup with the immersion blender until the soup is creamy and smooth. It's now ready to serve. Feel free to add optional toppings like croutons — we highly recommend it!