The Secret Ingredient You Should Be Adding To Your Tomato Soup

Tomato soup is a simple soup, but it is also one of the most satisfying, and when tomatoes are in season, it is the perfect time to make this rich dish. Whether you grow them in your home garden or pick them up at the farmer's market or in your local grocery store, beautiful sweet tomatoes will be in season from May through October and create the foundation for any good tomato soup. And while it is common to see red tomatoes year-round, the summer and early fall months bring a variety and assortment of yellow, orange, green, pink and purple tomatoes. In fact, each year, 8 million tons of tomatoes are produced in the U.S. (via Food Network). That's a lot of tomatoes.

The best tomatoes for tomato soup tend to be Roma or plum. The first step is roasting these babies, along with any vegetables you plan to blend with the tomatoes. Onions, carrots, and garlic will all add to the flavor of your soup. But remember, patience is a virtue and the longer you roast the tomatoes, the more flavor your soup will have. Roasting the tomatoes causes them to sweeten and caramelize along with the vegetables, creating a hearty base (via Ambitious Kitchen).

But what will really make your tomato soup recipe pop is if you add this secret ingredient: basil pesto. This addition will not only make your soup more interesting — one taste and you will wonder why you never added it before. Basil pesto, the beautiful green sauce we use for our pastas, bruschetta, and sandwiches, has a concentrated flavor and aromatic properties which make for some intense seasoning. 

Because the pine nuts add such a creamy texture to the soup, you can skip the heavy cream altogether. The Parmesan cheese in the pesto provides just the right amount of cheesiness to the mixture so when you take a spoonful of the tomato soup, there is a cacophony of flavors exploding with your taste buds (via Little Spice Jar).

Tomato soup with this secret ingredient will not only take your soup to the next level, it will leave your friends and family asking for more. Good news: if you make more than you can eat, tomato soup freezes without any problems. But remember to let the soup cool down completely in the refrigerator before transferring it to the freezer.