Heinz Cream of Tomato Soup Recipe

I love coming up with tasty recipes for everything from gluten-free goodies to refreshing drinks.

For All the Brits Who Live Abroad

For all of us Brits who live outside of Britain, this is the kind of food we know, love, miss and crave! We hit on this soup quite by accident when a good friend of ours shared her old recipe. After one mouthful, we glanced up at each other and simultaneously cried, “This tastes just like Heinz tomato soup!”

This has become our go-to "feel like I’m back home," "just picked up some Heinz from the supermarket" recipe, and we regularly feed the addiction.

Now, maybe I’m overselling this, maybe I’m talking it up too much, but one thing I can guarantee, this soup is excellent on so many levels. Even if at the end of the day you don’t agree with us, you will still LOVE this soup.

Ok, I’m off to make some more.

Ingredients

• 3 cups tomatoes, chopped
• 1/2 cup onions, diced
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon fresh basil
• pinch thyme
• pinch black pepper
• 3/4 cup tomato paste

To Make the Roux Sauce

• 1 1/2 teaspoons flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons butter
• 1 1/2 cups warm milk

Opt to make the base only—this saves freezer space—then add the roux (the last three ingredients) just before serving.

Instructions

This recipe is so easy to scale up, I usually make 3 or 4 times the amount at a time. Just choose a large pan and batch cook for the freezer, perfect for those long winter evenings!

Three Easy Steps

1. Combine all ingredients in a pan (except the last three for the white sauce/roux).
2. Blend or sieve.
3. Make and add roux sauce.

Method:

1. In a saucepan put chopped tomatoes, diced onion, sugar, salt, basil, thyme, pepper and tomato paste/purée, simmer with the lid on for about 10 minutes until nicely cooked down.
2. If you have a high powered blender like a Vitamix or magimix, you can just blend the soup (no sieving needed) and it’s ready to add the roux. If you do not have a blender, push the cooked mixture through a sieve and discard the pulp. I favour the blender method as you have no waste whatsoever and you maintain all the goodness.
3. Freeze your soup base when cooled and add your white sauce when serving, I find it saves me a lot of freezer space.
4. To make the roux: Add butter to a small saucepan and melt it on a low heat, being careful not to brown it. Add the flour and stir continuously for 20-30 seconds, then add the milk little by little, still stirring, to make sure you have a lump-free sauce.
5. Add to soup! Top with a swirl of plain yoghurt, basil leaves or croutons, and enjoy!

A Healthy Option

A good kick of antioxidants from the fresh tomatoes and paste with just the smallest amount of butter and flour used to make the roux, with no added butter or oil in the actual cooking of the soup, makes this a delicious and healthy choice.

What Is a Roux?

A roux—pronounced “roo”—is how you begin to make a basic white sauce. Melted butter and flour are cooked down in a saucepan (the roux) and then milk is added. The roux thickens your sauce. In this recipe, however, we are looking for only a slight thickening of the sauce, if at all.

© 2017 lemonkerdz

Comments

lemonkerdz (author) from LIMA, PERU on January 25, 2020:

Barbara thank you for your comments. Since writing this recipe I to hold of a vita-mix from the USA and it is the business. Just throw all your tomatoes in there and whizz it up without having to sieve the skins the machine turns everything to liquid and you keep any additional nutrients in your soup.

Enjoy your taste of home.

Barbara M on January 23, 2020:

I'm a Brit in Texas who misses her Heinz soup. Now I know I can pick up a can of Heinz as my local Brit shop but I thought why not give this a try. This is probably as close to Heinz as you are going to get. I doubled the entire recipe as written but only used 2 cups of whole milk in my roux as the base was quite liquid and I didn’t want it to over thicken. I blended and sieved the base as I wanted my first batch to be as close to Heinz as possible. This left me with maybe 3/4 cup of pulp that I tossed. I think next time I would just leave it in to save time (and washing up). Thank you so much for sharing your recipe.

lemonkerdz (author) from LIMA, PERU on October 17, 2018:

Thank you for the tip mjb197298, recently a family member was diagnosed gluten and dairy intolerant so they are great tips to adjust the recipe. So glad you enjoyed your soup.

mjb197298 on October 12, 2018:

Just made this soup as I am gluten and dairy free. I added a garlic clove instead of onion (as I didn't have any) and made it exactly as stated except I added in a small amount of coconut cream for creaminess and whizzed up a second time in the blender. It looks and tastes exactly like Heinz cream of tomato soup but dairy free. Yipee.

Gill on August 06, 2018:

I made this soup tonight for dinner - I am an ex-pat Brit living in Canada and my husband is Irish, so it is Heinz all the way for us! This soup tastes EXACTLY like it, so thank you very much for the recipe! We gave it 10 out of 10 and I cook a lot, and my experience with US and Canadian recipes is that they are not very tasty and don't use proper 'fresh' ingredients. I used fresh thyme leaves (about half a teaspoon) and, even though I blended (pureed and liquified) it in my very good Black and Decker blender, I still put it through a sieve afterwards and was very happy with the result. I wouldn't change anything else about it at all :)

lemonkerdz (author) from LIMA, PERU on May 05, 2018:

Thank you Bex for your comment and really pleased you could adapt it for a vegan friendly option. I would be interested to know if it maintained the same taste as what you were used to with Heinz.

Enjoy

Bex on May 03, 2018:

I’ve so missed Heinz tomato soup since going vegan, all the tins have cows milk in them. I was very happy to find your brilliant recipe and managed to use alternative ingredients for the roux to make it vegan. It was delicious and my new favourite recipe. Thanks so much.

lemonkerdz (author) from LIMA, PERU on December 14, 2017:

Thanks for your input Robin, Tomato soup is great any time of year but on a cold winter day is real comfort food.

It’s well worth making it up in batches to store for those lazy days when you just want a quick healthy meal and sit watching the TV.

Robin Carretti from Hightstown on December 14, 2017:

How did you get me in a Tomato soup mood you brought out all those tomatoes to warm my heart thanks very interesting read

lemonkerdz (author) from LIMA, PERU on December 14, 2017:

Thanks for taking the time to comment Mary Wickison, it’s funny how memories are all linked in with our food and eating habits. I’m sure your husband meant it as a compliment, to say it tastes like Heinz is a real pat on the back for you.

Please make this soup for your husband I’d be interested to see how it compares to his memory of the tomato soup in the UK. And yes there are so many brands we’ve grown up with in England thought to be british that are anything but that.

Mary Wickison from Brazil on December 14, 2017:

I had to laugh when I read this. A few weeks ago, I made a beef and veg soup. When my husband tried this, he said, "It tastes just like Heinz". He meant it as a compliment even though I had spent a goodly bit of time preparing it.

I will definitely be trying your tomato soup recipe.

I didn't realize the company was American. My husband thinks it's British. I as an American will have to put him right on that point. LOL