Creamy Apple Tomato Soup

This quick and easy apple tomato soup is perfect for chilly fall days! Simple, seasonal ingredients and ready in under an hour. Vegan, Vegetarian.

This recipe was originally published in 2014. It was updated in 2020 with additional photos and notes.

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This tomato apple soup is the ultimate summer-to-fall transition food.

It’s perfect for that weird in-between time when you’re definitely kind of ready for soup weather but also less-than-psyched to say goodbye to fresh summer tomatoes.

Also: This is a great tomato soup recipe for people who don’t love tomato soup. The subtle sweetness you get from the apples here really cuts the acidity of the tomatoes, so the soup feels much more balanced.

How we’ll make this homemade tomato soup (spoiler alert: It’s simple AF)

1. Sauté some onion and garlic in a bit of olive oil.
2. Throw in some roughly chopped tomatoes and apples with a few bay leaves and some salt and pepper. Give it a stir and cook everything down until it’s soft.
3. Pull out the bay leaves, turn off the heat, and hit your soup with an immersion blender until it’s ultra-smooth.

A few general tips:

• Taste as you go! There are just four main ingredients in this soup (onion, garlic, tomatoes, apples) so seasoning is ESPECIALLY important here. Taste the soup once it’s puréed and add salt if the flavors aren’t quite “popping” yet.

• This soup will vary in flavor, texture, and consistency depending on your ingredients. If your apples are especially sweet, your soup will be, too – so give them a taste before you stir everything together and don’t be afraid to dial the tomatoes or apples up or down based on your personal preference! If the soup is too thick after blending, add a splash of water or stock to thin it out. Too thin? Let it simmer on low heat until it’s reduced to your desired consistency.

• Use any apples you like! For this soup, I prefer apples that fall somewhere in the middle on the sweetness spectrum: Sansa, Honeycrisp, Golden Delicious, Cortland, Northern Spy, and Prairie Spy apples have all worked well in this soup. Granny Smith apples can be a little too tart here, and some Fuji and Red Delicious apples can be a little too sweet. When in doubt, just give it a taste!

• Use ripe, flavorful tomatoes with concentrated flavor. Roma, San Marzano, heirloom, and even cherry tomatoes work well here. Skip the pale grocery store beefsteak tomatoes here – they typically don’t have as much flavor.

Riffs & substitutions

This is a simple recipe, and it’s easy to customize! A few of our favorite riffs:

• Roast the tomatoes for extra flavor. For extra depth and richness, roast the tomatoes, garlic, and onion together on a sheet pan (just like we do in our roasted tomato soup!) until they’re soft and begin to caramelize. Then throw the roasted veggies in a pot with the chopped apples and proceed as directed!

• You can use canned tomatoes, but try to find fresh if you can. Fresh, rich, sweet summer tomatoes are really where it’s at here. If you can’t find high-quality tomatoes, use two large cans of crushed tomatoes.

• For extra creaminess, add a splash of heavy cream (if you’re not vegan) or coconut milk to this soup. A good immersion blender should give you a smooth, creamy soup, but if there’s still too much texture you can purée it in a high-powered blender or run it through a sieve or food mill to pull out any remaining solid pieces.

• To make it a little heartier, use this tomato soup as a base and add mix-ins like tortellini or gnocchi, shredded chicken or Italian sausage, herbs (basil and thyme are both good!), kale, spinach, or diced squash (butternut or pumpkin).

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