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You are here: Home / Recipes / How to Dress Up a Can of Tomato Soup

Posted on July 6, 2011 | Last updated on April 29, 2020 | By Chelsea Cole | 28 Comments

How to Dress Up a Can of Tomato Soup

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Canned Tomato Soup Spice Up
Condensed soup doesn’t have to be boring! Easily dress up a can of tomato soup (like Campbell’s) with ingredients you have in your pantry.
Bowl of tomato soup next to a grilled cheese sandwich

Today, I’m presenting you with a recipe that was truly born out of my college-student status. As with many American children, I have been eating grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup since I could handle solid food. It’s convenient, easy, filling, and delicious.

But sometimes, it can be a bit boring. Let’s face it, it’s simply a can of tomato puree and milk or water, depending on your preference. After a year of to-go Campbell’s cups of soup, I decided that I could no longer consume this boring tomato stuff as is, so I gave it a serious makeover.

Can of Campbell's Tomato Soup on wood surface

Start by combining one can of tomato soup with a can full of milk, as you usually would. We’re not using water here. I usually use 1% milk, but if you aren’t calorie conscious and have it on hand, of course it would be even better with half and half or heavy cream.

Now here’s the fun part: add garlic powder, onion powder, cayenne pepper, Italian seasoning, salt, and pepper. Taste and adjust. Let simmer for 10 minutes or so to release all that flavor.

Tomato soup and ingredients in pot

Pour into bowls and top with a little bit of parmesan cheese and some fresh basil. Ta da! You are no longer eating boring old tomato soup.

Bowl of tomato soup next to a grilled cheese sandwich

If you’re really feeling adventurous, make some homemade sandwich bread for your grilled cheeses. I used such bread for the sandwiches in these pictures.

P.S. Get all my meal prepping tips and tricks when you sign up for my weekly meal planning newsletter!

If you make this, it would mean the world to me if you’d rate and review! It helps other people find this recipe.

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How to Dress Up a Can of Tomato Soup

★★★★★ 4.8 from 14 reviews
  • Author: Chelsea Cole
  • Prep Time: 5 minutes
  • Cook Time: 10 minutes
  • Total Time: 15 minutes
  • Yield: 2 servings 1x
  • Category: Dinner
  • Cuisine: American
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Ingredients

1 10 3/4 oz can tomato soup
10 3/4 oz milk or heavy cream
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp onion powder
1 tsp Italian seasoning
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
Parmesan cheese
Fresh basil


Instructions

1. In a saucepan, combine tomato soup and 1 can full of milk of choice or heavy cream.
2. Add garlic powder, onion powder, Italian seasoning, cayenne pepper, salt, and black pepper and let sit on medium-low heat for about 10 minutes.
3. Pour into bowls and top with parmesan cheese and fresh basil.


Keywords: tomato soup

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Filed Under: Easy, Lunch, Soup

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Seasons01 says

    May 20, 2020 at 11:49 pm

    This worked so well… I love the more mature Campbells soup! Everyone loved it!

    ★★★★★

    Reply
    • Chelsea says

      May 21, 2020 at 5:25 pm

      I’m so glad to hear that!!!

      Reply
  2. Krysten says

    May 24, 2020 at 8:26 pm

    This was amazing and a great, inexpensive way to dress up a childhood classic. I also added some herbed croutons to mine just to enhance those Italian seasonings even more and it was perfection. Extremely pleased with this. Thank you!

    ★★★★★

    Reply
    • Chelsea says

      May 25, 2020 at 9:47 pm

      So glad you enjoyed it! The crouton addition sounds delicious!

      Reply
  3. Sharon says

    June 30, 2020 at 9:47 pm

    This tasted somewhat like pizza sauce, but I still loved it. And it’s a great starter into experimenting with tomato soup. I just recently acquired a taste for it, but it was acquired at a nice restaurant, so I knew a plain old can of soup wasn’t going to do it. This is a perfect solution and even my kids liked it.

    ★★★★★

    Reply
  4. Becky says

    July 12, 2020 at 2:47 pm

    Good. I only used half the amount of spices and it was perfect. Yum.

    ★★★★★

    Reply
  5. Tara says

    July 31, 2020 at 4:40 pm

    I have always used mill instead of water, but the addition of slices and parmesan add so much flavor. Thank you.

    ★★★★★

    Reply
    • Chelsea says

      August 1, 2020 at 4:13 pm

      So glad you enjoyed!

      Reply
  6. JoBeth says

    August 13, 2020 at 12:18 am

    I had already added water, but next time I will use half and half. I just eyeballed the spices and probably used less. I used seasoning salt and subbed paprika for the cayenne. I also added some parm to the soup as it was heating. This was a great way to make canned soup taste so much better. I had it with a bacon grilled cheese sandwich – yum.

    ★★★★★

    Reply
    • Chelsea says

      August 13, 2020 at 12:20 am

      This sounds so yummy, JoBeth!!!

      Reply
  7. Vera says

    September 1, 2020 at 9:04 pm

    Would full fat coconut milk work with this?

    Reply
    • Chelsea says

      September 1, 2020 at 10:52 pm

      That should be fine! Flavor might be a little different, but that’s it.

      Reply
  8. Briana says

    September 9, 2020 at 1:42 pm

    Loved this upgrade to canned soup! Totally made it taste like homemade, and it was incredibly quick and easy! Glad to have this recipe in my back pocket for this winter!

    ★★★★★

    Reply
  9. Sharon says

    September 25, 2020 at 11:36 pm

    Definitely enjoyed this ‘adult’ version of tomato soup. It looked pretty with the fresh shaved parmesan and basil leaves. It’s a winner.

    ★★★★★

    Reply
    • Chelsea says

      September 30, 2020 at 2:47 pm

      I’m so glad, Sharon!

      Reply
  10. Barb says

    October 6, 2020 at 12:33 am

    I am not a big fan of tomato soup but my son loves it. He suggested looking up a recipe to dress it up a bit so I would enjoy it more. I used heavy cream and this was absolutely delicious. I like the crouton idea and may have to try that the next time. Thanks for a great recipe!

    ★★★★★

    Reply
    • Chelsea says

      October 6, 2020 at 6:37 pm

      I’m so glad you and your son enjoyed it, Barb!

      Reply
  11. Leslie J says

    October 19, 2020 at 2:20 pm

    I just made this with grilled cheese, ham , n tomato sandwiches. The soup was great! Followed the recipe but did add a teaspoon of sour cream to it also. Wonderful!!

    Reply
  12. Jim C says

    October 24, 2020 at 2:29 am

    `I’ve always used milk instead of water. And I add just half a can because I really like a nice thick creamy soup. This combination of spices was great, except that I hesitate to add salt, as soups in a can tend to have a lot of salt already. Another little dress-up is to stir in just some ground basil by itself. For some reason, the combo of the basil and tomato soup is really great. When I want to be more of an adult, I have used seasoned croutons in it. If I want to go back to when I was not nearly as mature as I am now ;-), I add Cheese-Its. And of course, you must have a grilled cheese sandwich with it!

    ★★★★★

    Reply
  13. Amey says

    November 5, 2020 at 8:30 pm

    Is there a dairy free alternative?

    Reply
    • Cheryl says

      December 8, 2020 at 4:53 am

      Coconut milk is dairy free.

      Reply
  14. Alexis Ketron says

    November 12, 2020 at 1:41 am

    WOW!

    ★★★★★

    Reply
  15. Cheryl says

    December 8, 2020 at 4:52 am

    That would make the soup creamier and dairy free. I ordered from a restaurant yesterday a coconut curry tomato soup. It was bomb.

    Reply
  16. S says

    January 1, 2021 at 10:56 pm

    I just made this right now. I didn’t have any onion powder but I used the rest of the spices listed and the soup is AMAZING

    ★★★★★

    Reply
    • Chelsea Cole says

      January 3, 2021 at 11:42 pm

      I’m so glad you enjoyed it!!!

      Reply
  17. Cass says

    January 17, 2021 at 6:06 pm

    Great recipe! I cut down the cayenne pepper by about half, it’s a bit too spicy for my kids. But this is my go-to recipe and we’ve been having a lot more grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup for lunches!

    ★★★★★

    Reply
    • Chelsea Cole says

      January 17, 2021 at 6:22 pm

      Thank you so much Cass!!!!

      Reply
  18. Emily says

    January 24, 2021 at 5:48 pm

    I LOVE tomato soup. I was excited to dress up my can of soup for lunch today. I was disappointed. I felt like after adding all of this, I couldn’t even taste the soup! I even halved the amount of spices it called for thinking it just seemed like a lot. The Italian seasoning overpowered everything and after that shock came the cayenne at the back of my throat. In my opinion, the combination of spices didn’t work well together here.

    ★★

    Reply

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Chelsea

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Hi! I'm Chelsea.

I'm the author of Everday Sous Vide: It's All French to Me, a digital marketer by day, and food blogger and freelance content creator by night. I'm a University of Oregon grad currently in Portland, OR, my hometown. I first started this blog as a college student hoping to encourage other students to branch outside of pizza and boxed mac and cheese. While some things have changed since I finished school, I still rely on simple recipes to produce fun, comforting food!

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