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It’s that time of year again: the end of tomato season when you’ve got to use the heirloom tomato bounty or you risk them spoiling and wasting the harvest. And that’s not great. But I have good news! I have the solution to this problem, and it’s my family’s (until now) secret heirloom tomato cilantro soup.
This soup has all the best flavors of late summer, and is an excellent way to enjoy peak tomato season throughout the winter months. And while it wasn’t developed to be compliant with any sort of diet plan, it is Whole30 compliant and completely vegan. It works for just about everybody!
This is the best tomato soup recipe you’ll ever make. Yes, I said it: the best. Not just “the best Whole30 tomato soup” or “the best vegan tomato soup,” no. It’s simply the best tomato soup recipe out there.
Our Family Secret Recipe
For years and years, my mother and I have been making batches and batches of tomato soup at the end of tomato season. When tomatoes are abundant at the farmers market, I’ll buy a flat or two, head over to my mom’s place, and then set up a tomato soup assembly line. It’s an all-day affair, and at the end of it, the freezer is full of tomato soup, preparing us for winter.
Okay, okay, it won’t be secret much longer. The recipe I’m providing here is perfect for 2 servings, but it scales up beautifully. Only very rarely will I make just one batch of this soup.
Key Ingredients and Substitutions
Heirloom Tomatoes
Hands down, the best heirloom tomato variety to use in this recipe is Cherokee Purple. Cherokee Purple tomatoes have a deep red-purple skin, and deeply colored red flesh that gives the final soup a very attractive color. They also have a rich tomato flavor, and are relatively easy to peel compared to other heirloom varieties.
Other tomato varieties to use here Early Girls (this is what is shown in my photos) and Red Brandywines. Both of these varieties have excellent flavor, and are relatively easy to peel. This is important if you’re making 10 batches at once, trust me!
Scallions
Any green onion will work in this recipe. Spring onions tend to be fairly big, so you won’t need as many individual bulbs as you would for scallions. Aim for 2 ounces of roughly chopped green onion and you’ll be good to go in this recipe. Use both the white and green parts of the onion.
I do not recommend large onion bulbs or leeks. The large bulbs do not have the fresh, green flavor that scallions have, and leeks are far too mild to stand up to the strong tomato and cilantro flavor in the soup.
Cilantro
I do not hide my love for cilantro. It is, by far, my most commonly used herb, and I almost always have it on hand.
For those who don’t like cilantro (I’m sorry!), try using Italian flat-leaf parsley. They are both in the same botanical family, but parsley seems to be far less polarizing. You could probably also use basil, if you’re going for more of an Italian flavor, but I cannot recommend quantities for that as I have not tried it. But seriously, if you don’t find cilantro soapy and offensive, use the cilantro.
In any of these cases, you want to be using fresh herbs, not dried. Dried herbs will not have the same impact on the final soup flavor.
Spaghetti Squash
I don’t know when we first started serving our tomato cilantro soup with spaghetti squash, but once we did, it became our go to serving vessel. I can say, though, it wasn’t for any kind of dietary restriction fad. We developed this recipe far before it was fashionable to be gluten free or Whole30 (not to knock either of these, per se, but they were not well known or trendy when we first tried this). Of course, you can serve this soup with many different vegetables, but the spaghetti squash remains my favorite.
Spaghetti squash has a very mild flavor that does not compete with the flavor of the soup. If I had to substitute the spaghetti squash with something Whole30 friendly, I would go with spiralized zucchini (zoodles) or summer squash. I would not pair the tomato cilantro soup with any of the sweeter squashes, like butternut or acorn, as the sweet flavor will compete in a bad way with the savoriness of the tomato cilantro soup.
Serving Suggestions
As I mentioned earlier, the heirloom tomato cilantro soup recipe is a single batch, perfect for 2 large servings with the spaghetti squash. But you should at least double the tomato soup recipe and freeze the leftovers. This is the perfect soup for meal prep.
In addition to serving with spaghetti squash, this soup is excellent with grilled cheese or or in a bread bowl. It can also be used as part of the base liquid or stock for a risotto. Or you can reduce the liquid down to have a thicker, sauce-like texture and can be used instead of marinara sauce on actual pasta. Really, you can use it anywhere and everywhere. And I do.
I hope you love this soup as much as my family and I do.
Heirloom Tomato Cilantro Soup with Spaghetti Squash
This is the best tomato soup you'll ever make.
Ingredients
Spaghetti Squash
- 1 small or medium sized spaghetti squash
- 2 tbsp avocado oil
Heirloom Tomato Cilantro Soup
- 1 ½ lb heirloom tomatoes (try a mix of Cherokee Purple, Brandywine, Early Girl, etc.)
- 2 tbsp avocado oil
- 2 oz scallions, approximately 5 scallions, cut into 1 in pieces
- 1 tsp kosher salt
- 1 tsp fresh crushed garlic
- 1 tsp granulated garlic
- ¼ tsp black pepper
- ¼ cup cilantro, roughly chopped
Instructions
Spaghetti Squash
- Preheat oven to 400°F.
- Cut spaghetti squash into 1 inch thick rings. Remove seeds.
- Coat rings in avocado oil and place on a baking tray in a single layer. Bake for 25-30 minutes until tender, but not mushy.
- Use a fork to fluff up the spaghetti squash and pull out the strings. Discard the skin.
Heirloom Tomato Cilantro Soup
- Bring a large pot of water to a rolling boil. Cut a small 'X' in the bottom of each tomato and place in the boiling water for approximately 10-20 seconds, or until the skin begins to peel away from the tomato. Set tomatoes aside in a bowl to cool slightly, about 5 minutes.
- Peel tomatoes and remove any hard cores. Roughly chop tomatoes into 1 in chunks.
- Heat the avocado oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add tomatoes and scallions, and sauté until both are soft, but not browned.
- Add the kosher salt, crushed garlic, granulated garlic, and black pepper to the sauté pan. Stir in and cook until the garlic is soft.
- Stir in the cilantro and remove from the heat.
- Add sauté pan contents to a blender and puree until soup is smooth. Be careful, the contents are hot!
To Serve
- Pile the spaghetti squash strands in the center of the bowl.
- Pour soup around the squash.
- Top with cilantro leaves and serve.
