Slow Cooker Tomato Soup

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This easy slow cooker tomato soup is made with canned tomatoes, onion, garlic, and butter for deliciously simple flavor in every bite. Meal prep a big batch for the perfect quick lunch you can reheat in the microwave on busy days!

If there’s one thing that kept me going after a long day of classes and a late night of studying in college, it was treating myself to a grilled cheese and tomato soup from Panera. Their you-pick-two made the best lunch or dinner – especially when I needed something quick and easy that I could take on the go. And although I’m no longer frequenting Panera for those speedy, delicious pick me ups, I still often crave a comforting bowl of piping hot tomato soup on busy days. So I found a way to recreate Panera’s creamy tomato soup with minimal effort, right at home in my slow cooker.

What This Recipe Entails

Making soup at home doesn’t get much simpler than this. Just add your ingredients to a slow cooker, cook, and then blend. And you have slow cooker tomato soup!

• Prep time: 5 minutes
• Cook time: 4 hours

That’s right. This slow cooker tomato soup recipe is so easy, you’ll barely spend 5 minutes of your time making it! (Which is why I love slow cooker soup recipes). All you need is 6 ingredients – if water even counts – a 4-quart crockpot, and a blender to make this tomato soup. It’s the ideal recipe for meal prep, busy days, or whenever you’re craving a no-effort homemade meal. 

Homemade Slow Cooker Tomato Soup Ingredients

This easy slow cooker tomato soup recipe uses canned tomatoes, onions, garlic and butter (but no cream) for fresh flavor and smooth texture. It’s similar to a tomato sauce recipe, but with the addition of water and butter it transforms into a delicious tomato soup you can eat for lunch! Here are the ingredients you’ll need:

• One 28-oz can crushed tomatoes
• One medium yellow onion
• Minced garlic
• Water
• Butter
• Salt

For the canned tomatoes, we like to buy the “no salt added” kind – which is why we add just a pinch of salt into our tomato soup recipe. If you like to buy regular canned tomatoes with salt, you may want to omit the extra salt or simply salt to taste.

We think the best tomato soup is fairly simple and has a tomato-forward flavor, so the only other flavors in this recipe are onion and garlic! These ingredients infuse into the tomatoes beautifully while the soup cooks. Just enough to add some depth of flavor, but not so much that it overpowers the tomatoes. 

Finally, a cup of water helps thin things out to a soup-like consistency while the butter adds a touch of creaminess. After all, the best tomato soup has the perfect creamy and smooth texture – and goes great with grilled cheese for dipping 🙂

How To Make Easy Slow Cooker Tomato Soup

Making slow cooker tomato soup is basically as easy as dumping all the ingredients into your crock pot and setting it to high. The only added step is blending it all at the end to create a smooth and creamy tomato soup!

1. First, add all your ingredients to a slow cooker or crock pot and stir to combine. 
2. Cover and cook on high for 4 hours.
3. Once your slow cooker tomato soup is done cooking, transfer it to a blender and blend until smooth. About 1 to 2 minutes. 
4. Serve hot with croutons, grilled cheese, or your favorite tomato soup toppings and sides.

If you have an immersion blender, then you can blend your tomato soup right in your slow cooker once it has finished cooking, making this recipe even easier!

Storing & Reheating Slow Cooker Tomato Soup

Since all you have to do for this recipe is combine the ingredients in a slow cooker, let it cook, and then blend it before serving, it’s the perfect meal prep recipe. If you’d like to serve it straight from the slow cooker, simply pour the soup back into your crockpot after blending and set it to “warm” until mealtime. However, you can easily portion out individual meals after blending using airtight storage containers. 

We have a few sets of Souper Cubes, which are basically silicone trays that help you freeze individual portions of things like soup and chili. They’re so awesome for recipes like this tomato soup! Just pour the soup straight from the blender into the Souper Cubes (we like to use the 1-cup size for soup) and let it cool off a bit before sealing and freezing. Then, when you want tomato soup, simply pop out a frozen cube and defrost in the microwave. Once the soup is defrosted, microwave for about 1 to 2 minutes or until hot, and voila! Instant homemade tomato soup.

Almost like you’ve just picked it up from Panera, but even quicker – and cheaper!

If you have time to plan ahead a bit, you can pop out a frozen cube of soup the night before and let it defrost overnight in the fridge. Alex loves this little hack for packing work lunches. It’s zero effort, and the soup will be defrosted enough to just reheat it in the microwave the next day!