Vegan Tomato Soup

Alright! Today is your day to make simple homemade tomato soup. I can just feel it.

It’s smoky, a little bit sweet, and just as creamy or not-creamy as you want it to be. It’s simple – ready in just under an hour, with MOST of that time being the part where you just gaze lovingly at the pot of simmering tomatoes and let the smells of carrots and onions and garlic and bacon wrap you up in their loveliness.

Cheers to your relaxing, comforting, hug-in-a-bowl tomato soup day!
Why crush the tomatoes by hand?
The main goal here is to use higher quality tomatoes, and usually whole canned tomatoes are higher quality whereas pre-crushed tomatoes are made from bits and pieces of lower quality tomatoes. That being said, I’ve made this without hand-crushing the tomatoes (either using crushed canned tomatoes, or breaking apart the tomatoes in the pan with a spoon) and it’s still delicious.

How can I make this vegan?
Skip the bacon, use vegetable broth instead of chicken broth, and skip the cream at the end (or throw a handful of cashews into the blender with the soup to make it creamy).