Tomato Rice Soup
Tomato Rice Soup is full of veggies, rice, herbs and, of course, tomatoes! This easy and budget friendly tomato soup makes a great light lunch or dinner and is perfect for meatless meals. Serve it up with a grilled cheese sandwich for a classic, but totally upgraded combination.
You know what’s weird? Most of my family doesn’t like tomatoes, but they love tomato soup which I find to be a conundrum. They even love this tomato soup which is the tomato-iest soup I make.
My tomato rice soup has a rich tomato broth that’s accentuated with celery, onions, and carrots. Long grain rice adds texture and heartiness to this soup and it’s finished off with fresh basil, which in my opinion, sends it into the over the top comfort food zone. I love fresh basil!
What you’ll need:
- Celery
- Carrot
- Onion
- Garlic
- Crushed tomatoes and petite diced tomatoes
- Vegetable or chicken broth
- Long grain rice
- Salt, pepper, and sugar
- Fresh Basil
Start off by prepping your vegetables. The celery, onion and garlic all get finely chopped, but I like to grate the carrot. Carrots tend to take more time to cook and by grating the carrot, you ensure that all the vegetables will be nice and tender when the soup is ready.
In a large stockpot, saute the vegetables and garlic in the olive oil until they are tender, about 10 minutes.
I love my cobalt blue stockpot that is pictured. I actually got this one for a wedding present almost 20 years ago and it’s still available on Amazon. It is the only pan I’ve had that long that’s held up to hard use!
We’ll use a combination of crushed tomatoes and petite diced tomatoes in this soup. Crushed tomatoes are often mixed with tomato puree, but have more body and are less cooked tasting than canned tomato sauce. By also adding petite diced tomatoes we’ll ensure that there will be bites of tomato at the end of cooking, but not large chunks. Feel free to substitute regular diced tomatoes if you like bigger pieces.
The chicken broth and rice are added at the same time as the tomatoes. Season the soup with salt, pepper, and sugar.
Simmer just until the rice is cooked through, about 20 minutes. Wait until just before serving to stir in the fresh basil.
A note on Tomato Rice Soup leftovers:
The longer this soup sits, the more the rice will soak up the broth. The more broth it soaks up, the thicker it will become. I find you have to add just a little bit more liquid to the leftovers the next day to get a good texture. A splash of tomato juice or broth will do the trick.
More Easy Soup Recipes to enjoy:
Wendy’s Copycat Chili in the Slow Cooker
Tomato Rice Soup
Ingredients
- 2 Tablespoons olive oil
- 1 small yellow onion (finely chopped)
- 2 stalks celery (sliced thin)
- 1 large carrot (grated)
- 1 clove garlic (minced)
- 1 28 ounce can crushed tomatoes
- 1 14.5 ounce can petite diced tomatoes
- 1 quart chicken or vegetable broth
- 1/2 cup uncooked long grain rice
- 1 Tablespoon sugar (optional)
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon pepper
- 1 package fresh basil (finely chopped)
Instructions
- In a large pot, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the onion, celery, carrots and garlic to the pot. Cook until they are soft. This will take about 10-15 minutes.
- Then add both cans of tomatoes, the broth and rice to the pot. Season to taste with sugar, salt and pepper.
- Bring to a boil and then reduce to a simmer. Let the soup simmer uncovered until the rice is tender which should take about 20 minutes or so.
- Stir in chopped fresh basil leaves before serving.
Notes
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Nutrition
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I added a cup of lentils and it is lovely! Also used fresh tomatoes, not canned. Great taste with lots of pepper, bit of Everything spices and curry. Thks!
I made this for the 1st time. Took to a church function and it was a hit. Everyone loved it.
So glad I found your website! This is the tomato rice soup our grade school cook made back in the 1960’s for about 90 students and 4 teachers! She didn’t add the basil or carrots but she did fry up five pounds of thick bacon and added some of the drippings in the soup and sprinkled the bacon on top! I especially loved the chopped up celery tops so she would make sure I got some of them in my bowl. Bless Mrs. Flores for her love of cooking and kids.
Your school cook sounds a lot better than ours were! What a fun memory and how sweet that she was able to make you kids feel so special that even now you remember those small acts of kindness and care.
Amy D.
This soup is just the best recipe for tomato soup. I would like it even without the rice. I used dried basil being that’s what I had on hand I didn’t chop the vegetables fine enough so I’m going to run it through the food processor I only used 1 tablespoon of raw rice and I did add the tbsp of sugar. I had it with a grilled cheese sandwich and salad with buttermilk dressing. Don’t hesitate to make this soup
Also…do you think this could be canned and used later?
I’d like to try this with fresh tomatoes from my garden. Any tips?
@Sharoona, your comment is from last summer, but I just made this with garden totomatoes, I roasted approximately 3lbs of tomatoes with 8 cloves of garlic and 2 sliced onions in olive oil with salt and pepper at 400F for approximately 45 minutes. Let them cool for 15 minutes, then dumped them into a pot, added 1 litre of chicken stock and used an immersion blender to break them down. Some skins seemed to break down completely, but others were still there, so I passed everything through a fine mesh strainer (had to keep scraping the bottom of the strainer and that helped get most of the seeds out, too. Then continue with the rest of the recipe. Good luck!
Can I freeze the leftover soup?
Hi Jen, I’m not sure that the rice would do well with freezing and then thawing. I’m afraid it would turn to mush.
Amy D.
I added some 2 percent milk when it became too thick…and I wanted to heat enough up for a meal.
I love this recipe and make it all the time. It’s just like the way my Mom used to make it
I took this soup to a church dinner. It received lots of compliments and was quite tasty.
I love it when that happens! So glad you all enjoyed the soup Holly!