13 Popular Canned Tomato Soups, Ranked From Worst To Best
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We don't know how to explain it, but sometimes tomato soup just hits the spot. While you can't beat homemade tomato soup, we totally get it — sometimes it is just so much easier to reach for a can of the premade stuff rather than making your own from scratch. The convenience and ease of shopping for only one item as opposed to around 10 ingredients, not to mention eliminating all that prep time, makes it the perfect meal for those busy weeknights. Just heat and serve.
Now, we know that many people aren't simply eating a bowl of just tomato soup for dinner. You're probably pairing it with a homemade grilled cheese for the ultimate easy comfort food experience. According to the Times Colonist, this combo became popular after World War II, when sliced white bread, processed cheese, and canned tomato soup were plentiful. The flavorful combo remains popular to this day, pleasing the younger generations as well.
Whether you're eating a bowl solo as a light lunch or pairing your tomato soup with grilled cheese or another tasty dish, you want the best of the best. That's why we ranked some of the most popular canned (and even a few boxed) tomato soups from worst to first.
13. Kettle & Fire Creamy Tomato Bone Broth Soup
Kettle & Fire is one of the newer health food brands that arrived on the scene that is devoted to promoting bone broth for its health benefits. They sell shelf-stable grass-fed bone broths and bone broth soups. Beyond basic broths, Kettle & Fire also offers flavored options like their Creamy Tomato Bone Broth Soup. Made with chicken bone broth, it offers 6 grams of protein per serving, which is a lot more than your typical packaged tomato soups. However, it is also much higher in calories, at 240 calories per serving, due to the addition of high fat ingredients like collagen and coconut milk.
While many reviewers note that this soup is fairly creamy for a soup that contains no actual cream, they also complain of a "sour vinegar" greasy tomato taste. Eek! No thank you. We don't need bone broth in our lives that badly. We will skip this one.
12. Trader Joe's Organic Creamy Tomato Soup
While not in every city around the nation, Trader Joe's has a devout cult following which has a lot to do with their specialty products that are unavailable at other grocery stores. People travel far and wide to make a trip to this grocery store to stock up on their unique product line. You've likely heard of their Everything But the Bagel seasoning, their Unexpected Cheddar, and even their Hold the Cone mini ice cream cones. Their soups, however, are not usually on the top of everyone's grocery list.
The Trader Joe's Organic Creamy Tomato Soup, while not terrible, is just plain boring. Compared to other tomato soups on this list, it's simply bland and unremarkable. At 90 calories per serving, this is also one of the lowest calorie options. Maybe the fact that the soup is low in calories has something to do with it's lack of flavor.
11. Pacific Foods Organic Creamy Tomato Soup
Sold in a box instead of a can, Pacific Foods Organic Creamy Tomato Soup is delicious. With only 110 calories per serving, this organic soup is one of the healthier options out there. We love a healthy option as long as the taste isn't sacrificed, and you don't need to worry about that with this soup. The tomato-forward flavor is creamy and seasoned to perfection.
Pacific Foods mentions that this soup can be served hot or cold as a summer gazpacho. We didn't even think of doing that. This soup is more classic in nature, free of any tomato chunks or potentially off-putting spices. For added texture, you can serve up a bowl with some homemade crunchy croutons on top. We are drooling just thinking about it. The only issue with Pacific Foods soups is the price. They tend to be a few dollars more than the competition, and compared to a few other brands on this list, the price difference isn't quite justified.
10. Amy's Organic Cream of Tomato Soup
We love that health-conscious brands are creating more options for us to enjoy our favorite meals without sacrificing our nutrition and health goals. Amy's is a brand that creates many gluten-free, vegetarian, and vegan products without costing an arm and a leg. Their product line ranges from soups, burritos, and pizzas, to frozen meals. We are evaluating their canned Organic Cream of Tomato Soup.
Though it contains organic and otherwise "clean" ingredients, this soup ends up being too sweet, and the resulting flavor is like sugary tomato puree. Eek! That's not something we want in a soup. While it's fairly common for tomato soups to contain sugar, we definitely don't want our tomato soup to taste as sweet as a dessert. It's a savory meal, after all.
And on top of that, this can contains only one serving. How are we supposed to indulge in this comfort meal? We'd recommend skipping this one.
9. Well Yes! Tomato & Sweet Basil Soup
Campbell's has expanded their brand to include many other options beyond their classic condensed soups. One example is the Well Yes! line with a focus on "purposeful ingredients." The Well Yes! Tomato & Sweet Basil soup contains 85% of your daily veggie intake — who knew you could get all that from a canned soup? This soup, like the other offerings in the Well Yes! line, also boasts no artificial colors or flavors and doesn't have any added preservatives. With only 130 calories per serving, this makes a great, healthy, on the go lunch option.
This soup is also thicker than a broth, making it feel hearty and fulfilling. The addition of the sweet basil gives the soup a fresh touch that we enjoy. Unfortunately, it's just a bit too salty for our taste. Our only other complaint is that because it is not a condensed soup, each can only offers a single serving.
8. Campbell's Tomato Soup
There is nothing more classic than Campbell's Tomato Soup. We grew up loving this soup and it still holds up today. Campbell's Tomato Soup is a condensed soup, meaning the contents inside the can are concentrated. To prepare this soup, pour the contents of the soup into a small saucepan, then fill the empty can with water and add the water to the saucepan as well. Give everything a big stir and you now have doubled your servings. Talk about bang for your buck.
Reviewers mention that this is a no frills soup. While you won't get chunks of tomatoes or hints of herbs, this soup is a great basic tomato soup, which is honestly what we are looking for most of the time. Many fans enjoy this soup served with saltines or goldfish crackers. Yum, this visual has us drooling.
For 90 calories per serving and with an affordable price, you won't be sorry if you purchase this canned soup.
7. Campbell's Homestyle Harvest Tomato with Basil Soup
As we mentioned earlier, there are several types of soup under the Campbell's umbrella. This seems reasonable as the company originated way back in 1869 and has had plenty of time to grow and develop as a booming empire. Aside from Well Yes!, other soup products include Chunky, Healthy Request, Ready Meals, and Slow Kettle Style. (Campbell's also owns other sauce, snack and drink companies.)
This particular pick falls under the Homestyle banner. Harvest Tomato with Basil soup is a richly flavored, low-calorie option, at only 110 calories per serving. It is also fat-free, making it highly desired among the health-conscious crowd.
A reviewer on Amazon claims that this soup is "better than restaurant quality," which is remarkable considering the minimal list of ingredients. Dairy-free eaters love that this soup contains no cream or milk, but maintains a creamy texture. There is a reason that this is towards the top of the list of canned tomato soup contenders.
6. 365 Organic Tomato Basil Soup
Whole Foods' 365 Organic line features many high quality products including beverages, cleaning products, breads, sauces, grains, legumes, ice creams, jellies, nut butters, supplements, and frozen fruits and vegetables. Some would say that because they tend to carry everything, they are not necessarily an expert in the soup department. We say, "can't they be good at it all?"
Their 365 Organic Tomato Basil Soup is a fat-free soup with only 80 calories per serving. We love it because it contains chunks of tomatoes aiding in the tomato-forward flavor. If you are a pureed tomato soup fan, this one may not be for you. However, the chunks of tomatoes help to make this soup more hearty and filling. That's awesome considering the low calorie count. Those watching their diet may find the most success with this soup as it is low in calories, but still keeps you full.
5. Great Value Tomato Condensed Soup
Walmart's Great Value products are seriously affordable. Not to mention, they basically have a product for everything you could be looking for. Great Value Tomato Condensed Soup is the Walmart generic version of the classic Campbell's Tomato Condensed Soup. While tasting very similar, the Great Value tomato soup costs than it's brand-name competitor, which is great for cooking on a budget.
To take this soup up a notch, reviewers suggest mixing this condensed soup with a can filled with milk instead of a can filled with water for the ultimate creamy upgrade. How brilliant is that? This creamy addition makes this soup more of a filling option without feeling too heavy. For 80 calories per serving, we think we can afford the extra calories that would come by adding in milk.
This canned tomato soup is well loved and we can totally see why. For an inexpensive, but tasty classic tomato soup, Great Value is the way to go.
4. Annie's Organic Tomato Soup
You probably know this brand as the healthy, youth-oriented line with the purple label and bunny mascot. Annie's Homegrown creates many healthy products aimed for kids including mac and cheese, snacks, dressings, baking, cereal, and frozen breakfast products.
The Annie's Organic Tomato Soup contains no artificial flavors, colors, preservatives and high fructose corn syrup. It's organic and blended well, and the result is that it's not too creamy but not too watery. Kids love this soup, which is great because Annie's adds in about a ½ cup of vegetables into each serving. Children sometimes complain about eating their veggies, but sneaking in this added nutrition is a great way to increase their consumption of veggies. And we'll admit, we could use some help in this department as well. While kids love this soup, it is not only for children. Adults love it too. We're not too cool for a kids' soup, we love this one.
3. Progresso Vegetable Classics Tomato Basil
Tomato and basil is a classic flavor combination. Progresso nails it with their very tomato-forward pureed soup. This canned soup is affordable, but not lacking in quality. This is thicker than a simple broth, which is what we look for in a canned tomato soup. Generally, we're looking for all the vibes of a homemade soup without any of the effort, and this delivers on that front.
Progresso Vegetable Classics Tomato Basil has 150 calories and provides half a serving of vegetables per serving. Pretty good for not having to wash or chop any vegetables! This brand also boasts no MSG (monosodium glutamate) and no artificial flavors. Health-conscious folks and omnivores alike will love this tomato soup. Affordable, tasty and healthy ... it doesn't get much better than that. For this reason, we placed it near the top of our rankings. If you see this one when shopping, grab it.
2. Organic Imagine Creamy Tomato Soup
If you want a soup that has rave reviews, this is the soup for you! Organic Imagine Creamy Tomato Soup, found at grocery stores such as Albertsons, is a fan-favorite. With no artificial ingredients or preservatives and only 80 calories, we were skeptical that this soup would taste "too healthy" to really enjoy. Wow, were we pleasantly surprised. This soup is creamy, without the cream, but not too thick, making it a great vegan tomato soup option.
This one rises towards the top of our ranks because of how delicious it is. Reviewers praise the strong tomato-forward flavor and the creamy consistency found without using a drop of dairy. Once you try this one, you'll be hooked. We promise. Do yourself a favor and order this one in bulk so you always have it on hand for when the tomato soup craving strikes. You can thank us later.
1. Wolfgang Puck Organic Tomato Basil Bisque
This canned tomato soup comes in as our number one selection. We love this soup and reviews indicate that many other people do as well. Wolfgang Puck Organic Tomato Basil Bisque is a bit pricier than other cans on this list, but considering how good it tastes, it's well worth it. Take this soup with you to work and heat in the microwave for a simple, tasty lunch, or stock up for simple weeknight dinners.
Each can includes everything we look for in a tomato soup: creaminess, a hint of basil, organic ingredients, and lots of flavor. Reviewers describe this soup as a "homerun" and "worth waiting for." We couldn't agree more.
A serving of the soup is 240 calories, and it is worth every single one of them. Enjoy this soup with a classic grilled cheese and you will have yourself an indulgent and decadent simple meal.