Tender potato pasta dumplings swim in a creamy but dairy-free tomato base with fresh basil in this decadent and delicious vegan tomato gnocchi soup.
A few years ago my husband and I considered opening a vegan restaurant in our town. It seemed like a great idea at first: there wasn't a whole lot of vegan food around at the time, but our town is definitely the kind of place where you'd expect it to be in demand. We even went around and looked at some potential spots for our establishment, talked to other local business owners, that kind of thing. In the end, we decided not to because opening a place like that is a big investment and super risky. And at the time I already had a budding business: this blog, which conveniently was a lot less risky and required little initial investment to get started with.
Well the universe must have been spying on us because in the two or so years since we first toyed around with that idea, the amount of vegan food available within just a mile radius of where we live just about exploded.
We have so many options now! Haven't even gotten a chance to try them all yet (I cook at home a lot, as you might have guessed).
Anyway, a couple of the vegan and vegan-friendly places we've been frequenting have been offering tomato soup lately, and that set me off into a bit of a tomato soup kick. I got inspired to make a version of my own.
Guys, this tomato soup on its own was super tasty, but add some gnocchi and fresh basil...this stuff was amazing. Whenever possible, I like to make my soup into a meal, and regular old tomato soup isn't quite meal-worthy. That's where the gnocchi comes in. Not only does gnocchi make the soup super satisfying, but the combination of the soup with little potato pasta dumplings is delicious as heck.
I made the soup itself extra creamy by adding some coconut milk. I know not everyone that reads this blog is down with coconut milk. If that's you, feel free to sub your favorite non-dairy milk (cashew would be a good alternative).
If you have an immersion blender (even a cheap one like I have is a great investment) the soup ends up being an easy one-pot meal.
Creamy Tomato Basil Gnocchi Soup
Tender potato pasta dumplings swim in a creamy but dairy-free tomato base with fresh basil in this decadent and delicious vegan tomato gnocchi soup.
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 medium onion, diced
- 4 garlic cloves, minced
- 2 (14 ounce) cans fire roasted tomatoes
- 1 cup vegetable broth
- ¼ - ½ teaspoon red pepper flakes, to taste
- 1 cup full fat coconut milk, plus extra, for drizzling on top (optional)
- 1 (16 ounce) package shelf stable mini gnocchi
- 2 cups chopped fresh basil (1 large or 2 medium bunches), plus more for serving (optional)
- Salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
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Coat the bottom of a large pot with oil and place it over medium heat. When the oil is hot, add the onion and sauté until soft and translucent. Add the garlic and sauté about 1 minute more, until very fragrant.
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Add the tomatoes, broth and red pepper flakes. Raise the heat and bring the mixture to a boil. Lower the heat and allow it to simmer for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the liquid reduces a bit.
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Either use an immersion blender to blend the soup, or blend it in batches using a food processor or blender, and then return it to the pot. Stir in the coconut milk and raise the heat to bring the soup back up to a simmer. Stir in the gnocchi and simmer for about 4 minutes more, until the gnocchi are tender.
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Remove the soup from the heat. If you'd like, you can thin it with a bit of additional broth or coconut milk at this point. Stir in the basil and season the soup with salt and pepper to taste.
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Ladle into bowls and optionally top with a drizzle of coconut milk and a sprinkling of fresh basil. Serve.
No serving size listed.Nutritional info doesn't mean much without it.
There are 4 servings, so the nutrition info is for 1/4 of a batch - approximately 1 1/2 cups, but it'll vary a bit from batch to batch.
Hi! I recently moved to Switzerland from the US and fire roasted tomatoes are no where in sight. Ideas on what to add when using regular canned tomatoes to get the right flavor?
You could try adding a bit of smoked paprika to replicate the smoky flavor of fire roasted tomatoes. :)
Living in Germany, adding smoked paprika was my first idea, too. I'll be having this soup for dinner tonight. I'm usually baking dry gnocchi in a skillet until crispy before adding them to the soup. Just an idea...
I have made recipes requiring fire roasted tomatoes, two ways to accomplish this, chop up tomatoes, drizzle garlic infused olive oil to cover the tomatoes, broil them until you see some char occurring. How much? Your call, but be careful not to go to far, it's about flavor and not turning into an inedible mess. The other way I make them, is to add to the chopped tomatoes a couple cloves of fresh garlic and chopped red and yellow bell pepper, add some salt and pepper to taste,, This will work well into your soup and know one will know the difference, except they will be impressed that your culinary offering is totally from scratch! Well, if you make the gnocchi too, but close enough.
Oh!!! If only I'd seen this BEFORE I went grocery shopping. I'm making up next week's list right now to accommodate this for dinner one night. I only recently discovered the joys of making really good tomato soup from canned tomatoes, and I feel like my world got bigger, lol. I also discovered this: https://www.101cookbooks.com/archives/quickish-ricotta-dumplings-in-tomato-broth-recipe.html
(I use tofu, a big dab of hummus, some garlic, and nutritional yeast to make vegan ricotta.) I think I just need to buy shares in a canned tomato company, because my annual summer harvest just doesn't last long enough.
You know, for years I would only make tomato soup with fresh tomatoes, thinking that fresh was always the way to go, but I actually PREFER canned! And I'm all about fire roasted because I think the smoky flavor is awesome. :)
Are we talking coconut milk like the box of silk coconut milk? Or we talking the can of coconut milk like Goya or Thai kitchen brand?
I used canned coconut milk - Thai Kithchen I think! You could sub a boxed variety, but I don't think it will come out quite as rich and creamy.
Wow tried this tonight and it was just what I needed. I have been craving Italian food and this was quick and delicious. I love gnocchi, tomatoes and basil, the combination is great.
Yay!! I'm so glad you enjoyed it! Thanks Maria!
This sounds amazing and I plan to try it. DaI might substitute cilantro for basil. And both herbs work so well with tomatoes.
I hope you enjoy it! I think cilantro would be delicious!
Ignore previous message. I would add dal this recipe. My iPhone 6 loves to substitute strange words.
Lol. Autocorrect strikes again!
Where do you get your mini gnocchi?
I got mine at Wegmans (their brand), but I've seen it at lots of other supermarkets. You could sub regular size gnocchi if you need to. :)
Quick question on the gnocchi. Did you use fresh or frozen? I have frozen and was figuring that I might want to add a couple of minutes to ensure they are warmed thru. Great recipe! I will share on IG when I serve it. Thanks!
I used shelf-stable gnocchi, but I think frozen would work too, and I think giving them a few extra minutes to cook is a good idea! Enjoy!!
Mmmm... I think Isa Chandra has a pesto gnocchi soup in her Isa Does It book. I love how you each kind-of did your own spin on it! Looks so tasty!
Funny about the vegan restaurants! My husband and I lived in an apartment, and literally RIGHT after we moved out, a vegan restaurant opened within walking distance! What the heck? And in the old town I worked in, a vegan restaurant opened up as well! Sadly, both are healthy light vegan fares, but the one I went to was really tasty regardless. I haven't tried the other place yet. Probably a good thing you didn't open a restaurant, they are REALLY time consuming.
That's so funny...I ALMOST went with pesto! But then I got my hands on a nice big bunch of fresh basil and plans changed. I think vegan places must be popping up all over. One of the nice things about our town is that we've got all the vegan options covered - raw, healthy plant-based AND comfort food. :)
This turned out amazing. Thanks so much.
I'm so happy to hear that!! Thanks Alexandria!
this was so good!! thank you for all your amazing recipes <3
Thank you! You are so welcome!
This recipe is amazing! Absolutely love it!
I'm so happy to hear that! Thanks Jessica!
This soup is so good!! I even recommended it to my onmi family and they also love it. Thanks for the great recipe.
Yay!! Glad it was a hit! Thanks Nina!
How does this freeze? This sounds so yummy, but my husband does not like tomato soup, so I would probably be the only one eating it. Would you suggest freezing with the gnocchi or freeze beforehand and adding gnocchi when warming up after thawing?
I haven't frozen it, but I think it would work just fine! I think it would probably be best if you kept the gnocchi separate, but if that's too much of a pain I think freezing everything together would be fine. Enjoy!!
Thank you for this delicious recipe! I made some slight adjustments because I couldn't find any fire roasted tomatoes where I live, so I substituted regular canned chopped tomatoes and added some liquid smoke to get that smoky flavour. I'll definitely keep this one in the weekly rotation!
Yay! Glad you like it!
This is most likely my own personal preference that is influencing my 3 star review but I found the basil to be so overwhelming, it was just too much. I like using the the fire roasted tomatoes for the soup, I was pleasantly surprise , but I'm going to modify this recipe a bit to cater to my taste"less" taste buds 😂. No, in all seriousness, I do love herbs/seasonings lots, but unfortunately the fresh basil took over the entire dish , I will go much lighter next time. I will also add smoked paprika too (I did add a tad, but will add more).
Yummy! This was a delicious, smokey, flavorful soup and the gnocchi adds a great texture. My food processor didn't blend the onions as good as I'd hoped but the flavor was so good that it didn't matter! Didn't have basil but that was fine :)
SO yummy and so easy. Turned out amazing!
This was delicious! My partner and I ate the whole thing for lunch! I really like the flavor of coconut milk, and cook with it a lot, however in this recipe I did find it a tad overpowering. I think it would be perfect with about a third cup less. Definitely a scrumptious soup, and pretty easy to whip up.
Love this. Thanks for the recipe. I will be making this to freeze without the gnocchi & adding it after thawing (or not). It's great either way. Didn't have fresh basil so added some dried. This will also be my go to tomato soup recipe. I refuse to eat Campbell's & I haven't found an acceptable organic prepared soup. This is perfect since I can use ingredients of my choice & freeze it to have a "convenience food".
I'm glad you like it! It's actually my go-to tomato soup recipe too - I make it plain, with orzo, with veggies...all kinds of variations.
Can I use a can of San Marzano tomatoes?
You can! The flavor won't be as smoky, but the soup will still be delicious!
Made this for dinner with a vegan grilled cheddar sandwich for the perfect comfort meal. It was easy and so delicious. The fresh basil really paired well with the roasted tomatoes. I used frozen cauliflower gnocchi and it worked great. Thanks for sharing this yummy recipe ❤️