My Grandmother's Tomato Bisque Recipe on Food52 (2024)

FAQs

What is the difference between tomato soup and tomato bisque? ›

While both are delicious, they are quite different, especially when it comes to the texture. Tomato bisque is thicker and creamier in texture, and calls for the use of milk and/or cream.

Tomato soup is an excellent source of antioxidants, including lycopene, flavonoids, and vitamins C and E, among many others ( 3 , 7 ). Consuming antioxidants has been linked with a lower risk of cancer and inflammation-related diseases, such as obesity and heart disease ( 3 , 8 , 9 ).

Key Differences

Ingredients: Bisque is often made with seafood and enriched with heavy cream, whereas soup can be made with a wide range of ingredients, offering more versatility. Consistency: Bisque is consistently smooth and velvety, while soup can have a diverse range of consistencies, depending on the recipe.

This creamy tomato bisque recipe uses a combination of store-bought shortcuts like chicken broth and canned tomatoes along with aromatic vegetables to create a deeply flavorful soup that's ready in just over half an hour. Pureeing half of the bisque in a blender helps thicken it, as does adding a splash of heavy cream.

These recipes often incorporated an extra thickening agent made from a paste of ground up shells. These days, however, rice is more commonly used for thickening, and the name 'bisque' is often used in a broader sense to describe any thick, smooth soup that is made with cream added either during or after cooking.

Everyone filled out annual questionnaires on their food consumption, including raw tomatoes, tomato sauce, and gazpacho (a Spanish tomato soup). After three years, researchers observed an association between eating more tomatoes and lower blood pressure.

Tomatoes are rich in lycopene, an anti-inflammatory nutrient that fights inflammation throughout the body.

Due to its high potassium content, tomato soup helps maintain healthy blood pressure. Your blood pressure is the force with which your blood presses against your blood vessel walls. You don't want this pressure to be too high or too low.

Because of this distinction, there are many who argue that tomato bisque is not a true bisque at all because it has no crustacean products mixed in. However, the term has evolved in modern day to include cream based soup such as squash, mushroom, and tomato.

A bisque is a thick, creamy soup made with puréed shellfish or vegetables. A soup is a thinner, broth-based dish that can be made with a variety of ingredients.

Why do they call it tomato bisque? ›

Because of the evolution of this delicacy, the name bisque refers to the creamy texture rather than the actual ingredients of the soup. Just like any other version, tomato bisque is one of the modern ways to prepare a creamy soup where the primary ingredient is tomato.

You can add homemade croutons, parmesan cheese, red pepper flakes, a pinch of salt, cheese croutons, or anything else that you want to add to your own personal bowl of tomato soup.

Campbell's® Condensed Tomato Bisque is a delicious, indulgent twist on our classic tomato soup crafted with cream and tasty tomato pieces.

Tomato soup has no cream. Cream of tomato soup has cream. Bisque is peeled tomatoes, and lots of cream.

Although tomato bisque is technically a soup, several clear-cut differences separate the two, the most apparent being the ingredients. The critical components for making tomato soup are tomatoes and either chicken or vegetable stock, while tomato bisque adds heavy cream to these ingredients.

So that begs the question, what's the difference between a tomato bisque and cream of tomato soup? After combing through countless recipes I can honestly say there doesn't seem to be much of a difference. They can be seasoned a little differently, but in essence these two soups are the same thing.