Soup-stew · Slow cooker adaptation

KerryAnn Dunlop Slow Cooker Roasted Tomato Soup

KerryAnn Dunlop's batch-cooked tomato soup, oven-roasted to caramelise the natural sugars then slow cooked with garlic and thyme. Makes a big freezer-friendly pot for the days you don't feel like cooking.

R By Richard · Adapted from Jamie Oliver · Published 1 June 2026
👁 1.3M source views ❤️ 27.5k source likes
⏱Prep 15 min
🍲Slow cook 6 hr (Low) / 4 hr (High)
🍽Serves 8
Homemade Tomato Soup | KerryAnn Dunlop

Source video by Jamie Oliver on YouTube. This recipe was adapted with strict source-fidelity rules and is marked for human review.

Two kilos of tomatoes are halved cut-side up alongside a bulb of garlic, fresh thyme, olive oil and a pinch each of salt and pepper, then blasted in a hot oven until the natural sugars catch and turn jammy. The roasted tomatoes are squeezed free of their garlic skins, scraped into the slow cooker with 1.7 litres of vegetable stock and a generous bunch of basil, then cooked low until the flavours fuse and the liquid thickens. A quick blend with a stick blender, a final stretch on low to reduce, and the soup is ready. KerryAnn's note holds: it freezes really well.

Slow cooker notes: KerryAnn cooks the soup entirely on the hob after the oven roast. The slow cooker version keeps her 25 to 30 minute oven roast at 220C for the caramelisation (this is where the flavour comes from), then moves the simmer-blend-reduce sequence into the slow cooker on low.

Ingredients

Oven roast
  • 2 kgtomatoes on the vine, halved, cut side up, vines kept and added to the tray
  • 1 bulbgarlic, halved across the equator, with any loose skins or cloves added
  • 9 sprigsfresh thyme, lightly bruised
  • 4 tbspolive oil, drizzled over
  • fine salt
  • freshly ground black pepper
Slow cook
  • 1.7 Lvegetable stock
  • fresh basil, most of the bunch in, the prettiest tip leaves reserved
To serve
  • fresh basil leaves, the reserved tips (add late)
  • freshly ground black pepper (add late)

Method

  1. Heat the oven to 220C / gas mark 7.

    ~10 min

  2. Tip the halved tomatoes cut-side up into a sturdy roasting tray with the vines, the halved garlic bulb (loose skins too) and the thyme. Drizzle with the olive oil and season with the pinches of salt and pepper.

    ~5 min

  3. Roast for 25 to 30 minutes, until the tomatoes have caught around the edges and gone sticky.

    ~28 min

  4. Lift out the thyme stalks and vines and discard. Squeeze the soft, sweet garlic out of its skin into the slow cooker and add the tomatoes and any pan juices.

    ~5 min

  5. Pour in the vegetable stock and add the basil. Cover and cook on low for 6 hours or on high for 4 hours.

    ~360 min

  6. Blend with a stick blender until smooth.

    ~3 min

  7. Continue on low for another 30 to 60 minutes with the lid off or ajar to reduce and thicken.

    ~45 min

  8. Serve scattered with the reserved tiny basil leaves and a pinch of freshly ground black pepper.

    ~1 min

Frequently asked

Can I skip the oven roast and put everything straight in the slow cooker?
You can, but you will lose the caramelised sweetness that KerryAnn singles out as the point of the dish. The half-hour at 220C is the flavour step.
Will this freeze?
Yes. KerryAnn flags this as a batch-cooking recipe specifically because the soup freezes well.
Extraction notes (transparency): Salt and pepper quantities are given as 'a small pinch' and 'a generous pinch', recorded as null with the descriptor in notes. Basil is given as 'near enough a bunch', also null with notes. Everything else (tomatoes, garlic, thyme, olive oil, stock) is explicitly measured in the transcript.