Instantly Boost Campbell's Tomato Soup With This Liquid Combo

Few dishes are as comforting as a hearty bowl of soup. Even the canned variety has a nostalgic quality, filling the mouth with familiar flavors and the stomach with warmth. If you lack the time or patience to make some from scratch, you can always hack traditional canned soup to give it extra flavor.

One such elevation technique comes to Food Republic from Rachel Kirk, recipe developer for Laughing Spatula. Kirk shared that, to take your canned tomato soup into new heights, "A little bit of heavy cream, plus some blended roasted red peppers[,] will make all of the difference." She went on to explain, "The whipping cream adds a creamy texture (you just need a little bit!) and the roasted red peppers add a depth of flavor you don't usually get with canned soup."

Simply start with that iconic red-and-white can of Campbell's tomato soup, which still ranks as one of the top tomato soup brands after all these years and has a rich history of changing the culinary world. Prepare the soup as normal according to the package instructions, then Kirk instructed us to add your cream and red pepper blend near the end of cooking, "and allow [everything] to come up to serving temperature." The final result will taste more like a homemade effort, but without the extra steps required for making a from-scratch soup.

Once your canned soup has been aided with the flavor-elevating hack of rich cream and roasted peppers, it stands alone as something delicious to comfort and satisfy. Expanding it into a full meal, however, is as simple as pairing it with a quintessential accompaniment. Rachel Kirk stated, "Obviously[,] a grilled cheese with tomato soup is a classic pairing!" There's a historical reason we pair tomato soup and grilled cheese, and the two go together as naturally now as they did several generations ago.

In addition to a standard grilled cheese sandwich — eaten separately or dipped right into the soup — you can take an extra transformative step to upgrade your soup-and-sandwich combo. "You can get creative and cut the grilled cheese into cubes, almost like croutons, so you get a little piece with every bite," Kirk suggested. "Want to skip the sandwich route?" she added. "Toast some sourdough in the oven with a little bit of butter and a dash of garlic for a quick crostini (Nordstrom Cafe vibes!)."

A slice of skillet cornbread or even a tuna melt are other classic pairings that complement the brightness of tomato soup. But don't hesitate to get creative with your accompaniment — a Caprese salad will bring another layer of freshness to your meal, or you could get really creative and add some crunchy tortilla strips and diced avocado for a Latin American vibe.