Copycat Nordstrom Tomato Basil Soup (3 Easy Ways)

Copycat Nordstrom Tomato Basil Soup tastes exactly like the bowl you order at the Nordstrom café — silky, rich, and just sweet enough — but it costs a fraction of the price and you can make it three different ways. Use the Instant Pot when you need dinner in under an hour, the slow cooker when you want it handled before noon, or the stovetop when you don’t feel like hauling out an appliance. Same seven ingredients every time.

I first had this soup as a kid. My parents took me to New York City for back-to-school shopping, we ended up at Nordstrom, and my mother insisted we stop for lunch. We both ordered the tomato basil soup with a cranberry turkey sandwich, and I’ve been chasing that bowl ever since. After making it at home more times than I can count, I’m convinced the secret isn’t the tomatoes at all — it’s the shredded carrots. They melt completely into the soup and add a natural sweetness that cuts the acidity without a spoonful of sugar.

Why You’ll Love This Recipe

• Seven simple ingredients. Olive oil, onion, carrots, basil, canned tomatoes, broth, and cream. That’s the whole list.
• Three cooking methods, one recipe. Instant Pot, slow cooker, and stovetop instructions are all below, with no changes to the ingredient amounts.
• It tastes like it simmered all day. Even the 5-minute pressure cook version has that long-cooked depth.
• Freezer friendly. Make a double batch and stash half for a night you don’t want to cook.
• Way cheaper than the café. One pot makes about eight generous bowls.

What Is Nordstrom’s Tomato Basil Soup?

Tomato basil soup is the signature item at the Nordstrom café, and it’s been on the menu for decades. It’s a cream-enriched tomato bisque — smooth, blended completely velvety, with basil running through it and a distinct sweetness that separates it from a standard tomato soup. The café serves it alongside a parmesan-garlic crostini, and it’s the reason a lot of people plan their shopping trip around lunch.

What makes this copycat Nordstrom tomato basil soup work at home is that it doesn’t rely on anything fancy. Canned tomatoes are genuinely better here than fresh most of the year, because they’re picked and packed ripe. The carrots do the sweetening. The cream does the rest.

Ingredients You’ll Need

Full ingredient amounts are in the printable recipe card at the bottom of this post.

• Olive oil: More than you’d expect for a soup, and that’s on purpose. It carries the basil flavor through the whole pot and gives the finished soup its silky body.
• Yellow onion: Diced. The savory backbone under all that sweetness.
• Shredded carrots: Buy the bagged pre-shredded ones and save yourself ten minutes of grating. These melt completely into the soup and are the real sweetener.
• Dried basil: Cooked with the vegetables, not stirred in at the end. Dried basil blooms in hot oil and infuses the entire pot in a way fresh basil simply can’t.
• Fresh basil: For finishing. Torn leaves stirred in off the heat give you that bright, fragrant top note.
• Crushed or pureed tomatoes: San Marzano if you can find them — they’re noticeably less acidic and this soup is mostly tomato, so the can you choose matters.
• Chicken broth: Or use homemade vegetable broth to make the soup vegetarian.
• Heavy cream: Don’t substitute milk or half-and-half here. The higher fat content is what keeps the dairy from breaking against all that tomato acid.
• Optional but recommended: A few cloves of minced garlic, added with the onions. Nordstrom’s version is subtle on garlic, so keep it light if you’re going for an exact match.

How To Make Copycat Nordstrom Tomato Basil Soup In The Instant Pot

Step 1: Sauté the aromatics. Add the olive oil to your Instant Pot insert and press Sauté. Let the oil heat about 30 seconds, then add the diced onion, shredded carrots, and dried basil.

Step 2: Cook until softened. Sauté 4 to 5 minutes, stirring, until the onions turn translucent and just begin to brown at the edges. Those browned bits are flavor.

Step 3: Deglaze. Pour in the broth and scrape the bottom of the pot thoroughly with a wooden spoon. Skip this and you’ll get a burn notice.

Step 4: Add the tomatoes. Stir in all three cans of crushed tomatoes, then stir in the heavy cream. Do not stir aggressively after this point — layering helps prevent scorching.

Step 5: Pressure cook. Seal the lid, set the valve to Sealing, and cook on High Pressure (Manual) for 5 minutes. Natural release. Let the pressure release naturally, about 15 to 20 minutes. Never force a lid off a pressure cooker. Wait until it opens easily.

Step 6: Use an immersion blender right in the pot and blend until completely smooth. Season with salt and pepper, stir in the fresh basil, and serve.

How To Make Copycat Nordstrom Tomato Basil Soup In The Slow Cooker

The slow cooker version is the most hands-off, and honestly it has the deepest tomato flavor of the three. Start it in the morning and blend it right before dinner.

You’ll need a 6-quart slow cooker or larger. This recipe makes about 12 cups, and a smaller crock will overflow once the cream goes in.

1. Sauté first. Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the onion, shredded carrots, and dried basil and cook 4 to 5 minutes until softened and lightly browned. If your slow cooker has a sauté function, do it right in the insert.
2. Transfer everything. Scrape the vegetables and all the oil into the slow cooker. That oil is holding most of the basil flavor.
3. Add tomatoes and broth. Pour in all three cans of tomatoes and the broth. Stir well.
4. Cook. Cover and cook on LOW for 6 to 8 hours, or HIGH for 3 to 4 hours.
5. Add the cream last. Stir in the heavy cream during the final 20 to 30 minutes and re-cover. Adding cream at the start of a long cook with this much tomato acid is how you end up with a grainy, separated soup.
6. Blend and finish. Immersion blend until smooth, season generously with salt and pepper, and stir in torn fresh basil.

Can I Just Dump Everything In?

Yes. Skip the skillet, add the raw onion, carrots, basil, and olive oil straight to the crock with the tomatoes and broth, and cook on LOW for 8 hours. You lose some of the caramelized sweetness that sautéing builds, but since everything gets blended smooth at the end, the texture is identical. It’s still a very good bowl of soup.

How To Make It On The Stovetop

No Instant Pot, no slow cooker, no problem — this is ready in about 40 minutes.

1. Heat the olive oil in a large Dutch oven over medium. Add the onion, carrots, and dried basil and cook 5 to 6 minutes until softened.
2. Add the tomatoes and broth, stir, and bring to a gentle simmer.
3. Partially cover and simmer 25 to 30 minutes, stirring occasionally so the bottom doesn’t scorch.
4. Reduce heat to low, stir in the heavy cream, and warm through for 5 minutes. Do not let it boil after the cream goes in.
5. Blend until silky, season, and finish with fresh basil.

Which Method Should You Use?

Method	Total Time	Best For
Instant Pot	~50 minutes	Weeknights when you started late
Slow Cooker	6-8 hours on LOW	Set-it-and-forget-it mornings, deepest flavor
Stovetop	~40 minutes	No special equipment, most control over thickness

All three use identical ingredients in identical amounts.

Tips For The Best Tomato Basil Soup

• Use good canned tomatoes. This soup is 80% tomato, so the brand genuinely matters. San Marzano or a quality crushed tomato will taste noticeably rounder than a bargain can.
• Bloom the dried basil in the oil. Adding it with the onions rather than with the liquid pulls far more flavor out of it.
• Deglaze properly in the Instant Pot. Tomato products are thick and prone to scorching on the bottom, which triggers a burn notice.
• Fix acidity with sweetness, not more salt. If your soup tastes sharp, add a pinch of sugar or a small splash of balsamic vinegar. Tomatoes vary a lot can to can.
• Blend longer than you think. The velvety texture is the whole point. Run the immersion blender an extra minute past when you think you’re done.
• Vent your countertop blender. If you’re not using an immersion blender, fill the pitcher no more than halfway and remove the center lid cap. Sealed hot liquid expands fast.
• Season at the end. Cream mutes salt, so taste and adjust after it’s blended, not before.

Variations

• Vegetarian: Swap the chicken broth for Instant Pot vegetable stock.
• Dairy-free: Replace the heavy cream with full-fat canned coconut milk. It’s a slightly different soup but a genuinely good one.
• Roasted tomato version: Roast two pounds of halved Roma tomatoes with olive oil at 425°F for 30 minutes and use them in place of one can. Adds real depth.
• Extra protein: Stir in shredded rotisserie chicken or a can of drained white beans after blending.
• Spicy: A pinch of red pepper flakes with the onions, or a few dashes of hot sauce at the table.

What To Serve With Copycat Nordstrom Tomato Basil Soup

Tomato soup is only half a meal. Here’s what I make alongside it:

• Air Fryer Grilled Cheese — the obvious answer, and the air fryer does it better than a skillet.
• Air Fryer Croutons — the closest you’ll get at home to Nordstrom’s parmesan-garlic crostini. Make them with parmesan.
• Air Fryer Garlic Bread — for dunking.
• Air Fryer Texas Toast Garlic Bread — the shortcut version, straight from frozen.
• Air Fryer Italian Grilled Cheese — when you want the sandwich to be the main event.
• Air Fryer Classic Cornbread or Jiffy Cornbread — an unexpected pairing that works beautifully.

Storing, Freezing, and Reheating

Refrigerator: Cool to room temperature, transfer to an airtight container, and refrigerate for 3 to 5 days. The flavor genuinely improves overnight.

Freezer: Cool completely, then portion into freezer-safe containers or bags, leaving an inch of headspace for expansion. Label and freeze up to 3 months. Cream-based soups can look separated after thawing — a quick whisk or blitz with the immersion blender brings it right back together.

Reheating from the fridge: Warm gently in a saucepan over medium heat, stirring, or microwave in 1-minute bursts. Don’t boil it.

Reheating from frozen: Thaw overnight in the refrigerator when you can. Otherwise, put the frozen block in a saucepan over low heat, breaking it apart and stirring often. Heat to 165°F.

Consistency note: The soup thickens in storage. Thin it with a splash of broth or water as you reheat.

Recipe FAQs

Is this copycat Nordstrom tomato basil soup vegetarian? Not as written — it calls for chicken broth. Swap in homemade vegetable broth or store-bought vegetable stock and it is.

Can I use fresh basil instead of dried? Use both, in different places. Dried basil goes in with the onions and carrots, where the hot oil pulls out its flavor. Fresh basil goes in at the very end, off heat, for aroma. If you only have fresh, use about three times the amount and add it after blending.

Why did my slow cooker soup curdle? Dairy breaks down over a long, hot cook, especially against tomato acid. Always add the cream in the last 20 to 30 minutes, keep the cooker on LOW, and use heavy cream rather than milk or half-and-half — the higher fat content is far more stable.

Can I make this in a Ninja Foodi? Yes. Use the pressure cooking function exactly as written for the Instant Pot method, and make sure you’re using the pressure lid, not the crisping lid.

How do I thicken the soup? Simmer it uncovered for 10 to 15 minutes to reduce, or blend in a slice of white bread. A cornstarch slurry works too, but reducing tastes better.

My soup is too tart. How do I fix it? A pinch of sugar or a splash of balsamic vinegar. If it’s badly acidic, a tiny pinch of baking soda neutralizes it — start with 1/8 teaspoon, it foams.

Can I double it? In the slow cooker, only if you have an 8-quart. In the Instant Pot, no — a single batch already sits near the max fill line, and you cannot exceed the two-thirds line with a liquid this thick.

Can I freeze it? Yes, up to 3 months. See the storage section above.

Does this taste like the real Nordstrom cafe soup? It’s very close. The carrots and the generous olive oil are what get it there. What you’ll be missing is their parmesan-garlic crostini, which is why I make air fryer croutons with parmesan to go with it.

More Instant Pot Soup Recipes

If you’re on a soup kick, these are the ones my readers make most:

• Instant Pot Olive Garden Cream of Tomato and Basil Soup — the other tomato soup worth making, brighter and more herbaceous than this one
• Instant Pot Copycat Panera’s Broccoli and Cheddar Soup
• Instant Pot Chicken Pot Pie Soup
• Instant Pot Cream of Butternut Squash Soup
• Instant Pot Broccoli and Cheddar Cheese Soup
• Instant Pot Copycat Olive Garden Gnocchi Soup
• Instant Pot Curried Pumpkin Soup

Browse every Instant Pot recipe or every copycat restaurant recipe on the site.