Tomato Soup Mac & Cheese
Did you do a double-take? That’s right, this comfort food mashup combines everything you love about warm, velvety tomato basil soup with the creamy, cheesy goodness of homemade macaroni and cheese. Taking two of my favorite comfort foods and blending them together into a new dish is one of the things that gets me most excited about cooking. The other is keeping that dish packed full of crave-worthy flavor while keeping the calories in check so that it’ll fit nicely into my Weight Watchers lifestyle. At just 330 calories and 10 Green, 10 Blue or 4 Purple Weight Watchers SmartPoints, a generous serving of this Tomato Soup Mac & Cheese with a side of veggies is a decadent, satisfying meal that is sure to please palates of all ages. This dish serves as a great vegetarian option, but if you’re the type that needs to tear into some meat at every meal, consider serving half portions of this as a side dish for steak or chicken.
To view your WW PersonalPoints for this recipe and track it in the WW app or site, click here!
Tomato Soup Mac and Cheese
Ingredients
- 16 oz uncooked wheat elbow macaroni or pasta shells
- 3 tablespoons light butter, divided
- ¼ cup chopped onion
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 1/8 teaspoon crushed red pepper
- 1 (14.5 oz) can whole tomatoes
- 1 cup vegetable broth
- ¼ cup torn basil leaves
- 1/8 teaspoon dried thyme
- 2 tablespoons flour
- 1 ¼ cups fat free milk
- ½ teaspoon dry mustard powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 2 oz 50% reduced fat sharp cheddar, shredded (I used Cabot brand)
- 4 oz sharp cheddar, shredded (I used Cabot Seriously Sharp)
Instructions
- Pre-heat the oven to 350. Lightly mist a 9x13 baking dish with cooking spray and set aside.
- Cook pasta in salted water according to package instructions. Drain and set aside.
- While the water is boiling for step one, melt one tablespoon of the light butter in a medium saucepan over medium-low heat. Add the onion, garlic and red pepper flakes and cook for about 5 minutes until softened. Add the canned tomatoes, vegetable broth, basil and thyme and raise heat to bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer uncovered for 15 minutes.
- While the tomatoes are simmering, melt the remaining 2 tablespoons of light butter in another saucepan. Add the flour to the butter and stir to combine. Add the milk a little at a time and whisk the flour mixture into the milk until smooth. Add the mustard powder and salt and stir to combine. Add 4 ounces of the shredded cheese (set aside 2 ounces for topping) to the milk mixture and whisk together until smooth. Make sure heat is on the lowest setting and warm cheese sauce for about 5 minutes to thicken.
- When the tomato mixture is done simmering, pour it into a blender (or use an immersion blender – one of my favorite tools!) and blend until smooth. Add the tomato mixture to the cheese sauce and stir to combine. Mix in the cooked pasta until well coated. Pour the pasta mixture into the reserved baking dish and sprinkle the reserved cheese over the top. Bake for 20 minutes until cooked through and bubbly.
Notes
9 per serving (P+ calculated using the recipe builder on weightwatchers.com)
Two of my favorite things…planning on making it this weekend!
Hope you love it!
This kind of reminds me of macaroni and tomatoes my granny has always made. adding cheese sounds perfect! you can never go wrong with cheese.
Agreed, the more cheese the merrier!
Oh I love the pictures! I wish I could eat them right now. But would try them on the coming weekend. I’m gonna use some raw tomatoes too simultaneously. I’ve heard they increase the nutritional value as well enhance the absorption, if raw and cooked tomatoes are consumed together. (Superfoods)
I hate to ask this question, but could I sub Campbell’s healthy request tomato soup? If so, would that increase the points?
I’m sure you could probably substitute it, but as I didn’t calculate it that way i can’t really speak to the points. You’d have to recalculate it. Hope you like it!
I’m just getting back on WW — So happy to have found your blog! LOVE the new look!!!
Thanks Kim! 🙂
Genius idea to combine tomato soup and mac and cheese!!
Thanks Bianca!
The flavor is delicious….but my cheese sauce seized! 🙁
We loved this Emily!!! My boys said, “this is a keeper!”
I haven’t yet had success with any of the mac n cheese’s on here unfortunately. My cheese sauce curdles everytime. 🙁
Oh no! I’m not sure what to tell you because that has never happened to me :/
I have never had my cheese sauce curdlefrom any of Emily’s recipes for mac and cheese, but I found that the flavor for this recipe was somewhat bland. Any suggestions for amping up the flavor without making it spicy-hot? It freezes REALLY well (great for individual weeknight meals when the family isn’t eating something WW friendly.)
If I want to use fresh tomatoes instead of canned, how many do you think I would need?
My husband and I had this for dinner two nights ago (and for lunch yesterday and today!) and we are officially in love. It was quick, easy, SUPER delicious, and so filling. We actually just used Campbell’s tomato soup and it came out great, in case anyone else was wondering about that substitution.
Thank you so much, Emily, for your awesome recipes. I am obsessed with your blog and Instagram, and we have one of your recipes at least once a week! You rock!
Yay, I’m so glad you loved it! Thanks for reporting back about the canned soup for people who want a faster option. Thanks so much for your comment, I’m thrilled you’re loving the recipes!!
When I input this into the recipe builder at 8 servings I get 8 PP and not 9 PP…can I ask how many points were assigned to the canned tomatoes? Mine hits at 0 PP…could that be right? Thank you!!
Nutrition and points plus values can always differ from mine based on the brands you use. It’s more likely to be the pasta, butter or cheese brand than the canned tomatoes, but you should use the value for the ingredients you input. Hope that helps!
Do you think any of your pasta dishes {leftovers} could be put in the freezer? I am single person so when I make dishes I try to have some in the freezer for later…. I know lasagna you can freeze so I am thinking with this you could. Have you ever tried it?
16oz pasta – is that cooked or uncooked? I can never figure out pasta when inputting it into the WW app :-/
Uncooked 🙂
This is one of my favorite recipes! Great comfort food and easy to make. I do use crushed tomatoes instead of diced so I can skip the blending step and that works well. Delicious dish that my whole family enjoys!
Hi! I love your recipes and really want to give this one a try, can I blend the whole tomatoes before cooking them? Handling hot food and trying to pour into a blender gives me a bit of anxiety haha