Tomato Soup

If you picture the canned soup you buy down the soup aisle and are thinking to yourself, “I don’t need to spend my time making something so very banal.”, you may want to reconsider. This homemade tomato soup shares only one thing with the salty canned version: both are mostly red.

Scent, texture and flavor of this soup are difficult to describe. Every spoonful makes you wish your spoon was bigger so you could eat faster and keep your tongue constantly covered with the insanely great flavor of fresh tomatoes cooked. As you eat, tomato permeates your brain; tomato fills your mouth with joy.

To make the soup, get fresh tomatoes. Try buying at a farmer’s market or produce-stand when tomatoes are in season. If you miss the season, give the produce aisle a try. Buy the smaller, round tomatoes and the oblong roma tomatoes. The larger, flatter-shaped tomatoes are good for salad but not great for sauces and soups. Best to avoid those. About ½ round and ½ roma tomatoes will do the trick, through any combination of the two should taste great. This recipe will make enough to can so you can have soup when you want it.

So get yourself about 25 pounds, or ½ bushel of tomatoes and make some soup:

25 lbs of tomatoes
1 bunch of celery
7 large onions

Chop the above and simmer together for 2 hours. Simmering reduces the soup and concentrates the flavor.
Cool and run them through a food mill.
Set aside 1 ½ cup of the mixture.

Add to the remaining mixture

1 ¼ cup honey (or 1 ½ cup brown sugar)
¼ cup kosher salt
1 lb butter

Mix to combine.

To the 1 ½ cup tomato mixture you set aside, add 2 cups flour to make a paste.

Add the paste to the rest of the tomato mixture and stir. The paste will form tiny dumplings if you do not stir it in completely. This is not really a bad thing. The little dumplings add texture.

Bring the soup to a boil, stirring frequently to avoid scorching.

When the soup is boiling, have a bowl or:

1 – Can the soup
2 – Freeze the soup

To freeze the soup:

While the soup is cooling, label enough freezer bags to hold the amount of soup you will freeze. It is best to freeze enough for a meal in each container; one to four servings. Choose the bag size to fit your choice of meal size. When the soup is cool, ladle the desired amount of soup in each bag, seal tightly and carefully lay the bag in your freezer. It is best to lay the bag(s) on a flat surface. They will freeze into shapes like tiny tiles that are easily stacked.

To can the soup:

If you are already a canner, this is easy. Prepare your jars by sterilizing them in boiling water. When the soup reaches a boil, ladle the soup into the jars, cover with lids and rings. Then finish with a 20 minute water bath.

Caution – If you decide to add other vegetables, for example carrots, you may have to lengthen the time of the water bath. For complete canning instructions and safety hints, go here: www.uga.edu/nchfp/how/can_home.html – check for the vegetables you added to your soup and use the longest water bath suggested.

As with all canned foods, be sure the jars seal and check the seal again before using.

Enjoy this soup. You will never consider tomato soup out of a can again. If you had to use tomatoes from the produce aisle, next season, try another batch with fresh from the garden tomatos.

Copyright 2005 Chromia Poetics