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Tomato Soup
Our homemade Tomato Soup is a delicious way to enjoy the last garden tomatoes before the frost. Or, make this soup with canned tomatoes other times of the year.
Ingredients
3 pounds fresh garden tomatoes, see note below for prep (or if using cans, two 28 ounce cans plum tomatoes, diced with juice)
1/2 cup good-quality extra virgin olive oil
2 cups diced yellow onions
1 cup peeled and diced carrots
1 cup diced celery
1 1/2 tablespoons chopped garlic
2 bay leaves
1 cup chopped fresh basil, divided
2 large thyme sprigs left whole
2 large sprigs Italian flat-leaf parsley, stems left on and left whole
1 cup vegetable broth
2 5.5-ounce cans tomato juice
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
5 tablespoons tomato paste, divided
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Pinch of red pepper flakes
1 tablespoon butter
1/2 cup heavy cream, optional
Your favorite grilled cheese sandwich, cut into sticks for serving, also optional
Instructions
- If using fresh tomatoes: The skins of plum tomatoes cook down enough in this soup so that you don’t need to peel them but you do need to remove the seeds as they will make the soup bitter. The easiest method is to have two bowls; one small bowl with a strainer and one bowl large enough to hold the cleaned tomatoes.
- If you are using plum tomatoes, nip off the end and cut in half lengthwise. Then with your thumb or index finger, scrape the seeds from each half into the bowl with the strainer. If cutting larger round tomatoes, cut out core and cut them in half horizontally. Then over the bowl with the strainer, reach up and scrape out all the seeds. Place the cleaned tomatoes into the larger bowl without the strainer. Finally move the seeds around the strainer to get out any last bit of juice and discard seeds. Take the liquid left in the bowl and add to the large bowl with the tomato halves. With three pounds of tomatoes, you should end up with a little over 2 pounds of cut up tomatoes (weighed on a scale). This is equal to about six to eight cups (a little more or less is fine).
- In a medium to large Dutch oven or heavy bottomed pot, add olive oil, onions, carrots, celery, garlic and bay leaves. Cook over medium high for five minutes. Add tomato halves with juice (or canned).
- Add half of the fresh cut up basil. Tie whole thyme and whole parsley together with twine and place in pot.
- Add broth, tomato juice, sugar, 3 tablespoons tomato paste, salt, pepper and red pepper flakes and bring to a boil. Lower to a simmer, cover and cook 30 minutes.
- Remove and discard bay leaves, thyme and parsley. Depending on the variety of tomato, you may also need to pick out tough skins. Using a pair of tongs, simply reach in and remove all visible skins which have now peeled off the tomato halves. The process of removing the skins is easy and can be done in under five minutes.
- Add second half of basil to the soup and stir in the butter. With an immersion blender, blend soup until completely pureed.
- At this point, if you like the soup very thick, add the remaining two tablespoons of tomato paste and cook for another few minutes. If you’d like it thinner, omit the last two tablespoons of paste.
- Also adding cream is optional as a personal preference. We left it out.
- Serve as is or with grilled cheese sandwiches. (We cut our sandwiches into sticks for dunking)
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Notes
The best tomatoes to use for this soup are plum-type tomatoes because the skins are thin and the seeds are few, but any tomato or combination of tomatoes will work. Also note: The instructions written above assume that you are using fresh tomatoes. Feel free to skip to step #2 if you are using canned.
Avoid using grape or small cherry tomatoes since they have a lot of skin and seeds and only a little pulp.
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