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There comes a time in the lifespan of every summer garden when the gardener has the delicious dilemma of what to do with a bounty of fresh tomatoes, all ripe at the same time. Besides making sauce, eating endless plates of Caprese salad, and freezing the tomatoes for later use, I like to make a fresh tomato soup. It may be a very simple recipe but it’s also incredibly tasty and satisfying, especially when served with a gooey grilled cheese sandwich or macaroni and cheese.
Homemade Tomato Soup
2 cups chopped carrots
2 cups chopped celery
3 cups diced onions
6 cloves garlic, minced
12 cups chopped fresh tomatoes
2 Tbsp olive oil
2 cups water or chicken stock
2 Tbsp kosher salt
2 tsp. sugar
Rough chop all the vegetables. It doesn’t matter what they look like because the soup will be blended later, but make sure the carrots, onions and celery are all about the same size so they cook at the same rate.
In a large soup pot, heat the olive oil. Add in the carrots, celery and onions and cook until the onions are translucent, about 10 minutes. Add in the garlic and cook another 5 minutes, but don’t let the vegetables brown. Add in the tomatoes and water or chicken stock. Allow to simmer for about an hour, stirring occasionally, until the tomatoes break down and the carrots are soft.
Turn off the heat and allow to cool for 15 minutes.
Puree the soup, either with a stick blender or in batches in a conventional blender. I use a Braun hand blender that’s about 20 years old, but if I had to get a new one, I’d probably get this Cuisinart CSB-76 Smart Stick Hand Blender because it looks like the Braun ones may no longer be available.
Once the soup is all pureed, push it through a sieve. I use a chinois like this, Stainless Steel China Cap Chinois Fine Strainer: 12-inch but you can use any kind of strainer. The point is that you want to get out the tomato skins and seeds, but push through the rest of the vegetables. If you use too fine a mesh strainer, you will just end up with tomato juice. I lost about 2 cups of “solids”, mostly skin and seeds, during the straining process.
If you can skin and seed your tomatoes before making the soup you don’t have to strain it. But this is time consuming and I found it just easier to strain.
Put all the strained soup back in the pot and add the salt and sugar to taste. Even though my tomatoes were very ripe and sweet, I almost always add a couple of teaspoons of sugar to tomato soup or sauce because it helps balance out the acidity of the tomatoes and bring out the natural sweetness.
To serve, reheat the soup. I like to garnish it with a dollop of homemade pesto.
Other garnish options include a bit of milk or cream to make a “bisque”, chopped tomatoes to make a chunky tomato soup, fresh grilled garden vegetables (corn, zucchini, yellow squash, etc), or even tiny meatballs.
The possibilities are endless. Use your imagination!
Yield 12 cups. Freezes well for a few months.
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Love the photos. Thank you for this recipe. I’ve never made tomato soup as fresh as this, it’s always from canned tomatoes. Hmmm…your link to the hand blender is making me want to buy one finally–such a good price!
Think your soup will be my salvation with all these tomatoes. I bet it is just as good cold as it is hot, too.
This looks amazing, I have so many fresh tomatoes to use, I am going to make this and freeze some, thanks for sharing this great recipe!!
Thank you for sharing your delicious soup recipe. Made it on Sunday. The flavor and texture was wonderful. I will make it again with our next batch of tomatoes & freeze some for the fall.
That’s awesome! Thanks so much for letting me know. I’m glad you enjoyed it.
have you ever put everything through a food mill instead of a sieve? Definitely going to try it today.
I’m sure a food mill would work, I just don’t have one. If you try it, let me know!
Food mill worked great. Soup is just wonderful, I will definitely make it again. I would even eat it chunky myself, but the kids wanted it smooth!
Thanks for letting me know! I prefer smooth myself, but the most important thing is to get the seeds and skin out. You can try taking the skin off and seeding before making the soup and then only blending only part of it for a chunkier version. In fact, my next post is going to be a “how to” on peeling and seeding tomatoes.
Wonderful Summer Tomato Soup recipe, I used my Food Mill and it was wonderful, I put a dollop of Sour Cream in the center and it was great.
I’m so excited to try this. We have a garden-full of fresh tomatoes, a stick mixer and a chinois that has NEVER been used. Thanks!
It was totally yum. Next time, I will puree a tiny bit longer and NOT strain for bits. That was the only tedious part.
Thanks for letting me know. Glad you liked it!
I agree that the straining can be tedious.
Next time you might try peeling and seeding the tomatoes first (http://formerchef.com/2009/08/20/how-to-peel-and-seed-fresh-tomatoes/) if you still want to avoid having skin and seeds in the soup but don’t want to strain it.
I think this soup look good but have not yet tried it, i will try it one day!
I added a few (3-5) leaves of sage and linden for the nice smell. Not cooked yet will write results.
Thx for the delicious recipe – I made enough to have leftovers, but ate my entire batch by bedtime…
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