Tomato Soup

[FoodMuse]

I'm looking for a recipe that can come together very quickly with pantry items. Any thoughts?

I saw one recipe that had you drain chopped tomatoes and roast them at a high heat on sheet pan before adding to broth. That sounds like a promising idea.

Grace

[rlibkind]

That's a great simple idea for a wintertime dinner.

If you want something quick, don't even bother to roast veggies. Use a good canned tomato, sweat some veggies you like (I'd go for onion, garlic), heat up with the tomatoes (using as much or as little of the liquid as you like), adding whatever seasonings strike your fancy. Then puree with an immersion blender. Serve topped with chopped herbs parsley, or chives of whatever you like, croutons, etc. Or instead of croutons, rice, couscous or other grain of choice.

[OliverB]

as a side note, you can buy (fire)roasted canned tomatoes.

[Blether]

Like rlibkind said, but with chicken stock if you have it / stock from cube if not. You can mellow out the tartness with some milk or cream - then a little sugar if you need it; or sugar alone.

[Beebs]

Pappa al pomodoro - tomato bread soup - is a quick delicious soup. Onions, lots of garlic, chili flakes, canned tomotoes and broth simmered together (I also use anchovies, but you can leave it out). Then stale bread dumped in at the end, and drizzle of EVOO. Makes a tasty breakfast the next day too, with a poached egg on top.

[MarkinHouston]

I use this recipe from "le Madeline" several times a year. It is quick and has great results.

Le Madeline’s Tomato Basil Soup

his is a tried and true favorite from Le

Madeline, a "French bistro" sort of place

which originated in Dallas. It's good

anytime of year, but I only use fresh

tomatoes during the summer tomato season and

use good quality canned the rest of the year.

Ingredients:

4 cups fresh tomatoes, peeled, cored, and

chopped, OR 4 cups canned whole tomatoes,

crushed ( last time I used a 28-oz can of

whole tomatoes and a 10-oz can of Rotel

Italian-style tomatoes..worked fine)

4 cups tomato juice, or mixture of tomato

juice and chicken stock

12-14 fresh basil leaves + more for garnish

1 cup whipping cream

1 stick unsalted butter, softened

salt to taste

1/4 tsp cracked black pepper

Crusty bread

Combine the tomatoes and juice (or juice-

stock combination) in a large saucepan.

Simmer over medium-low heat for 30 minutes.

Cool slightly, then place in a food

processor or blender with the basil leaves.

Process to puree; this should be done in two

or three batches.

Return mixture to saucepan and add the cream

and butter; stir over low heat until cream

and butter are incorporated. Stir in salt

and black pepper before serving. Garnish

with basil leaves and serve with the bread.

[d+d]

i like to throw in some frozen corn before i puree. adds sweetness and texture.

[kayb]

This one's quick, and very, very good. I like it smooth, so I put my immersion blender to work. Also, I half the recipe, as that makes a LOT.

6 Tablespoons Melted Butter

1 whole Medium Onion, Diced

1 bottle (46 Oz.) Tomato Juice

2 cans (14 Oz. Cans) Diced Tomatoes

1 Tablespoon (up To 3 Tablespoons) Chicken Base

3 Tablespoons (up To 6 Tablespoons) Sugar

1 pinch(es) Salt

Black Pepper To Taste

1 cup Cooking Sherry

1-½ cup Heavy Cream

Chopped Fresh Parsley

Chopped Fresh Basil

Sauté diced onions in butter until translucent. Then add canned tomatoes, tomato juice, chicken base, sugar, pinch of salt, black pepper and stir. Bring to a near boil, then turn off heat. Add in sherry and cream and stir. Add in parsley and basil to taste. Adjust other seasonings and serve with yummy, crusty bread on a cold blustery, dreary, depressing, rainy, snowy day.

This comes from Ree Drummond's Pioneer Woman blog. She credits it to her friend, Cathy.

Edited January 16, 2010 by kayb (log)

[petite tête de chou]

Use bacon fat to saute the onions and/or tomatoes. It really adds a super dimension to this simple soup.

[Lilija]

Pappa al pomodoro - tomato bread soup - is a quick delicious soup. Onions, lots of garlic, chili flakes, canned tomotoes and broth simmered together (I also use anchovies, but you can leave it out). Then stale bread dumped in at the end, and drizzle of EVOO. Makes a tasty breakfast the next day too, with a poached egg on top.

This version is great, and then sometimes instead of bread, I'll dump in a can or two of rinsed white beans, or a big wad of chopped greens, like chard or escarole (or both, if I'm feeling saucy.).

[FoodMuse]

Even better than bacon fat, I will be using DUCK fat for sauteing a little trinity veg!

Details shall follow.

Great recipes from you, and of course appreciated.

Grace

[Kim Shook]

Not tomatoes, but tomato juice - This recipe for Quick Tomato Consomme is better than it has any right to be. It's a Camille Glenn recipe - I love her and always have success with her recipes.

[eldereno]

All of these soups sound so yummy. I think I'll have to copy the entire thread to my recipe file!!!!

[Lilija]

Another cool thing with the canned tomato/broth/bean combo, is you can go different ways with it. Sometimes, lime, jalapeños or chipotle or some other hot pepper fresh or dried, cilantro, and a handful of frozen corn, or crushed up tortilla chips. Sometimes, lentils, a little cream, and curry powder, a knob of butter, lots of ginger and garlic. Or, Italian with white beans and frozen or fresh greens, garlic, olive oil, or any number of interesting combos.

I've even done tomatoes, a can of coconut milk, birds eye peppers, ginger, lemon grass, chicken broth, and baby corn, for a bizarre Thai kind of thing. The tomato/broth thing is limited only by what's laying around, your mood, your imagination.

[nakji]

A tablespoon of fresh ginger, sauteed in a neutral oil, to which you add a can of tomatoes and an equal measure of your favourite stock, simmer for about ten minutes, and whizz in the blender - it's a great, quick soup, especially to dress up the side of a cheese sandwich. Tomato soup and rilled cheese sandwiches has got to be my favourite rainy-day combination from when I was a kid, and I find the ginger makes it even more warming.

[HTGC]

Hello everyone! 

We have an assignment in class, culinary school. It's pretty simple. Make a tomato soup. 
A tomato soup based on Klosse's theory about taste/texture and so on. And obviously a tasty one.

 

So my question is, how do YOU make your absolut perfect tomato soup?

There's so many different ideas... Bake the tomatoes? Sugar? Wine? Which secrets do you use, to make the full body, rich in taste and simply lovely mesmeric tomato soup?

Best regards, this up-comming chef in Denmark!

[jmacnaughtan]

I use this method.

 

It's even better when you emulsify more olive oil into it at the end, with the blender.

[lindag]

I rely on Ina Garten's expertise when I make soup like that.

[blue_dolphin]

I made this tomato soup for the first time yesterday and liked the trick of using a little sodium bicarbonate to adjust the level of acidity, specifically to compensate for overly acidic canned tomatoes.  I ended up using 1/8 teaspoon for ~ 3 quarts of soup, so not much.

 

I'm usually wanting to add more acid to soups at the end so it surprised me that I liked it.

 

 

[TicTac]

The key, clearly - are the tomatoes.

 

By far the best tomato soups I have ever had are from my own grown heirloom tomatoes.

 

Simply cook with onions and garlic, put through a food mill to remove seeds/skin and reduce a bit if desired.  It is so sweet and unreal - my best tomato risotto's are also made from said liquid.

 

 

[Martin Fisher]

Depends on the type of soup.

For fresher soups like tomato and basil I use my method here to minimize cooking.

For cream of tomato and other rich soups I prefer the tomatoes be somewhat caramelized.

[HTGC]

The project we´re doing is in the class "food science". We'll start out tasting a pre-fabricated tomato soup to try and guess all the ingredients. After that, we'll individually make our own, based on that idea. While explaining why we choose the different ingredients and why we did what we did. 

I quite like the "baking everything" idea to intensify the tastes. Something acid for the contractions, maybe cream or sourcream for coating and then basing the pure flavour intensity on tomato/basil/garlic. Of course including spices as salt, pepper and most likely thyme as well. 

 

 

Edit: I did play with the thought about doing a completely clarified soup, but using the "gelatine/freeze/defrost" way, to cheat the vision a little. But due to limited time for the assignment, and the teacher probably finding it "wrongly solved" I scratched the idea. 
Tomorrow it's playtime instead, poussin with 7 kinds of beets!

 

And thank you all for these outstanding answers. 

Edited January 17, 2017 by HTGC (log)

[paulraphael]

Here's what I've been doing, as much because it's easy as it's delicious. Works best with a high-powered blender. proportions can be adjusted to suit any taste, so I'm not giving any quantities.

 

-Quarter a bunch of really good tomatoes.

-peel and quarter some onion.

-peel some garlic.

-optionally peel some ginger.

-Puree it all until completely smooth in blender.

-Pour a portion of it into skillet, preferably one with a light interior.

-Pour the rest into a pot and heat.

-Reduce and brown the portion that's in the skillet. Deglaze with some of the fresh soup, and pour the deglazing liquid in the pot with the rest of the soup

-Add any fresh herbs you want.

-Simmer until it has the level of cooked flavor you like.

-Season

-Optionally swirl in some olive oil or cream

 

You can do this in about 25 minutes. The browning / reducing step introduces deeper, roasted flavors. Without this step the soup is pink and has a very light / fresh flavor. You can adjust the fresh-to-roasted spectrum of flavors with the quantity that you choose to reduce and brown.

 

I've done this with canned tomatoes, and it's good if you can find good ones. You probably won't have to add salt.

 

 

 

Edited January 18, 2017 by paulraphael (log)

[Paul Fink]

If you want the perfect tomato soup you need garden fresh tomatoes.

A little salt. A little pepper, And a little good quality aged red wine vinegar.

Edited January 18, 2017 by Paul Fink (log)

[cyalexa]

I like a little blue cheese (50 grams in about a liter of soup) and touch of sriracha in my tomato soup.