Tomato Soup

[gfweb]

My sense of tomato soup is rustic. attempts to deconstruct it or refine it are interesting but lose it's essence. 

[rotuts]

Yes , the tomatoes have to be ( Your ) garden fresh and perfectly ripe.

 

given that , and i used to have 24 tomato plants , over 6 ft tall  

 

Id almost rather eat them raw or give them away to neighbors.

 

id say give the tomatoes a sniff test  :  if they have aroma  then you are moving in the right direction.

 

less is better w the garden tomato.

[kayb]

I use either fresh, homecanned, or in a pinch, grocery store diced tomatoes. Saute onion and garlic. Add sherry, cook down by a third. Add tomatoes. Depending on how liquid it is and how liquid you want it, add chicken stock to thin (I guess you could use veggie stock, or even water, if you wished). Add lots of fresh basil. Simmer a few minutes, puree, then return to heat and add heavy cream or yogurt; rewarm but don't  boil.

 

 

[chromedome]

I favor good-quality canned whole tomatoes, because here in Atlantic Canada garden-fresh tomatoes come and go in a few weeks and store-bought are usually pretty blah. I use canned rather than diced, because diced tomatoes have calcium chloride added to firm up the cell walls and keep the chunks from breaking down. I look for a smooth rather than a chunky texture in mine, hence whole tomatoes (or even crushed, in a pinch). 

[Beebs]

Perfect tomato soup? It's one that comes with a grilled cheese sandwich! 

 

I'm partial to pappa al pomodoro - Tuscan bread & tomato soup.  I use canned whole roma tomatoes, leftover rind of parm, and drizzle of extra virgin olive oil on top.

[jedovaty]

Apologies for responding to a slightly older topic.  I'm just a huge fan of tomatoes, couldn't help but share this, though a little late to the game.

 

If you want to go a little away from conventional you can also do a consumme.  Blitz ingredients in a blender (tomatoes, garlic, basil, etc, roasted or not, all good), toss them into a nut-milk bag (or flour sack cloth) hang in fridge over night.  You'll get a clear, slightly-reddish liquid, that's your soup.  Mix the left overs with some flour and optionally parmesan, roll out thin, bake to make tomato crackers along with the soup (melt some cheese on the cracker?). 

 

As others have said, the tomato itself is the key.

[Tri2Cook]

Open the Campbell's can, plop it into a pan, fill can with water (milk mellows it too much), add to pan, heat, add pepper to taste and a small piece of butter. While it's heating, butter bread and toss it in a pan, top with cheese and another slice of buttered bread. Brown on both sides to your liking. Soup in bowl, sandwich on plate, dunking recommended but optional. Adding the pepper and butter are the "perfecting" part.

[Katie Meadow]

Comparing tomato soup made in the summer from juicy ripe tomatoes to winter soup made from good quality Italian canned tomatoes is like comparing apples to oranges. They are simply different, and if you want a yummy bowl of soup in the winter you gotta go with canned tomatoes. I like to cut canned tomatoes in half and roast them in the oven to boost their flavor.

 

And recently I learned a new trick: how to make smoky tomato soup. Of course there are many ways to do that, one being to use smoked paprika. But if you are going for smokiness that isn't paprika or chipotle flavored try this: steep some lapsang souchong tea in hot broth for a few minutes before adding the broth (or water) to the pot. Strictly up to you how much to use, and it doesn't make the soup taste like tea, if you are wondering. It's Campfire Tomato Soup. And if you don't have enough bread for grilled cheese sandwiches try making cheesy pan-fried croutons and add them before serving.

[kayb]

Saute a diced onion. Add garlic (to your taste 1-12 cloves). Add a half-cup sherry, reduce. Add a cup of chicken stock.Bring to a boil. Add a 14-oz can/pint of homecanned tomatoes. Bring back to a boil, reduce heat, spice to your tastes. Blitz with an immersion blender. Add 1/2 cup heavy cream. 

 

Make a grilled cheese sandwich. Turn off the phone, ignore the doorbell, enjoy lunch.

 

[EatingBen]

erm, no cream or milks in any I make. Ever since Chefsteps posted the easiest tomato soup I've been sort of following that and just adding and subtracting where ever I feel like. 

 

https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/easiest-ever-tomato-soup

 

Xanthin gum as a thickener and I use fresh tomatoes and tomato paste and just use what ever herbs I have and that will taste good. Sometimes I roast everything down when I use onions, capsicums and carrots and I caramelise it all. Other time I put it all in the blender raw (I've a high speed blender) and the last one I made I tenderised all the vegetables in a water bath at 80c for two hours which was enough to kill off the rawness of the onions but still leave them a little biting and make the soup nice and smooth when I blended. Plus I didn't need to add much stock to it. 

[liuzhou]

Many years ago, there was a wonderful Sichuan restaurant here in town, sadly long gone. One of the many very popular dishes was a tomato soup flavoured with what I partly identified as the usual Sichuan spices. Certainly Sichuan peppercorn and white pepper. Chili peppers, of course. But what else?
 

I've searched for years for a recipe, but with no luck. I've never found the soup in any other Sichuan restaurant either. Even in Sichuan. I have experimented with attempting to replicate it, and although the results have been OK, there is always something missing. I think I need some Sichuan fairy dust.

[Duvel]

1 hour ago, liuzhou said:

Many years ago, there was a wonderful Sichuan restaurant here in town, sadly long gone. One of the many very popular dishes was a tomato soup flavoured with what I partly identified as the usual Sichuan spices. Certainly Sichuan peppercorn and white pepper. Chili peppers, of course. But what else?
 

I've searched for years for a recipe, but with no luck. I've never found the soup in any other Sichuan restaurant either. Even in Sichuan. I have experimented with attempting to replicate it, and although the results have been OK, there is always something missing. I think I need some Sichuan fairy dust.

... aka MSG ? I find the combination of MSG, chili and Sichuan pepper (oil) simply the best addition to anything savoury

[liuzhou]

3 minutes ago, Duvel said:

... aka MSG ? I find the combination of MSG, chili and Sichuan pepper (oil) simply the best addition to anything savoury

 

MSG would have gone without mention in the restaurant. I've used that. There must be another kind of fairy!

[TicTac]

Well considering MSG is naturally occurring in Tomatoes, there is some in it, whether they add more or not....

 

Back on topic, my favorite rendition of Tomato soup contains garden fresh (or garden frozen - typically heirloom) tomatoes, onion, garlic, some chili, and at the end - home made sauerkraut!

 

The contrast between the sweet tomatoes, heat from chili and tang from the kraut is awesome!

 

 

 

[Margaret Pilgrim]

Staff note: This post and responses to it have been split from the Significant firsts in the kitchen discussion, to manintain topic focus.

 

We enjoy a much simpler dish.     Simply a handful of ripe tomatoes, peeled and cut up.    Half an onion.    Throw all in a small pot and melt over a low heat, continuing to mash the tomatoes as they cook down.    When a thick puree, add a good size lump of butter and good glug of heavy cream.     Salt and pepper to taste.   Give a couple of whirls with a stick blender.     Clean and fresh summer in a bowl in under 10 minutes.

[Tropicalsenior]

40 minutes ago, Margaret Pilgrim said:

We enjoy a much simpler dish. 

Except for the seasonings, that sounds an awful lot like an Indian tomato soup that I used to make. Very simple and delicious. I'm going to have to see if I can find the recipe.

[Katie Meadow]

I make two tomato soups. The one I make in the winter uses canned Italian plum tomatoes that get roasted before blending. For this soup cream is optional and gets added at the end to taste. I prefer it without the cream. Come summer I make a fresh tomato soup with dry-farmed early girls. I suppose it could be made with heirlooms, and I also assume, since there's not much to this soup except  for peak-season fruit,  the flavor of the soup would change depending on the variety of tomato.

 

To make my summer tomato soup I find this to be a most effective way to seed and peel:

 

CucinaPro Tomato Strainer- Easily Juices w No Peeling Deseeding or Coring Necessary- Suction Cup Base, Food Press (eG-friendly Amazon.com link)

 

It is by no means perfect, but it is extremely good looking: a red plastic tomato press.  It is a design which probably could have been improved, but it gets the job done. And it makes you feel very happy when you first take it down from the shelf after many months of not looking at it. The happiness is somewhat tempered by frustration when the suction bottom fails, but now that's just part of the experience.