Tomato Soup with Grilled Vegetables |great for canning|

When our vegetable garden is teeming with juicy, best-tasting tomatoes, I make delicious tomato soup. It tastes so much better than store-bought stuff.

updated from 2012

WHY HOMEMADE TOMATO SOUP?

• Summer is the perfect time to make fresh tomato soup and can it for winter months. Tomatoes are at their peak flavor. You can get tomatoes in bulk from farmer’s markets or use tomatoes from your garden if you have one.
• When you make soup from scratch, you control the ingredients used. Use the best ingredients for you and your family.
• You are in charge of salt content. Store-bought soups are often loaded with excess sodium and preservatives.
• Homemade tomato soup makes an excellent base for other tomato-based sauces.
• I feel like summer has returned whenever I open a jar, especially in the cold months.
• It’s a treat to enjoy warm homemade tomato soup. Let’s make grilled vegetable tomato soup.

HOW TO PREPARE GRILLED VEGETABLE CANNING TOMATO SOUP

I love this tomato soup. The process is simple: I combine homemade tomato sauce with grilled vegetable puree and season it with salt and pepper. As you can imagine, the marriage of these two powerhouses results in full-bodied soup. But, honestly, it’s so much more than just soup. I use it to make stuffed peppers and any tomato sauce dish. It’s not seasoned with any herbs, allowing me to add herbs later.

TOMATO SAUCE

If you haven’t made tomato sauce before, I won’t lie: it’s a bit of work. Over the years, I processed hundreds of pounds of tomatoes from our garden. Generally speaking, you can use any red tomato to make the sauce. But depending on the variety, some may be more juicy (containing more water) and some more meaty – ideal tomato type for sauces. I prefer using ROMA tomatoes whenever possible. Watery tomatoes result in a thin sauce that needs to be simmered for longer to eliminate excess water and make it thicker.

This canning tomato soup recipe used 8 quarts of medium-thick tomato sauce. You’ll need about 50 pounds of tomatoes to make the sauce. No worries; you can half or even quarter the recipe if necessary.

• Cover all tomatoes with water, add about 3 cups of distilled vinegar and let sit for 30 minutes. Wash well in water 3 times. Use a small vegetable brush at 1st round.
• Remove blemishes and stems and cut tomatoes in half or quarter them.
• Cook on low heat until the juices start releasing. Increase to medium-high heat and cook until the tomatoes are very soft.
• Let it cool slightly. Process cooked, soft tomatoes in a blender or food processor, and then press the mixture through a fine mesh sieve to remove skin and seeds. You can use a food mill if it has fine mesh; otherwise, seeds go through.
• If the sauce appears too runny, return it to the heat and cook on low heat, stirring occasionally, until it thickens.

GRILLED VEGETABLES

Roasted vegetable puree is delicious and simple to prepare. You can use a grill or oven. In the heat of the summer, I prefer using the grill. Wash and slice vegetables, season them with olive oil, salt, and pepper, and then roast until soft but not burned. Process vegetables in the food processor until smooth. If there are stubborn bits you can add some tomato sauce, it should help with the pureeing.

COOK SOUP

This step is straightforward: combine tomato sauce and grilled vegetable puree in a large pot—season with sugar, salt, pepper, and chili flakes (optional). Bring to a boil and then reduce to a simmer and cook for at least an hour, stirring frequently to prevent burning—taste and season with more salt or sugar. You can try brown sugar if you prefer. After, soup can appear chunky, this is simple because during cooking water evaporated. Process it again in the food processor or blender to smooth it.

CANNING TOMATO SOUP

It’s important to follow safety guidelines when canning tomatoes or products containing tomatoes. All canned tomato products must be acidic.

• Add two tablespoons of bottled lemon juice (not fresh lemon juice) or ½ teaspoon of citric acid per quart of tomato soup.
• For pints, use one tablespoon of bottled lemon juice or ¼ teaspoon of citric acid.
• Acid can be added directly to the sterilized canning jars before filling them with tomato soup. If desired, you can increase the sugar to offset the acid taste.

MORE VEGETABLE RECIPES

• Pickled Peppers
• Sun-Dried Tomatoes (easy oven method)
• Canned Coleslaw via Nelson Road Garden
• Pickled Red Beets
• Easy and Quick Sauteed Zucchini

This post was originally published on August 28th, 2012. On July 11th, 2023 I updated this recipe with new photos, written instructions and a recipe card.