The perfect recipe to use up all the tomatoes to make tomato soup, great for eating and canning. The Bonus - this tomato soup can be used as a base in many tomato dishes.
8quarts homemade tomato sauce (from about 50lb of tomatoes) recipe can be halved.If you are making tomato sauce from scratch, use meaty tomatoes, like ROMA
Roasted Garlic
1large garlic head
1/2tsp olive oil
pinch of salt
Grilled Vegetable Base
2tbspolive oil
1tspsalt
1/2tspblack pepper
7medium large carrots, peeled
6medium/ large onions, peeled
1Parsnip root, peeled
2red bell peppers
4celery stalks
Tomato Soup Seasonings
1/2 to 1cupsugar ( 100 to 200 grams), depends on the sweetness of your tomatoes
3½tbspsalt
1/4tsp chili flakes (optional)optional
Canning
lemon juice bottled, not fresh or citric acid for canning
Instructions
Prepare Grill or Oven
Preheat the grill or oven to 400-420F. You can prepare grilled vegetables on the grill or in the oven. Prepare 2 baking sheets or Aauminum foil baking trays if using a grill.
Grilled Vegetables
Wash and peel all the vegetables. Slice them into thick slices: large carrots (7 large carrots), onions (6 onions), parsnip (1 parsnip), red bell peppers (2 bell peppers, seeds inside removed).
Pour olive oil (2 tablespoons), salt (1 teaspoon), and ground black pepper (1/2 teaspoon) over vegetables and toss together.
Prepare Garlic
Cut the top of the garlic head. Place garlic head on a piece of aluminum foil, cut side up. Pour about 1/2 teaspoon of olive and a pinch of salt onto the cut end. Wrap garlic head into aluminum foil.
Roast Vegetables
Divide seasoned vegetable among prepared sheets/aluminum trays. Place the garlic wrapped in foil on one of the sheets/trays.
Cook on the Grill: Roast vegetables on the grill, covered with the grill hood, for about an hour, or until vegetables are very soft and are reduced in volume, slightly golden in color but not burned. Cook in the Oven: Roast vegetables in the oven until very soft and caramelized but not burned.
Remove vegetables from the heat and let cool slightly. Unwrap the garlic bulb from the foil and gently push the roasted cloves out onto the vegetables, the cloves will be very soft.
Vegetable Puree
Process all the vegetables in the food processor until you have a smooth puree. If it's too thick to process, add 1 cup of tomato sauce and process till smooth.
Tomato Soup
Into a large pot, pour tomato sauce (8 quarts, liters), pour in grilled vegetable puree, and stir well. Season with sugar (1/2-1 cup, 100-200 grams), salt (3½ tablespoons), and chili flakes (1/4 teaspoon-optional).
Bring the mixture to a boil, frequently stirring, lower the heat to low, and simmer for an hour to an hour and a half, until desired thickness is reached. Don't forget to stir it. Don't skip the simmering process.
Let the tomato soup cool slightly, and then process the whole batch in the blender until smooth.
Canning
You can enjoy the soup immediately, freeze it or fill your sterilized jars with the soup and process-filled canning jars in the water bath for 30 minutes.IMPORTANT- If you are canning tomato soup, add two tablespoons of bottled lemon juice or ½ teaspoon of citric acid per quart of tomato soup. For pints, use one tablespoon of bottled lemon juice (not fresh) or ¼ teaspoon of citric acid. Acid can be added directly to the jars before filling the jars with tomato soup.
This soup works excellent as a base for anything that has to do with tomato sauce.
I like tomato soup to be a thick consistency, if you prefer a thinner soup, just before eating dilute it with some chicken broth, water, milk, or heavy cream.
Notes
As stated in the article about tomato food safety - Add acid to all canned tomato products: add 2 tablespoons of bottled lemon juice or ½ teaspoon of citric acid per quart of tomatoes. For pints, use 1 tablespoon of bottled lemon juice or ¼ teaspoon of citric acid. Acid can be added directly to the jars before filling the jars with the product. Add sugar to offset the acid taste, if desired. (Note, lemon juice must be bottled, never fresh.)