GARDEN FRESH TOMATO SOUP
The above shot is a bit of false advertising. Me and everyone else. My excuse is that I originally wanted to share a recipe for fresh tomato bacon soup but then I tried a different recipe tonight and liked it so much more. In fact tonight’s version was easier to prepare and then gone so quick, the thought of taking a picture didn’t even cross my mind. Ignore the bacon bits and sour cream.
It all started when my amazing friend, Linda, who happens to be a bottling FOOL, gave me the recipe for her famous bottled tomato soup. It calls for a half bushel of fresh tomatoes? What is that? I had to Google the term “bushel” to find out. Then…I divided her recipe by EIGHT, added one of my own secret ingredients, and made a wonderful, yummy, healthy, rich, pot of fresh from the garden tomato soup for the family’s dinner tonight. Next summer…we are going to have this soup once a week.
Fresh Ingredients
3 lbs. of fresh tomatoes, washed and quartered
1/3 cup onion, course diced
2 tablespoons butter
Storage Ingredients
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons sugar
1-2 tablespoons salt
1 tablespoon flour
1 can evaporated milk (12 oz.)
All you do is pour the olive oil into your crock pot. Add the onion, tomatoes, sugar and salt. Cover and cook on high for approximately 3 hours. The amount of time is totally flexible, which I love. When you’re ready to eat, melt the butter and stir in the flour before adding it to the crock pot. Then pour in the can of evaporated milk and puree with a stick blender. That’s it. It’s wonderful.
I had my husband run a couple cups of the hot soup across the street to my neighbor. After tasting the sample she phoned to ask what I had done to flavor it so well. Yes! Good old sugar and salt…and canned milk.
This is THE way to enjoy lots of tomatoes, without lots of work.
October 15th, 2010 at 9:31 am
That sounds great. I’ll have to try it. I have tomato soup recipe on my blog that is similar, but I add fresh basil and I’ve never thought of doing it in the crockpot.
October 16th, 2010 at 8:57 am
Hi Heather! Shoot us a link to your recipe? I wanted to add basil but didn’t have any on hand, or in the garden. Dang.
October 17th, 2010 at 12:31 pm
Here the tomato soup recipe, it’s sort of a copycat of the Olive Garden’s Creamy Tomato Basil Soup, but I GREATLY reduced the saturated fat. http://secretsofmom.blogspot.com/2010/03/meatless-mondays.html
Did you see this article in the church news?
http://www.ldschurchnews.com/articles/60018/Home-storage-made-easier.html
When they suggested giving food storage starter kits as wedding gifts it made me think of you.
October 18th, 2010 at 11:07 am
HEATHER HEATHER HEATHER! Thank you so much for all the little “helps” you send my direction! I loved seeing your tomato soup recipe and I LOOOOOOVVVVVVEEEEEEDDDDDD the article from the church news. Thank you so much for sharing that with me. I loved every word and every picture. If that doesn’t look like the Lord’s work I don’t know what is. Thank you.
October 18th, 2010 at 12:51 pm
You’re welcome friend.
October 18th, 2010 at 3:42 pm
Inquiring minds want to know, what is a bushel, half bushel and a peck (I like getting a peck from my husband when he comes home from work but I’m sure that’s not the same thing
)?
xoxo
October 19th, 2010 at 11:32 am
If you ask your computer this question it may say:
A bushel is an English system unit of dry volume, equal to 8 dry gallons (4 pecks).
It has been widely used for grain and other produce. Many grains are now sold by weight, with a fixed weight equal to a bushel.
A US bushel is approximately 35.24 liters, an Imperial bushel is about 36.37 liters.
(blah blah blah blah)
OR! Another answer I found was:
1 bushel of tomatoes = 53 lbs
October 19th, 2010 at 4:04 pm
That’s alot of tomato soup!!!
October 20th, 2010 at 7:39 pm
Question: When making this delectable soup do you peel the skin off the tomato or not? I’m thinking to make this for dinner tomorrow night.
October 21st, 2010 at 7:37 am
Noooooooo. You don’t need to peel the skin off, which is a big part of the beauty here. Just puree when finished, add the canned milk and enjoy! (Almost every recipe I’ve seen for tomato soup suggests peeling the tomatoes but we all know eating that extra fiber is better for our bods.)
October 21st, 2010 at 8:30 am
Glad to hear because I like easy, that also means that tonight for dinner we are having “blood soup with bones”, translation would be “yummy fresh tomato soup with bread sticks that look like bones”!
Yesterday I tried an experiment with salsa made in a crock pot and it worked! I bottled it up this morning and didn’t have to slave all day in the kitchen for something that will take my teenage son 5 minutes to devour.
xoxo
October 22nd, 2010 at 5:04 pm
Bravo Kris!
November 3rd, 2010 at 3:35 pm
Can I just say how much I love my little stick blender, it was well worth the $20 or so dollars it cost and makes the best soups ever!!
xoxo
November 8th, 2010 at 12:19 pm
METOO! Yesterday afternoon, I almost filled my crockpot with washed and stemmed WHOLE tomatoes and one very coursley sliced large onion. I set the temp on high, put the lid on, and forgot about it for the next five hours. Then I tossed in a little salt, brown sugar, a handfull of leftover whole fresh basil leaves, and two cans of evaporated milk. After a quick buzz with the handy-dandy stick blender we each slurped down two big bowls of fresh tomato soup.
I love my stick blender.
November 15th, 2010 at 4:35 pm
Yesterday, yes I did this on a Sunday, because I had some of my tomatoes going moldy I decided I best do something with them so I made Basil-Tomato Sauce. I diced up the tomatoes and put them in the crock pot (so as to do the least amount of work on a Sunday) with some olive oil, garlic cloves and some diced onion and let them cook for about 7 hours on high with the lid on. When they were tender I used my amazing stick blender to blend everything together and then let it cook all night on low with the lid slightly off kilter. Now mind you this is a real recipe in the ball canning cook book that I have modified a bit but during this entire process I am thinking of this tomato soup recipe and how similar they are, anyway I bottled it all up this morning and put it in the steamer for 45 minutes and now have this yummy tomato sauce OR a very quick tomato basil soup that all I need to add to it is a little sugar, salt, water and powdered milk and wa la…Yummy tomato basil soup that I have sitting on my shelf just waiting for a cold winter day and a toasty grilled cheese sandwich!!!
November 17th, 2010 at 11:31 pm
Such a great plan! If my kitchen floor wasn’t in the middle of being refinished for its FOURTH time, I would have considered trying to preserve a few bottles. Next year for sure!
January 23rd, 2011 at 3:44 pm
Thank you so much for coming to our Castle Ridge ward to share with us your food storage system and how to utilize it on a daily basis. I am right now putting together my 30 meals and was looking for a recipe when I decided to try out your website. (I’m easily distracted, what can I say?). The tomato soup recipe sounds delightful and I can’t wait for summer so I can try it! Thank you for sharing it!
Jeanette
January 24th, 2011 at 8:37 pm
Hey Jeanette! You’re so very welcome! I appreciated the invitation and opportunity to share what’s worked for our family. Good for you to be working on your 30 meals! I’m in California now, preparing to give another presentation tomorrow, and helping one of my daughters organize her 30 meals. Already she’s said, “This is going to make my meals so much easier to prepare!”
Wishing you much success in your food storage efforts! xo Liesa