Tomato Soup

Tomato Soup

This Tomato Soup is perfect for a summer lunch or supper.   It is really easy to make and perfectly showcases the taste of those beautiful sun-ripened tomatoes that are currently in season.  My method of only thinning the soup down with water, stock or milk once it has been blended means that you have control of how thick it is and avoids you ending up with watery soup if the tomatoes that you use are particularly juicy.

This is a very versatile soup as it can be eaten either warm or chilled. This makes it perfectly adaptable to the vagaries of English weather. You make the soup and then decide whether you want something warming and comforting or refreshing and cooling.  

Tomatoes

What you need to know about my Tomato Soup
  • Cooking the chopped onions, carrots, celery and tomatoes slowly is really important. It caramelises the vegetables and gives the soup a real depth of flavour.
  • The quality of the tomatoes that you use will affect the flavour of the soup. Try and use good quality, flavourful tomatoes.  If you have home-grown tomatoes, so much the better. Otherwise, seek out tasty tomatoes in your local farmers market, farm shop or supermarket. You can use any kind of tomatoes for this recipe but choose those which have a good strong flavour.
  • A useful tip to skin the tomatoes is to put them in a saucepan, cover with boiling water, drain and cool with cold water. The skins should then be very easy to remove.
  • Potatoes are used to thicken this soup rather than flour. This adds an additional element of nutrition (potatoes contain a lot of nutrients) and makes the soup perfect for anyone who is gluten intolerant.
  • As the soup is thinned right at the end of the recipe, you can make it as thick or thin as you wish. You can also choose whether to use milk which will make richer soup rather than water or stock. A swirl of cream is also good if you are not focusing too hard on being healthy!
  • My recipe is vegetarian but it is easily converted into a vegan recipe. Just replace the butter with vegetable oil and using water or vegetable stock to thin the soup.
tomato soup
Other easy vegetarian soup recipes

I have lots of easy, vegetarian soup recipes. If you like this Tomato Soup, you might like some of the others. All my soups are vegetarian and all can be made vegan by substituting animal fats, such as butter, for vegetable fats. Some of them are pretty simple such as Fennel SoupJerusalem Artichoke Soup  or Sweetcorn Chowder and showcase a single vegetable. Others combine vegetables which have complimentary flavours such as Curried Parsnip and Apple SoupMoroccan Spiced Sweet Potato SoupCeleriac and Apple SoupMushroom and Chestnut SoupPumpkin and Sweetcorn Soup or Leek and Potato Soup. A few have more unusual combinations of flavours such as Beetroot Soup with Coconut or Butternut and Peanut Butter Soup. Nettle Soup uses foraged ingredients. I also have a few chilled soup recipes, which are fantastic cold in the summer, but can also be served warm such as Asparagus and Pea.

Other tomato recipes

I love tomatoes. I use both fresh and tinned tomatoes in a lot of my recipes. My Tomato Tart is an easy vegetarian tart which uses fresh tomatoes. My easy Tomato Sauce recipe, which uses tinned tomatoes, is a really easy basic pasta sauce.

Tomato Soup recipe

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Cold Tomato Soup

Tomato Soup

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  • Author: Tastebotanical
  • Prep Time: 10
  • Cook Time: 35
  • Total Time: 45 minutes
  • Yield: Serves 6
  • Category: Soup
  • Cuisine: English

Description

This easy made-from-scratch Tomato Soup highlights the sweet taste of lovely seasonal tomatoes and can be eaten either warm or chilled.


Ingredients

Scale
  • 25 g  (1 oz) butter and a tablespoon of oil
  • 2 onions (peeled)
  • 2 carrots (peeled)
  • 3 sticks of celery
  • 1 bulb of fennel
  • 2 medium potatoes (peeled)
  • 2 cloves of garlic
  • 14 tomatoes (approximately 1 kilo or 2 lbs)
  • Salt and pepper
  • Liquid to thin the soup (milk, vegetable stock, water as preferred)

Tomatoes


Instructions

  1. Roughly chop the onions, carrots, celery and fennel.
  2. Heat the butter and oil in a heavy pan or casserole.  Add the chopped vegetables. Season with salt and pepper.  Cook gently for approximately 15 minutes until they have softened.  This is the base for your soup and seasoning the vegetables and slow cooking to ensure they are soft and sweet  will greatly enhance its flavour.
  3. Roughly chop the potatoes and add them to the saucepan along with the crushed garlic cloves.  Cook gently for a further five minutes.
  4. Skin the tomatoes.  The easiest way to do this is to put them in a saucepan, cover with boiling water and leave for two minutes.   Then remove from the saucepan, run under cold water so that they are cool enough to handle.  The skins should be easy to remove.
  5. Chop the skinned tomatoes.  If you are using bigger tomatoes, when you slice them in half you may see green tougher bit of flesh where the stalk end of the tomato.  It is worth cutting this bit off to avoid any fibrous lumpy bits in your soup!
  6. Add the tomatoes to the saucepan with the rest of the vegetables.
  7. Cover the pan and cook for 15 minutes with the lid on.   Do not add any extra liquid as the tomatoes will release their juice during cooking.
  8. After 15 minutes, remove the pan from the heat and allow the soup mixture to cool.
  9. Liquidise the soup in a liquidiser or using a hand blender.   Once you have done this, you can thin your soup down by adding some extra liquid.   How much you need depends on how much juice came out of your tomatoes and how thick you like your soup.   You can use milk, vegetable stock or water or a combination of liquids depending on your preference.  I generally add a mixture of vegetable stock and milk.
  10. Reheat gently if serving the soup warm.  If you are planning to eat it chilled, allow it to cool to room temperature and then place in the fridge for at least an hour.

Cold Tomato Soup


Notes

This soup can be eaten either warm or chilled.

This recipe has been shared on #CookBlogShare with A Strong Coffee and #Fiesta Friday with Fiesta Friday,  Diann @ Of Goats and Greens and Liz @ Spades, Spatulas & Spoons

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