Dear Eric: We have a bumper crop of tomatoes this year, more than our needs for eating raw or giving away. Can you please suggest a recipe for a freezable tomato soup?
Christine Wooldridge
Dear Christine: Too many tomatoes is a nice dilemma to have, particularly when you can turn some of them into a wonderful soup to freeze for later, perhaps for lunch on a cool day in December.
Below is my recipe for tomato soup that meets Christine's I-can-freeze-you-for-later requirements. It can be made with a variety of fresh, ripe tomatoes, such as plum (roma) tomatoes, on-the-vine tomatoes, or the sweet and flesh-rich variety of beefsteak tomato I used. That variety is called Hy-Beef 9904 and John Riese, the Saanich Peninsula farmer from whom I bought them, says you can buy the seeds to grow them from Stokes (stokeseeds.com).
I used 1.5 kilograms of tomatoes to create 2.5 litres (about 10 cups) of soup. The recipe could expand, if desired.
To create a smooth and palate-pleasing soup, I skinned and seeded the tomatoes first.
To do that, bring a medium-to-large pot of water to a boil. Cut the stem end out of each tomato.
Now cut a small, shallow X into the blossom (curved) end of each tomato. Working in batches, submerge the tomatoes into the boiling water for 30 seconds to one minute, just until you see the skins starting to slip off the tomatoes.
Lift the tomatoes out of the water and set on a wide plate or baking sheet. When cool enough to handle, pull the skins off. Cut each tomato in half, remove and discard the seeds, and then chop the flesh and place in a bowl, ensuring any liquid on the cutting board also makes it into the bowl. The tomatoes are now ready to use in the soup.
To freeze the soup once cooked, first cool to room temperature. To do that quickly, set the pot in your kitchen sink. Surround the pot with a mix of ice and cold water that rises close to the level of the soup in the pot. Cool the soup to room temperature, stirring occasionally to move the colder outside portions of the soup to the centre. When cool, ladle soup into freezer containers, label, date and freeze for up to two to three months, until ready to thaw and reheat.
If desired, once in the bowl you can dress up the soup in a variety of ways. For example, you could simply sprinkle it with chopped parsley or sliced green onion, accent it with nuggets of feta cheese and a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil, or top it with homemade croutons and freshly grated Parmesan cheese. The soup could also be served with a sandwich - can you say grilled cheese?
FRESH TOMATO SOUP
The most time-consuming step in making this soup is peeling, seeding and chopping the tomatoes.
Once that's done, the process is straightforward - sauté, simmer, purée and enjoy!
Preparation time: 30 minutes
Cooking time: About 25 minutes
Makes: About 10 cups
1/4 cup olive oil
1 medium onion, diced
2 large garlic cloves, chopped
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp dried basil
2 Tbsp tomato paste
5 cups chicken or vegetable stock or broth
5 cups peeled, seeded and chopped fresh tomatoes (see Note)
1 tsp sugar
? salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
Heat the oil in a medium-to-large pot set over medium heat. Add the onion and garlic and cook until tender, about 5 minutes.
Mix in the flour, oregano, basil and tomato paste and cook 2 minutes more. While stirring, slowly pour in the stock. Mix in the tomatoes and sugar. Bring the soup to a simmer. Simmer soup, uncovered, 15 minutes, or until the tomatoes significantly soften and start to fall apart. Purée the soup in a food processor or blender, or in the pot with a hand (immersion) blender. If you find the soup too thick, thin with a bit more stock. Season the soup with salt and pepper.
If serving now, return the soup to a simmer, and then ladle into bowls.
If freezing, cool it to room temperature, ladle soup into containers, label, date and freeze for two to three months, until ready to thaw and reheat.
Note: I used 1.5 kilograms of tomatoes to get the required 5 cups of chopped tomatoes for this recipe. That weight can vary, though, depending on the type of tomato you use to make the soup.
Eric Akis is the author of the just-published, hardcover book Everyone Can Cook Everything. His columns appear in the Life section Wednesday and Sunday.
