I’m guessing that the idea of a bowl of hot, steamy tomato soup won’t really appeal to too many people in the middle of summer when tomatoes are in season. But do yourself a favour, and continue reading…

I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that if you’ve only ever had tomato soup from a can, you’ve never had tomato soup!! This recipe is sensational and incredibly delicious when prepared with seasonally grown tomatoes. When it comes to selecting fruit for this recipe, you will need to look for vine ripened fruit. Check out our hints on buying tasty tomatoes here .

Tomato soup made with summer tomatoes is out-of-this-world delicious. That’s why I make a few batches of it and store it in the pantry for when the temperature drops. There is no loss of flavour using our simple preserving method. And you won’t lose any freezer space either.

As with most soup recipes, the cooking skills required are pretty basic. It does however require a little preparation to preserve the soup for cooler days, when you will appreciate it the most. You will need some preserving jars ( I like to reuse my old jam jars) that have been washed and sterilised. See our notes on preserving here. Alternatively, you can just pop it in the freezer.

You will need:

60g unsalted butter

1 kg ripe tomatoes, roughly chopped

1 large onion, roughly chopped

2 carrots, roughly chopped

2 tbsp plain flour

1 bay leaf

750ml water or chicken/veg stock

freshly grated nutmeg

salt and pepper

2 tbs cornflour combined with 50ml sherry (optional)

freshly chopped chives for serving

 

Place the butter, carrots, onion and bay leaf in a large pot. Place on the heat and allow saute gently for a few minutes. Add the plain flour and stir. Add the tomatoes and water/stock and allow to simmer for 30 minutes or until very tender.

Pass through a muslin cloth or sieve to remove seeds and tomato skin. You can blitz it in the blender, but the creamy texture will be compromised as the seeds remain lumpy.

Whisk in the sherry and cornflour. Return to the heat and bring to the boil. Add the nutmeg and adjust the seasoning with salt and pepper.

While the soup is boiling, ladle into hot sterilised jars and seal immediately. Store in the pantry until needed.

To serve: Heat on the stovetop or microwave. Serve with freshly chopped chives.