Vine-fresh tomato soup

This recipe for home-canned tomato soup is from the Ball Blue Book. It is delicious. Make it in summer when tomatoes are cheap, because you need a lot for this recipe.

Want Cream of Tomato soup? When you go to heat this for serving, stir in ⅓ cup of SOS mix per pint / half-litre jar.

See also:

Tomato soup from home-canned tomato sauce

Spicy Tomato-Vegetable Soup

Zesty Tomato Soup

The recipe

If you wish to double or triple the batch, do the math first on paper.

Jar size choices: Either half-litre (pint) jars OR litre (quart) jars

Processing method: Either water-bath or steam canning

Yield: 4 x litre (quart) jars

Headspace: 2 cm (½ inch)

Processing time: Both size jars, half-litre (pint) and litre (quart), for 40 minutes. Adjust time for altitude when over 300 metres / 1000 feet. Do not steam can if your adjusted processing time would go over 45 minutes, because some less-expensive steam canner models cannot hold enough water.

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Vine-fresh tomato soup

A tomato soup recipe for home canning from Ball.

Course Soup

Cuisine American

Keyword Tomatoes

Prep Time 50 minutes

Cook Time 1 hour 30 minutes

Total Time 2 hours 20 minutes

Yield 4 1 litre (quart) jars

Calories 76 kcal

Ingredients

• 1 bell pepper (medium)
• 1 onion (medium)
• 2 tablespoons oil
• 2 cloves garlic (minced)
• 6 kg tomatoes (14 lbs / 10 quarts chopped)
• 4 tablespoons tomato paste
• 1 tablespoon sugar (optional)
• 1 tablespoon salt (OR non-bitter, non-clouding salt sub)
• 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
• lemon juice (bottled, OR citric acid)

Metric - US Customary

Instructions

1. Wash, stem, seed and coarsely chop the bell pepper; set aside.
2. Wash, peel and coarsely chop the onion; add to bell pepper.
3. Wash, peel and mince the garlic; set aside separately.
4. Wash and core the tomatoes; chop into quarters. Set aside.
5. Heat the oil in a very large pot.
6. Add the onion and pepper, sauté for a few minutes until the onion starts to turn a bit translucent.
7. Add the garlic add to pot.
8. Sauté for another minute.
9. Add the tomatoes.
10. Stir mixture in pot.
11. Set heat to medium.
12. Cover pot, and bring to a boil, covered. This may take 30 to 40 minutes. Stir often to prevent bottom scorching.
13. Once the mixture has released enough liquid to start boiling, reduce heat to a simmer.
14. Simmer covered (sic) for another 30 to 40 minutes or until tomatoes have all broken down and mixture has begun to thicken a bit.
15. Pass mixture through a food mill or strainer to remove tomato skins and seeds. Do this carefully, minding the very hot liquids.
16. Return the strained tomato mixture to the large pot.
17. Add the tomato paste, sugar, salt and pepper.
18. Bring back to a simmer and let simmer for 15 minutes.
19. Ladle hot soup into heated jars, either half-litre (pint) OR litre (quart).
20. Leave 2 cm (½ inch) headspace.
21. To half-litre jars, add ¼ teaspoon citric acid OR 1 tablespoon lemon juice.
22. To litre (quart) jars, add ½ teaspoon citric acid OR 2 tablespoons lemon juice.
23. Debubble, adjust headspace.
24. Wipe jar rims.
25. Put lids on.
26. Process in a water bath or steam canner.
27. Process either size jar for 40 minutes. Increase time as needed for your altitude.

Reference information

How to water bath process.

When water-bath canning or steam canning, you must adjust the processing time for your altitude.

How to steam can.

For salt substitute, Herbamare Sodium-Free was used as it is non-bitter and non-clouding.

Recipe notes

• For the tomatoes, you can use any type of tomato.
• For the large pot, we used the Presto 16 quart pressure cooker / canner (just as a regular pot.)
• You will need about 10 quarts of tomatoes, measured after coring and chopping. If you have tomatoes to work with that are on the large side, that volume measurement may go to 12 quarts.
• This recipe is one of those recipes — you know the sort — which calls for 4 tablespoons of tomato paste which, annoyingly, is just about half of a standard sized tin of about 8 tablespoons. Why they couldn’t configure the recipe to use the whole tin they made you open is beyond us.
• The recipe suggests that your bell pepper be red, but using an orange or a green one likely wouldn’t shatter the universe.
• Instead of 2 cloves of garlic, you could use 1 teaspoon of minced garlic from a bottle of minced garlic.
• It will take about 30 to 40 minutes before the mixture comes to its first boil before you can start timing the first simmering time.
• The salt can be omitted, if you wish. It’s there for seasoning, not safety.
• Do not skip the lemon juice/citric acid, or heat processing of the jars. Those things are there for safety.
• Do not add any more veg; do not add additional veg such as celery etc. That would lower the acidity level that they’ve tested to ensure that this is safe enough to can without a pressure canner.
• You can safely add dry seasoning such as herbs.

Recipe source

Ball Blue Book. Muncie, Indiana: Healthmark LLC / Jarden Home Brands. Edition 37. 2014. Page 35.

Modifications made:

• Added seasoning suggestions including salt sub and other dried seasonings.

Nutrition information

Per 1 cup / 250 ml / 8 0z

• 76 calories, 443 mg sodium

Without salt, sodium is 16 mg per cup

* Nutrition info provided by MyFitnessPal