Heaven on Earth

Heaven on Earth

Monday, September 27, 2010

Very Fresh Cream Of Tomato Soup

I had red, pink, yellow, orange, green, and yellow-green tomatoes on my counter.

I sorted them into color families.  With the yellow and orange ones I made three recipes of soup and made two more recipes with the Green shades.  This is one of my very favorite recipes.  I have been making it for years.  The original recipe came from an old garden recipe book and it freezes great so I make many batches for the freezer.  We always eat it all by Christmas.








Wash the tomatoes well. 


Core and make an X on the bottom.

Blanch very briefly and put them in an ice bath; peel them.


Cut crosswise so the seed cavities are exposed.
 The skins slip right off.  I used round heirloom tomatoes for the soups and they have a lot of seeds so I cut them in half crosswise and sqeezed out most of the seeds.  Tomato seeds are bitter so remove as many as you can.  When the vegetables are done simmering, let them cool slightly and very carefully put the soup in small portions in a blender.  Hot liquids may spurt out the top, so be careful not to fill it more than halfway.   Hold the top on the blender with a towel, just in case any liquid does spurt; then you won't get burned.



Whiz the soup up!



I like to strain out the seeds and veggie chunks that the blender missed.

Mix the melted butter and cornstarch in a separate pan and then use it to thicken the soup.

Add the remaining ingredients except for the egg yolk and the cream.  Let the soup cool and refrigerate for a few days or freeze for up to 3 months.  When you are ready to serve the soup, add the optional whisked egg yolk to the cold soup and heat slowly so that the egg doesn't scramble, whisking constantly.  The egg enriches the soup, but unless I am serving this to company, I usually just leave it out .  When the soup is warm, stir in the cream (I usually just use some skim milk).  Add just a bit at a time and taste.  You may not want to dilute the flavor of the soup with all of the cream.  Just simmer until the soup is warm. 
Freeze on the tray until the soup is frozen solid.

  • I store many soups and sauces in my upright freezer.  It's much easier to stack the freezer bags if they are frozen flat.  I always freeze the bags on trays until the soup is solidly frozen and then I remove the trays and stack the bags on top of each other on the freezer shelves.  You can also stand them "on end" inside plastic storage bins.  This makes for easy access and visibility on the freezer shelves.

  • Did you wonder why I just didn't throw all the tomatoes in the same pot?  I've done that before;  the soup turns out brown and un-appetizing

  • Be sure to label your freezer containers.  You don't want to mix up tomatillo sauce, tomato soups and squash soups.  The green and orange colors are similar.

I love the swirls of cream in this photo.  They remind me of fall leaves.  If you like tomato soup you will love the fresh garden flavors of this one.

Very Fresh Cream of Tomato Soup
12 ripe tomatoes, peeled and cut up
1 cup of chicken stock or water
1cup of chopped celery
½ cup of onion, diced
¼ cup of minced fresh Italian parsley
3 Tab. of cornstarch
3 Tab. of butter, melted
2 Tab. of brown sugar
2 tsp. of salt
2 cups of light cream
1 egg yolk, beaten
Freshly ground pepper to taste

Simmer tomatoes, water, celery, onion, and parsley for 30 minutes. Puree and strain.
Mix together butter and cornstarch. Stir into soup and let simmer over medium heat until thickened slightly.
Add brown sugar, salt and pepper. (Freeze, if desired, at this point.)
When you are ready to serve, stir the cream and egg into the hot soup.


  • Makes about 2 quarts.

This soup is great made with red tomatoes too, but I used them for something else.  I'll post more on that later.

Linked to Hearth 'n Soul, Tip Day Family Thursday, and Grow Your Own.  Hop over and see what everyone else posted this week.

18 comments:

  1. This looks just gorgeous and sounds so delicious! Perfect for fall. Or anytime! Thanks!

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  2. i am so glad to see this recipe...i have so many heirloom tomatoes on my countertop right now...and many more still on the vines..we are having a warm september! i was hoping to stumble across a great soup recipe and here you are! yeah!

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  3. Beautiful presentation, and that is the hallmark of an unforgettable dish. Thanks so much.

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  4. Bonnie what a lovely bi-colored soup with the cream topping. I have never seen a soup recipe like this; nor have a seen a tomato soup recipe with an egg in it. I like how you freeze your soup. One time I froze some spaghetti sauce and it got caught in the wire basket of my freezer. Joni

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  5. Bonnie, This is lovely! I have to be honest and tell you I never even thought to make tomato soup out of anything other than red ripe tomatoes! Thanks so much for sharing this on the hearth and soul hop. My daughter loves cream of tomato soup, so I will be trying your recipe some time soon to get more mater's into her! Alex@amoderatelife

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  6. That is totally brilliant! We love growing heirloom tomatoes and this is such a fun way to 'keep' them into the winter. Looks divine.

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  7. So very pretty, Bonnie!! I just made tomato soup last night...similar, but different. I love your tip of freezing the soup flat, that's how we did it at the restaurant, too...it works wonders!! I'm so happy you submitted this mouthwatering recipe to both the hearth and soul hop and GYO this month, thankyou!! =)

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  8. The color of your soups is wonderful and worth the time it takes to separate the tomatoes. Thanks for the tip about freezing the zip bags flat so they stack.

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  9. A beautiful soup! I will try this with my heirloom's that are just green for fall production.
    Thank you...

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  10. I love tomato soup (I add milk to my bowl) from a can, so I can only imagine how much better homemade would be! YUM!

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  11. What beautiful tomatoes - and what delicious looking soup! Thanks for sharing your recipe.

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  12. What a beautiful soup - I adore the 2 colors - fun fun fun! I am glad to know it freezes well - I don't can.
    Thanks for linking this to the hearth and soul hop!!

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  13. I've got all of those same colors on my counter plus purple cherokee. I think that means that I simply must make this soup. Putting the colors together looks like some sort of restaurant magic trick! Thank you for sharing with the Hearth and Soul hop.

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  14. Looks gorgeous - I'll definitely try this once summer comes around.
    Sue :-)

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  15. I can speak to this soup. Bonnie is a master at soups! I've had this a number of times and the flavor and texture are wonderful. It has become a staple recipe at my house.

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  16. What a great blog you have! I found you on Thursday Tips and I'm now folowing. I look forward to your future posts. Hope to see you around too at Meatless Meals For Meat Eaters

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  17. Just wanted to let you know that I'm featuring this post in this week's Tip Day Thursday at Around My Family Table.

    Wendy

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  18. Hey!

    I'm quickly writing to you because you were featured on TDT at least once recently. I wanted to let you know that I have a new "Featured On" button if you'd like to grab it! Stop by my site and pick it up!

    Also, please bookmark the new site, sign up for the new RSS feed, and I now have an email option. Lots of changes for the new year!

    Thanks for reading and linking up to TDT! Hope to see more from you this year....

    Wendy
    Around My Family Table

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