Homemade Tomato Soup Recipe

I’m sure if you made this tomato soup recipe with fresh Jersey tomatoes when they are in season and perfectly ripe it would taste better but sometimes you are craving a hot tomato soup when the weather is cold outside. In this case, I used canned tomatoes and still received rave reviews from family and friends.

There are many brands of canned tomatoes on the market these days so it is important to pick the one that has the best flavor to you. Look for whole, peeled tomatoes that are firm and aren’t too salty or have that processed taste.

Classic tomato soup is very simple with some basic ingredients. I added two extra ingredients to this recipe to give it additional flavor and then added a puff pastry topping because I talked about it in a blog post, Tomato Soup with Pastry On Top and wanted to give it a try. The additional ingredients were both added at the end and were cream and roasted peppers. You can experiment with your own variations using different herbs or dairy products including sour cream, crème fraiche, heavy cream or soft cheese.

Classic Tomato Soup Recipe

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons virgin olive oil
• 1-tablespoon butter
• 1 large white onion, chopped finely
• 3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
• 3 cups chicken stock
• One 28 oz. can of whole peeled plum tomatoes (with juice)
• Sugar, to taste
• Red wine vinegar, to taste
• 1 or 2 sprigs of fresh thyme or ½ teaspoon dried
• Salt & freshly ground pepper, to taste
• ½ cup heavy cream (optional)
• 1 small jar of roasted peppers

How to Make Homemade Tomato Soup at Home

Start by heating a big soup pot over medium heat, add the butter and oil and then the chopped onion & garlic. When the onions are soft, add the chicken stock, tomatoes, sugar, a little red wine vinegar, thyme and salt & pepper.

Raise the heat to medium-high and bring the soup to a simmer. Once at a simmer, lower the heat to low, cover the pot and cook for 45 minutes.

When the soup is done, remove the thyme twig(s) and puree the soup. You can use a blender or food processor. I like using my hand blender. It works great, is easy to clean and I don’t have to lug the big pot over to the food processor and inevitably spill some soup on the counter.

I added the heavy cream and roasted peppers just before I pureed the soup but I guess you could add them 5 minutes before the soup is done. For me the peppers were a last minute addition that I wasn’t planning from the start and it worked out great.

After pureeing the soup, let it cool down before serving. Taste and adjust seasonings with salt and pepper and serve.

Puff Pastry

You can make this soup more fancy with the addition of a puff pastry topping. There is a puff pastry recipe here from my friend Chef Jennifer Field for making a pastry crust but she also suggests trying the frozen ready-made puff pastry available at your supermarket.

I opted for the second option and it was a hit.

Recently I received an email from Annelie B. asking, “I was out for dinner - we had tomato soup baked with pastry on top - how do I do that?”

So I asked my friend Chef Jennifer Field what she would do and her reply is below. I thought it was interesting that she gave the ingredients to me in grams and not ounces. I asked Chef Jenni about this and will offer you her response in an upcoming blog. I have included the conversions to exact measurements but I would round them off if I were making this but we will learn more about that in Chef Jenni’s response.

“Spooning down through a pastry crust to get to the tomato soup underneath–sounds like a winner! And easy to do at home, as well. You can either make a savory pie crust yourself….

Ingredients

• 420 g (14.82 oz.) all purpose flour
• 10 g (0.35 oz.) salt
• 200 g (7.05oz.) butter
• 4 oz. cold water

How to Make a Pastry Crust For Tomato Soup

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Mix flour and salt in a large bowl. Cut in butter with your fingers until the flour is very mealy and you can’t see individual pieces of butter. Do this quickly–you want to keep things cold so you don’t end up making paste.

Put 2-3 ice cubes in your water, then drizzle in about 1 oz. of water at a time. In between drizzles, toss the flour with the water to evenly distribute it. When you get about 3 1/2 oz. of water incorporated, test it by squeezing a bit of the dough together (it won’t look like dough until you squeeze it). If it’s not staying together, add the rest of the water. If it is staying together, resist the urge to add more water and compress the dough into a disc. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Roll between two sheets of parchment to about 1/8 - 1/4 inch thick. Cut to fit over your soup crock, and press the edges down around the crock with hot soup in it. Brush with 1 egg beaten with 2 teaspoons of water.

Bake at 325 degrees for about 15 minutes, or until the crust is golden brown and delicious. For an added treat, sprinkle a layer of cheese on top of the soup before you put on the crust, or grate on some cheese during the last 5 minutes of baking.

…or, if that seems way too much like work, and I wouldn’t much blame you if it does, use frozen ready-made puff pastry, available in the freezer aisle. Thaw it in the fridge overnight, cut to fit and bake according to the package directions.”

Yay, soup!

Split Pea Soup with Ham

My fondest memories of split pea soup were as a kid growing up. My dad would take Sunday’s fresh ham bone and any leftovers and make the best split pea soup I can remember.  I have been asking him for years for the recipe but he tells me it is different every time. He cooks with “what’s on hand” just like I do now.

I picked up a smoked ham hock at Stoltzfus Meats at the Ardmore Farmers Market. These guys have the freshest and tastiest pork in the area. They also have fresh hocks that I could use for this soup but I purchase them for my pork osso buco. The smoke (cured) hocks give you that little bit of smokey flavor, but they also add a lot of salt to the recipe so you have to adjust for it.

In fact, the first time I made this split pea soup with a smoked ham hocks, I used all chicken stock and no water. It turned out to be a mistake because between the chicken stock and the ham hock, the soup was way too salty. It would have been better if I used all water or a combination of water and chicken stock as I do in this recipe.

There are lots of variations when making split pea soup. You can substitute lentils or some other form of legumes for the split peas, add other vegetables like eggplant or squash, spice it up with curry or make it creamy. I have even seen recipes for split pea soup made from a lamb bone that looked interesting.

This recipe is for a basic split pea soup made with a smoked ham hock. It was adapted from several recipes I found in my cookbook collection but mostly from The New Basics Cookbook, one of my first cookbooks and still one of my favorites. When in doubt, I always go back to this book for help.

Split Pea Soup

Ingredients

• 1 pound dried green split peas – be sure to remove any stones and give the split peas a good rinse in your strainer. You don’t have to soak the peas like you do with many other varieties.
• 2 smoked ham hocks (or 2 fresh ham hocks or 1 leftover meaty ham bone)
• 5 cups of water
• 5 cups of chicken stock
• 2 ribs celery, diced
• 2 sprigs of fresh parsley, chopped fine
• 2 sprigs fresh thyme
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 large onion, chopped fine
• 2 carrots, chopped fine
• 1 leek (white part of the leak only) – sliced – be sure to was the leek well after it is sliced. There is often a lot of grit between the leaves. I use my salad spinner for this job.
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 cup of spinach leaves, slivered
• Salt & pepper, to taste

How to Make Split Pea Soup

Heat up the water and chicken stock in a large soup pot or stockpot. Add the split peas and bring to a boil.

Add the ham hocks, half the parsley, the fresh thyme and celery. Reduce the heat and simmer for 45 minutes with the cover just partially on. Be sure to give it a stir every 10 or 15 minutes.

Heat the butter in a saucepan over medium high heat and add the onion, leek, garlic and carrots. Sauté until the vegetables are soft and add them to the pot. Add the spinach and simmer for 30 minutes, again partially covered.

Turn off the heat and remove the ham hocks. Using a small paring knife, remove the meat from the hocks being sure to trim off and discard any really fatty pieces. Cut the meat up into pieces and return to the pot.

Taste and adjust seasoning with salt & pepper. Add the rest of the parsley and serve.

The New Basics Cookbook also uses 2 tablespoons of dry Sherry with this recipe. Although I think it would be a great addition, I was serving this to my kids and I didn’t think they would appreciate the flavor so I left it out. You could bring some sherry to the table for anyone who might be interested in adding it him or herself. My 10-year-old daughter loved this soup by the way. Without the sherry of course!