Roasted Tomato Soup

It’s National Soup Month!  I’ve been enjoying lots of good soup this month, but this Roasted Tomato Soup turned out to be the soup to celebrate.  It is a simple soup made with fresh tomatoes.

 

This soup was made with the last tomatoes from my garden. I know its way past growing season but the tomatoes didn’t get the message. When the weather turned cold, they were still trying to ripen on the vine. I didn’t want them to freeze so I removed them from the vines and let them ripen inside. I just couldn’t give up on them because most of these tomatoes were heirloom tomatoes that I had planted from seeds. It took a while, but they finally ripened so I was able to make some homemade basil tomato sauce and tomato soup.

 

Garden Fresh Roasted Tomato Soup

Adapted from this recipe: http://allrecipes.com/CustomRecipe/62428497/Garden-Fresh-Tomato-Soup/Detail.aspx

Makes: 6 servings

This Garden Fresh Roasted Tomato Soup has less ingredients and tastes more like traditional tomato soup than the Fresh Tomato Soup I made this past summer. That soup was good, but it wasn’t quite the flavor I was looking for in a tomato soup.

 

Ingredients:

• 8 cups chopped fresh tomatoes, roasted
• 6 cups chicken broth
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 4 to 6 cloves of garlic
• 4 whole cloves
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon pepper
• 1 teaspoon garlic salt
• 1 teaspoon dried basil (or to taste)
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme (or to taste)
• 1-2 teaspoons white sugar to taste
  

I used some Black Russian, Roma and other heirloom tomatoes as well as some non-heirloom tomatoes for this soup. I roasted them with some olive oil and dried herbs which really brought out the flavor. They tasted great even for end of the season.

 

 

Directions:

1. In a stockpot, over medium heat, combine the tomatoes and chicken broth.

   

    

2. Sauté garlic and onion in olive oil until onion is transparent and soft.

   

    

3. Add to stockpot. Bring to a boil, and gently boil for about 20 minutes to blend all of the flavors. Remove from heat and cool for 20-30 minutes.

   

    

4. Run the mixture through a food processor and return to stockpot on medium heat.

   

    

5. In sauté pan, melt the butter over medium heat. Stir in the flour to make a roux, cooking until the roux is a medium brown.

   

    

6. Gradually whisk in a bit of the tomato mixture so that no lumps form, then stir roux into the stockpot. Season with sugar and salt, and adjust to taste. Then, enjoy!

    

    

   Remember soup goes really well with bread.  Might I suggest this Healthy Bread in Five Minutes 100% Whole Wheat Flaxseed Bread.

   

    

   Thanks for joining me in the bread baking blog.  Here are some bread-making resources to assist you when you're in the mood to bake bread,

• Bread Recipes
• Bread Cookbooks
• Bread Making
• Baking Supplies
• Bread Mixes

Roasted Vegetable Pasta Sauce: tigress can jam

Did someone say Tomatoes?

I don't really like tomatoes, by themselves that is, but I like salsa, tomato soup, tomato sauce, pasta sauce and other delicious dishes made with tomatoes, but not ketchup so much.

So why was I so excited that the theme for this month's tigress can jam was tomatoes?



Because...




I have a bunch of tomato plants.  I planted about 15 or so tomato plants from seeds, but I got a late start so they are just now starting to bear fruit. We have a long growing season in the South so that helps. I'm really pleased with their progress. This is only the 2nd time I've grown tomatoes and the first time I've tried growing them from seeds.


Here are a few of my babies. 

While I was waiting on the seeds to sprout, I got some tomato plants from the garden center so that I would have some tomatoes for salsa.  Plus, I wanted to have some tomatoes in case the seeds didn't sprout or produce any tomato plants.  I guess I didn't have enough faith in them, but they've been doing their thing anyway. Isn't it cool how nature works!


Here is one of the tomato plants I got from the garden center.  This photo was taken a few weeks ago so this plant has produced most of it's fruit already, but it's still hanging in there.

Here is one of my Black Russian Heirloom Tomato Plants.  The fruit is almost ready.  I can't wait to try it!  I decided maybe the reason I didn't like tomatoes is because I haven't met one I like yet. Could this be the one?

With all of these tomato plants, you would think I could come up with a ton of ideas for the can jam... 



...but, alas, all I had to work with was a few Roma Tomatoes from my straw bale garden.

I forgot to take a picture of the Roma plants in my straw bale garden and they're just about done producing fruit. The good news is that my container Roma, Sausage and Viva Italia tomato plants that I planted from seeds are coming along just fine so I'll have more tomatoes for making sauce soon. 


At the moment, however, I'm still waiting on the mother load.  It should be here anytime, but it didn't quite happen in time for the can jam.  You just can't rush these things you know.


So, I looked for a recipe that only needed a few tomatoes.  I found a delicious one. The vegetables are roasted to bring out the flavor in this full-flavored tomato sauce.  This sounded wonderful to me.



Roasted Vegetable Pasta Sauce
Makes: 3 1/2 cups
Recipe from The Complete Book of Small-Batch Preserving by Ellie Topp and Margaret Howard.

Ingredients:
10 plum tomatoes unpeeled (about 2 1/2 lb/1.25 kg) I used Roma tomatoes
4 cloves garlic, unpeeled
2 small onions, unpeeled
1 sweet red pepper
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1 tbsp chopped fresh oregano or 1 tsp (5 mL) dried
1 tsp granulated sugar
1 tsp salt


Directions:

Place tomatoes, garlic, onions and red pepper on a lightly greased baking sheet.  I lined the baking sheet with parchment paper then sprayed it and the veggies with cooking spray.  Roast in a 450 degrees oven for 45 minutes, removing the garlic after 12 to 15 minutes or when soft.  Remove remaining vegetables when they are soft and the skins blistered.  Let stand until cool enough to handle.

Peel tomatoes, being careful to catch all the juice.  Squeeze garlic and onions to remove soft centers.  Peel and seed pepper.

Place all vegetables in a food processor and process until smooth.

Place vegetable puree in a large stainless steel or enamel saucepan.  Add vinegar, oregano, sugar and salt.  Bring to a boil over high heat, reduce heat, cover and boil for about 15 minutes, stirring frequently.

Remove hot jars from canner and ladle sauce into jars to within 1/2 inch  (1 cm)  of rim (headspace).  I didn't have quite enough sauce for two pint-sized jars so I only processed one jar and put the other one in the refrigerator to use right away.

Process 35 minutes for pint (500 mL) jars and 40 minutes for quart (1 L) jars. Remove the jars from the canner and let them rest on the counter until they seal. Then they're ready to be stored.


Or, if you're like me and end up with some extra, you can go ahead and enjoy it now.  Yum!  I'm going to enjoy this with some pasta and homemade bread.

We're making jams or pickling every month in 2010. For more info, click on the button.



Check out the August Can Jam Roundup to see what the other can jammers did with their tomatoes.



Happy Canning and Baking!
Cathy


Here are some of the references I use in my canning adventures. You might enjoy them as well:

• Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving
• The Complete Book of Small-Batch Preserving
• Keeping The Harvest: Discover the Homegrown Goodness of Putting Up Your Own Fruits, Vegetables and Herbs
• National Center for Home Preservation 

Fresh Tomato Soup

Everyone knows I like to can so I seem to be the recipient of lots of tomatoes and cucumbers despite the fact that I already have a bunch of both.

A couple of weeks ago, my sister and I visited my mom. She had just picked about 72 tomatoes from her garden so of course, she sent some home with us. A friend also gave me some tomatoes. I had already picked tomatoes from my garden and canned a bunch of salsa and made marinara so I wanted to do something different with these tomatoes.  They were getting really ripe really fast. 

So I set out to make some fresh tomato soup. I've been wanting to make homemade tomato soup for awhile. The funny thing is, I don't really like tomatoes (by themselves, that is), but I love tomato soup.

About the same time I decided to make the soup, we were scheduled to bake Four-Leaf Clover Brocolli & Cheddar Buns for the HBinFive Baking Group.  Tomato Soup and Brocolli & Cheddar Buns seemed like the perfect match.

I found the perfect country-style recipe in one of my canning cookbooks.  This tomato soup should be refrigerated or frozen, not canned for storage.


Fresh Tomato Soup
My soup is adapted from this recipe in the The Complete Book of Small-Batch Preserving by Ellie Topp and Margaret Howard.
Makes: 8 cups

Ingredients:
1/4 cup olive oil
2 large onions, sliced crosswise (about 2 cups/500 mL)
2 medium carrots, coarsely chopped
1-2 celery stalks, finely chopped
5 cloves garlic, finely chopped
3 strips fresh orange zest
8 cups chopped peeled ripe tomatoes (about 4 lbs/2 kg)
1 cup chicken broth (or more if needed)
1 tbsp fresh thyme or 1 tsp (5 mL) dried (I also added some basil.)
1 bay leaf
1-2 tsp granulated sugar (or more if needed)
1/2 - 1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper

Directions:

Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium heat.  Add onions, carrots, celery, garlic and orange zest; cook for 8 minutes or until vegetables are softened.

Add tomatoes, broth, thyme, bay leaf, sugar, salt and pepper.

Bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer for 30 minutes, stirring frequently, or until tomatoes are cooked.

Discard bay leaf and allow to cool.  Transfer to blender or food processor and process until very smooth.

After I pureed the mixture, I tasted it and realized it was not to my liking. It was a little too acidic and the flavor was off a bit. So I added more chicken broth and seasoned it with more salt, sugar, garlic and some basil.  I finally got it to where I liked it.

I served some for dinner and ladled the rest into freezer containers.  You can refrigerate this soup for up to 5 days or freeze it for up to 6 months.  Defrost before reheating to serving temperature.  If the soup is thicker that you wish, stir in extra chicken stock or milk.

In addition to freezing several containers of soup, I also froze two containers of the HBinFive Brocolli and Cheddar dough.  I made the full batch so that I would have extra dough leftover.  So the next time we have this soup, we can also have some more of the buns.

I hope this dough freezes well.  I guess I'll find out.


Thanks for joining me in the bread-baking blog.  Remember soup goes really well with bread. 

When you're in the mood to bake (and eat) some bread, here are some bread-making resources:

• Bread Recipes
• Bread Cookbooks
• Bread Making
• Baking Supplies
• Bread Mixes

You might enjoy some of the other breads that have been featured in the bread making blog.

Four-Leaf Clover Brocolli & Cheddar Buns: HBinFive

For the August 1st HBinFive Bread Braid, we were supposed to make Four-Leaf Clover Brocolli and Cheddar Buns and Mesquite Bread.  I had already made Southwestern Focaccia/Pizza in April using the mesquite dough and Mesquite Pizza and Buns in May so for this bread braid, I just focused on the Four-Leaf Clover Brocolli and Cheddar Buns.

The recipe for these Four-Leaf Clover Brocolli and Cheddar Buns can be found on page 174 of the Healthy Bread in Five Minutes book.

Step 1: Prepare the brocolli puree.

Steam the brocolli florets for a couple of minutes.

Then puree the brocolli in the blender.

Step 2: Make the Dough

Mix together the dry ingredients, then add the wet ingredients, including the brocolli puree.  Mix, without kneading, using a spoon, food processor, a mixer, or a dough whisk like I did.

Step 3: Ferment the Dough

Cover and allow the dough to rest at room temperature until it rises and collapses, about 2 hours.  Then refrigerate the dough overnight and use it over the next 7 days.

I left the dough in the refrigerator two nights and made the buns on the 2nd day.

Step 4: Shape the Buns

Dust the surface of the refrigerated dough with flour and cut off a 1 1/2-pound piece.  Quickly shape the dough into a loose ball.

Divide the ball into 8 roughly equal portions. 

Cut each of these portions into 4 smaller pieces.  Shape each one into a round ball.  Put the 4 rounds together to from the clover lead and place in greased muffin cups.

Step 5: Proof the Buns

Allow to rest, loosely covered with plastic wrap, for 40 minutes.

Step 6: Bake the Buns

Just before baking, sprinkle the buns with cheddar cheese.

Bake the buns for about 20 to 25 minutes, until richly browned and firm.  I didn't use a baking stone underneath so I baked them at 375 degrees instead of 450 degrees.

Step 7: Eat the Buns

Remove the buns from the oven and allow them to cool slightly on a wire rack before eating.

These Four-Leaf Clover Brocolli and Cheddar Buns have a very unique flavor.  I thought they would go really well with the homemade tomato soup I made using fresh tomatoes from my garden and some from my mother's garden.  Here is the recipe for the homemade tomato soup.

Thanks for joining me in the bread-baking blog.  Check out BigBlackDog to see all of the breads in the August 1st Bread Braid roundup. 

Happy Baking!
Cathy



About the HBinFive Baking Group

The HBinFive Baking Group, started by Michelle of Big Black Dogs, is baking through all of the breads in the Healthy Bread in Five Minutes book. For more information on the HBinFive baking group, check out BigBlackDog.




Here are some additional bread-making resources:

• Bread Recipes
• Bread Cookbooks
• Bread Making
• Baking Supplies
• Bread Flour
• Bread Mixes