Roasty Toasty Tomato Soup
Confession time: until recently, I did not get the point of tomato soup.
It tasted like ketchup straight from the jar—sour and tinny. To be fair, I’d only ever had the canned stuff, so I thought that’s just what tomato soup was. (Sorry, Campbell.)
This summer, everything changed.
Over these past few years, my mom has been slowly winding down her career as a working professional. At a much faster pace, she has been ramping up her career as a serial gardener. A few weeks ago, she gave me a basket of tomatoes from her garden. I did not know what to do with seven pounds of tomatoes so naturally started tinkering with the idea of tomato soup.
And maybe it’s because these tomatoes came from my mom’s own garden and were the product of her love and care, or maybe it’s because I couldn’t bear the idea of having to drink a full pot of hot ketchup water, but I needed to make sure that I did these tomatoes justice.
Thus began a journey of experimenting with tomatoes – how to cut them, how to roast them, how to use other ingredients to complement them. I had a lot of fun experimenting with this dish, and was genuinely surprised by the end result: a soup that is creamy, smoky, and soulful.
A soup worthy of my mom’s tomatoes.*
*If you ask my mom, she would beg to differ. More on this in “Epilogue.”
Table of Contents
1. Equipment & Ingredients
Equipment
- Heavy-bottomed pot, e.g. dutch oven
- Oven-safe wire rack
- Baking pan
Ingredients (full list in the Recipe Card below)
2. Step-By-Step Guide
Step 1: Roast your tomatoes and half your garlic.
Preheat your oven to 425°F. Toss chopped tomatoes and unpeeled garlic in olive oil. Spread tomatoes and garlic across a single layer on an oven-safe wire rack. Put the wire rack above a baking pan to catch the drippings. (We put the tomatoes on the rack to let more hot air swirl around the tomatoes and to prevent the tomatoes from sitting in their own juices.)
Bake at 425°F, flipping the tomatoes and garlic once, until the tomatoes are slightly shrivelled and darkening at the edges – around 35-45 minutes. Your tomatoes should smell slightly sweet and smoky.
Step 1: Roast your tomatoes and half your garlic.
Preheat your oven to 425°F. Toss chopped tomatoes and unpeeled garlic in olive oil. Spread tomatoes and garlic across a single layer on an oven-safe wire rack. Put the wire rack above a baking pan to catch the drippings. (We put the tomatoes on the rack to let more hot air swirl around the tomatoes and to prevent the tomatoes from sitting in their own juices.)
Bake at 425°F, flipping the tomatoes and garlic once, until the tomatoes are slightly shrivelled and darkening at the edges – around 35-45 minutes. Your tomatoes should smell slightly sweet and smoky.
Step 2: Saute onions and garlic.
While your vegetables roast, peel and mince your remaining garlic and dice your onion.
Heat a heavy-bottomed pot (e.g. dutch oven) on medium-high, then add butter and heat until melted and gently bubbling.
Add your chopped onion and garlic. Saute until onions are soft and start to turn gold – around 5-8 minutes.
Step 3: Add roasted veggies and stock.
When roasted garlic has cooled slightly, peel and discard the shells.
Into your pot, add your stock, roasted tomatoes, and garlic. Optional: add maple syrup and brown sugar.
Bring to a boil. Then, turn down the heat to simmer the soup for 20 minutes, to let the flavours marry.
Step 4: Add cream and blend.
Pour in the half and half, reserving a bit if you want to drizzle some as garnish at the end.
Using an immersion blender, blend soup until desired consistency. I like it completely smooth, which takes around 1-2 minutes.
Careful not to let the blender come too close to the surface or it might kick some hot soup up!
Step 5: Garnish and serve!
Garnish with your choice of basil leaves, olive oil, and cream.
Serve immediately.
Sip and say “ahhh”!
3. Recipe Card
Roasty Toasty Tomato Soup
Equipment
- 1 Heavy-bottomed pot e.g. dutch oven
- 1 Oven safe wire rack
- 1 Baking pan
Ingredients
- 5 lbs tomatoes chopped into 1-inch chunks
- 6 cloves garlic half unpeeled, half peeled and minced
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 4 tbsp butter
- 1 yellow onion diced
- 3 cups chicken stock or vegetable stock
- 1 cup half and half cream
- 2 tbsp maple syrup optional
- 2 tbsp brown sugar optional
- 4 sprigs basil optional
Instructions
- Roast tomatoes and half the garlic. Preheat oven to 425°F. Toss chopped tomatoes and unpeeled garlic in olive oil. Spread out in single layer on an oven-safe rack above a baking pan. Roast at 425°F for 35-45 minutes, flipping once.
- Saute onions and remaining garlic. Heat heavy-bottomed pot (e.g. dutch oven) on medium-high and add butter. Heat until melted and gently bubbling. Add onions and minced garlic and saute until onions are soft and slightly golden - around 5-8 minutes.
- Add roasted veggies and stock. Add stock, roasted tomatoes and (peeled) roasted garlic. Optional: add maple syrup and brown sugar. Bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and simmer for 20 minutes.
- Add cream and blend. Add half and half, reserving a little for garnish if desired. Blend soup in pot with immersion blender until desired consistency.
- Garnish and serve! Garnish with your choice of basil leaves, olive oil, and/or cream. Serve immediately. Sip and say “ahhh”!
4. Epilogue
My mom was not happy I used her tomatoes in soup. Her reaction was not “You used my tomatoes for soup? :D” as hoped, but “You used my tomatoes for soup?!? >:(“
(My mom’s philosophy being that you honour food by eating them raw.)
This did not stop her from giving me twice as many tomatoes as she’d given me before, but this time with the caveat to not use her tomatoes for soup. So any time you see me cooking tomatoes going forward, know that my mom’s tomatoes weren’t harmed in the making.