Creamy Roasted Tomato Soup Recipe - Chowhound (2024)

FAQs

What's the difference between creamy tomato soup and tomato soup? ›

But what about cream of tomato soup? Any “cream of” soup, tomato included, is pureed like a normal soup but then goes through a “creaming” process, wherein cream is added to the mixture. Cream of tomato soup is actually cooked at a much lower temperature than normal tomato soup.

The recipe uses cream instead of milk, which is crucial: The fat in the cream protects the dairy from curdling. A little more science: Fat protects the proteins in milk.

You can thicken soup by adding flour, cornstarch, or another starchy substitute. For the best results, never add flour or cornstarch directly to your soup. If you do, it will clump up on top. Instead, ladle a small amount of broth into a separate bowl and let it cool.

Tomatoes are very acidic and milk or cream is added to them, curdling can occur. Curdling will be more likely to happen when the ratio of acid to cream increases or when mixing a cold and hot mixture. To thwart the curdling tendency, changing procedures will render a smooth tomato soup.

You will want to peel your tomatoes any time you're looking for a completely smooth texture – preparing a hot soup or stew or tomato sauce, for example. A lot of this comes down to preference, though. You do not need to peel your tomatoes if you don't mind the skins.

Some recipes call for peeled tomatoes to achieve a smoother texture, while others leave the skins on for a more rustic look and added nutrients. It's a matter of personal preference, so you can choose to peel them or not based on your desired soup texture.

The reason for sprinkling a pinch of sugar into a simmering saucepan of tomatoes is simple: sugar cuts the acidity of the tomatoes and creates an overall more balanced sauce. The exact acid levels in tomatoes can vary quite a bit depending on whether they're fresh or canned, the tomato variety, and the time of year.

- Adding baking soda to tomato soup and tomato sauces helps balance the acidity of the tomatoes. Tomato flavors really shine, and your sauce or soup will not curdle if you add milk. - Adding ¼ teaspoon of baking soda to 1 cup of tomato sauce or soup will make flavors sparkle and become less acidic.

If it tastes overly acidic or sharp, add a quarter teaspoon of baking soda. The soup will bubble and fizz wherever the soda lands as carbon dioxide is released. Give it a good stir to make sure the soda is fully spent; when the bubbles subside, taste again and add another quarter teaspoon if needed.

How to make tomato soup more tomatoey? ›

For the most intense tomato flavor, include a couple tablespoons of tomato paste. To get the most out of it, add it to the pan when aromatics like onion and garlic are softened, but before adding the tomatoes. Let the paste cook, stirring frequently, for a few minutes, or until it starts to darken in color.

Tomato soup can be a bit thin, especially with the addition of cream at the end of cooking, so flour is added to the sautéing aromatics to thicken the soup.

Baking soda allows you to use milk in your tomato soup recipe without it curdling. If you don't use baking soda, you'll need to use a higher-fat dairy to avoid it separating with the heat and acidic tomatoes.

With sauces and soups that contain milk, boiling or simmering can cause the milk to curdle. While curdled milk is safe to eat, it is not particularly appetizing.

Curdled tomato soup is still edible. There's nothing about it that will hurt you. It's just not as good, because the texture is off.

Although it is likely to change the flavor profile more than other substitutes, tomato soup can work as a tomato sauce substitute. A can of tomato soup can replace 1 cup of tomato sauce. However, because the soup has more liquid than tomato sauce, you should reduce another liquid ingredient by 1/4 cup if possible.

Simple and satisfying, our creamy tomato soup is a lesson in how easy yet delicious home cooking can be. The recipe is adapted from the book Martha Stewart's Cooking School and it's made with five ingredients you probably already have in your kitchen: butter, onion, garlic, canned tomatoes, and stock or water.

Tomato soup is really just thinned-out tomato sauce

So there's really nothing stopping you from using your favorite jarred tomato sauce (especially one with rich, cheesy notes already built in, like Bertolli Parmesan & Romano with Cracked Black Pepper Sauce) as the foundation for your soup.

Tomato soup tends to be sweeter and more liquidy than tomato sauce, so it's not a perfect 1:1 substitute. We'd avoid using tomato soup for something like pasta sauce, but it can add a nice tomato-y flavor to dishes.