How to Make Tomato Basil Soup
With the winter months right around the corner, and buckets of tomatoes ready to be picked, homemade tomato basil soup is the first thing that comes to my mind. This soup uses simple, fresh ingredients, and allows you to make big batches to freeze for later.
What are the Best Tomatoes for Making Soup
This tomato basil soup recipe uses Roma’s and Big Beef tomatoes. The Roma’s have minimal seeds and are great for making the soup thicker. The Big Beef are sweet and juicy, but have seeds, which is just fine. When I cut the Big Beef tomatoes, I will run my finger in the tomato, trying to scoop out some of the seeds.
Ingredients Used for Soup
Tomatoes. Any type of tomato will work, but try to add Roma’s to help thicken the soup.
Onion. I use sweet yellow onions. After the onions are roasted, they add even more sweetness and flavor.
Garlic. I also roast the garlic. This step could be skipped, but roasting the garlic and onions really brings out a bold flavor in the soup.
Basil. Fresh or store bought will work, but basil is a must!
Butter, flour, and chicken broth. While the other ingredients are roasting, I made a roux. I do this to help thicken the soup, and also balance flavors with the broth.
How to Prepare the Onions and Garlic
Since the onions and garlic need a little more time roasting compared to the tomatoes, I start those ingredients first. For the onion, cut in half, peel, and place on the sheet pan. For the garlic, I cut the tip off, just enough to show the cloves of garlic inside. Place faceup on the sheet pan, so you can see the garlic inside. Drizzle the onion and garlic with olive oil, and season with salt. These will roast in the oven for about 40 minutes, or until they start to get some color on them from cooking.
Place the vegetables in the oven.
Cooked vegetables starting to brown.
How to Prepare the Tomatoes
Start by cutting the stems off, and then cutting them in half. Place the Roma’s on the sheet pan. For any other tomatoes used, cut in half, and then remove some of the seeds. Place on the sheet pan, and drizzle olive oil and salt over them. Roast for 20-30 minutes, or until the tomatoes start to look shriveled and are soft.
How to Make the Roux
While the vegetables are roasting, start the roux by melting butter in a pan over medium heat.
When the butter has melted, add the flour and whisk until combined. Let the flour mixture cook for about a minute.
Slowly start to add the chicken broth until well combined. I use homemade chicken broth, as there is more flavor compared to store bought. The recipe for the broth can be found here: How to Make Chicken Bone Stock. Allow the roux to thicken slightly, while waiting for the remaining ingredients to finish.
Finishing the Soup
When the vegetables are finished, allow them to cool slightly, and then add to the blender. If you don’t have a blender, you could also add all of the ingredients together, and then use an immersion blender.
All the blended ingredients to the pan and cook over medium low heat. Depending on your preference for chunky versus smooth soups, you may want to strain some of the bigger leftover chunks. I used a hand held strainer and gathered some of the bigger left over chunks. Last, season with salt as needed, and then add the basil. Fresh basil or store bought will both work great. If you feel like your soup has too much of an acidic taste, start by adding one tablespoon of sugar. This will help balance the flavors.
How to Store the Soup
If you still have leftovers after enjoying this homemade tomato basil soup, this recipe can be stored for later! For this particular recipe, flour is an ingredient, therefore, this recipe cannot be water bathed. Penn State University explains the reasoning on why this wouldn’t be safe, and can be read here: https://extension.psu.edu/canning-soup-safely#:~:text=Adding%20flour%20or%20other%20thickening,home%2Dcanned%20product%20during%20processing. Instead, I use freezer safe quart sized bags, add 2 cups of soup to each bag, place them flat on a cooking sheet, and place it in the freezer. After each bag is frozen, they stack so nicely together. I actually enjoy this method, as it saves time, and the bags don’t take up any space in the freezer.
Tomato Basil Soup
Ingredients
- 128 oz Tomatoes
- 2 whole onions
- 20 cloves garlic
- 2 tbl dried basil, or 1/2 c fresh basil
- 8 tbl butter
- 12 tbl flour
- 4 c chicken or vegetable broth
- 1 tbl sugar (optional)
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp pepper
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 415°
- Cut the onions in half and peel. Place on the sheet pan.
- Cut the tip of the garlic off and place face up, so you can see the garlic.
- Drizzle with salt and olive oil. Roast, for about 40 minutes, or until the edges start to brown.
- Cut the stems off the tomatoes, and cut in half.
- If the tomatoes have a lot of seeds, run your finger through them to take out some of the seeds.
- Place on the pan, and drizzle with salt and olive oil.
- Roast for 20-30 minutes, or until the tomatoes look shriveled.
- Add the vegetables to a blender, and blend until smooth.
- While the vegetables are roasting, start the roux, by adding butter to a pan. Let the butter melt.
- Add flour and whisk until combined. Cook for 1-2 minutes.
- Slowly add the flour, and whisk until smooth. Let cook until the mixture start to thicken.
- Once the vegetables are done, add to a blender and blend until smooth. If skipping this step, add to the roux mixture and use an immersion blender instead.
- Use a strainer to remove some of the unwanted larger chunks. (Optional)
- Add the basil and stir.
- Add the sugar as needed. (Optional)
- Store in the fridge or in the freezer safe bags for later.
