Tomato Soup From Scratch All Winter Long

Our record-breaking tomato harvest has already forced inspired me to make two kinds of salsa, tomato sauce, tomato puree, and several batches of roasted tomatoes with garlic and herbs. The shelves of our pantry are starting to sag and the freezer is filling up but each day brings even more bright red orbs. I miss seeing my countertops...

Needless to say, I've been frantically searching through all my favorite canning books (that's Food In Jars, Put 'Em Up, Saving the Season and the Ball Book, in case you were curious) for ideas. I also use the interwebs, of course. I got the idea for tomato soup from this site.

I've always loved tomato soup, especially with grilled cheese. As the tomatoes continued to mound up, it seemed like a better and better idea. A shelf filled with jars of my own homemade version of Campbells tomato soup that I could pop open any time a craving struck... Heavenly, right?

So I did it, quadrupling the recipe below. I'm not going to lie to you, between the slicing and the simmering and the straining and the canning, it was a lot of work. But I think it will be well worth the effort when I get to enjoy creamy tomato soup and crispy, melty grilled cheese on cold, gray days this winter.

I did need two pieces of equipment I don't often use - my food mill and my pressure canner. But if you do not have either one, you can use a sieve (more work and time but the same results) and you can always just freeze the soup rather than canning it - it's a lot easier that way!

-- print recipe --
Homemade Tomato Soup
Makes 4 pints

Ingredients

* 8 lbs ripe tomatoes, cored and quartered (you don't need to peel them)
* 1 cup celery, diced
* 2 cups onion, diced
* 4 cloves garlic, pressed or minced
* 6 bay leaves
* 1/2 tsps black pepper
* 2 1/2 Tbsps sea salt
* 1/4 cup cane sugar
* 1 tsp citric acid or 4 Tbsps bottled lemon juice (for canning only)

Directions

1. Place the tomatoes, celery, onion, garlic and bay leaves in a large stainless steel pot and cook gently, uncovered, until tender, stirring as needed. Remove the bay leaves and puree the soup right in the pot, using an immersion blender.

2. Pass the mixture through a food mill or sieve into a large stainless steel pot to remove the skins and seeds (some of the seeds made it through mine but I don't mind them.) If you're planning to can your soup, prepare the canner and sterilize your jars and lids - it can take a while to get all that water boiling.

3. Bring the soup back to a boil, then turn down to a simmer and add the salt and sugar. Reduce the soup until it's thicker than you want it to be when you actually eat it since you will be thinning it with milk or broth. If you're not canning the soup, congratulations, you're done!

4. If you are canning the soup, put the heat on high and let the steam in the pressure canner escape through the vent for 10 minutes to purge the airspace inside the canner. Then put the weight on and let the pressure build to 10 to 15 pounds pressure in a weighted gauge canner or 11 to 13 pounds in a dial-type gauge canner.

5. When you're ready to can, add 1 tablespoon bottled lemon juice or 1/4 teaspoon citric acid to the bottom of each of your sterilized pint jars then ladle the hot soup into the jars, leaving 1/2-inch headspace. Wipe the rims with a clean, wet cloth and place the lids on the jars, then apply the bands and tighten to fingertip tightness. If you want to use quart jars, double the amount of lemon juice or citric acid and process for twice as long.

6. Process pints for 25 minutes in a pressure canner at 10 pounds of pressure for weighted gauge canners and 11 pounds for dial gauge canners. Then turn off the heat and let vent until the canner is cool enough to open, then remove the jars and let cool on a kitchen towel in a draft-free space for 12-24 hours. Remove the bands, test the seals (store any that failed in the fridge and use within a couple of weeks) and store for up to a year.

7. When you're ready to eat the soup, pour it into a pot and heat over a medium flame, thinning with milk, chicken broth or water to your desired consistency. If the soup is too thin, you can make a slurry of a little flour and water to thicken it, stir it in and let it cook for a couple minutes.

You might also like:

Swiss Chard, White Bean & Sausage Soup

Greek Lemon Soup with Chicken Meatballs - Avgolemono

Vichyssoise - Classic Potato Leek Soup

Roasted Curried Cauliflower Soup

I love roasted curried cauliflower and make it often. But last week, I took it one step further by adding some homemade vegetable stock (so easy to make your own - tips here) and some coconut milk, et voilà, this beautiful soup was born.

It's creamy and rich with the lovely nutty flavor of roasted cauliflower, the sweetness of caramelized onions and the warm, spicy flavors of places where the birds never need to fly south.

I like to use either grapeseed or peanut oils for roasting veggies because their relatively high smokepoints allow them to withstand the high temperatures of roasting without burning. And that is, as Martha Stewart would say, a good thing.

Toss the cauliflower with onions (or leeks), salt, pepper and plenty of curry powder and/or garam masala and don't skimp on the oil. I do this tossing right in the roasting pan to save myself from having to wash a mixing bowl. Then roast it until you've got a nice jumbled mess of soft, nutty florets with some nice browning on them.

Your vegetable stock provides the base for the soup while the coconut milk adds a wonderful richness and sweet depth of flavor.

Put it all in a pot and let it simmer for a bit before you blend it - I cooked mine on the woodstove for a while. Then I used my immersion blender to get it smooth and creamy. If you do not already have an immersion blender, get one right now!

I like to top it with a dollop of sour cream and some chopped cilantro. It's good on its own or served over some short grain brown rice.

-- print recipe --
Roasted Curried Cauliflower Soup
Serves 6

Ingredients

* 1 large (or 2 small) cauliflower, washed and cut into florets
* 1 large red onion, sliced
* 2 cloves of garlic, minced or pressed
* Couple generous glugs of oil (grapeseed or peanut)
* Sea salt
* Freshly ground black pepper
* 1 Tbsp Ground cumin
* 3 tsps curry powder and/or garam Masala
* Pinch of red pepper flakes (optional)
* 1 can coconut milk or coconut cream
* 1 quart vegetable stock
* 1 Tbsp maple syrup
* Cilantro, as a garnish
* Sour cream, as a garnish (optional)

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 400. Toss the cauliflower with the spices, a teaspoon of sea salt, a few grinds of black pepper, onion, garlic and oil until well-coated. Turn out onto a thick baking sheet in a single layer and roast, turning several times, for 30-35 minutes, until tender when pierced with a fork.

2. Scrape the roasted cauliflower into a pot, add the stock, coconut milk and maple syrup and simmer on medium-low heat for 10-15 minutes. Allow to cool down slightly then blend until smooth. Taste and adjust the seasonings, as needed. Top with chopped cilantro and a dollop of sour cream or yogurt.

You might also like:

• Gobi Masala - Indian-Style Curried Cauliflower & Spinach
• 8 Soups That'll Warm Up Your Winter
• Roasted Veggies with Cilantro-Lemon Aioli

For more delicious recipes, gardening ideas, foraging tips, and food-related inspiration "like" the Garden of Eating on Facebook, or follow me on Twitter and Pinterest.

Greek Lemon Soup with Chicken Meatballs and Orzo (Avgolemono)

Wintertime with two young'uns is an endless round of illness. We had already weathered several colds and coughs before our older son, Will came down with scarlet fever for the first time last month. Like the croup, it's one of those old-fashioned-sounding sicknesses that I was surprised (and dismayed) to learn still exist.

Everything I knew about scarlet fever came from some of my favorite books from childhood--it's the reason the The Velveteen Rabbit is so callously tossed on the burn pile after years of devoted service (but he also becomes Real so all's well that ends well.)

It's also what Laura Ingalls Wilder attributes her sister Mary's blindness to in By the Shores of Silver Lake in the The Little House on the Prairie Series even though it's not what actually caused Mary to go blind - she had some sort of stroke, according to Pioneer Girl, Laura's completely fascinating, heavily annotated autobiography that was published for the first time in 2015.

Scarlet fever is also the disease that Beth March catches from a poor family she helps to nurse in Louisa May Alcott's Little Women - a story line Alcott apparently modeled closely on the life of her sister, Lizzie, who died from complications of the illness at the age of 23.

But our pediatrician was not alarmed, nor did she advise burning our son's loveys, thank God! That would have been BAD...

It turns out that the uber dramatic-sounding scarlet fever is really just strep throat with a rash. Our doc explained that of the roughly 20 or so strains of strep, there are four or five that release a toxin that causes a rash - they're known as group A strep (as opposed to the group B strep that women get tested for in the last few weeks of pregnancy. But the doc swabs an entirely different spot for that test - remember, mamas?)

Although it's usually a pretty mild illness nowadays, if you don't treat it, scarlet fever can come back to bite you later in life in the form of rheumatic fever, kidney disease, pneumonia and a few other gnarly problems one would rather avoid. So our pediatrician prescribed a 10-day course of disgustingly sweet, bubblegum-flavored amoxicillin to ensure that Will won't suffer any ill effects from the fever. And we had to battle him three times a day to choke it down.

So you can imagine our surprise to spot the telltale, sandpapery, red rash all over his trunk again a few nights ago. Another trip to the pediatrician ensued, and after a quick throat swab, she diagnosed him with "scarlatina" - the mild version of scarlet fever.

Will started on another 10-day course of antibiotics (I requested pills this time - a huge improvement over the nasty liquid) and missed the last two days of school before the week-long winter "break." So much for productivity...

But it was not my intention to blather on about antique diseases forever, I meant to share the recipe for this wonderful avgolemono (that's Greek for egg and lemon) soup with you. 

Our friend Phoebe introduced us to it this fall and it is comfort incarnate. I made a pot of this the other night after Will's second diagnosis when we were all feeling sick and tired and it was just the thing. Perked us right up.

The broth is particularly addictive - you start with a good chicken stock that is flavored with lemon and thickened with egg. The meatballs are spiked with herbs -- mint, parsley and dill as well as finely minced onion. It makes them super fresh and flavorful. And you add lots of orzo cause this is comfort food. The acidity of the lemon brightens the hearty broth and makes the whole mess of flavors shine. Mwah! So good!

A good stock makes a big difference so if you can make your own, do. Any time you roast a chicken (or buy a roasted chicken) just put that carcass in a pot of water and let it simmer for a couple hours. I also add some of my vegetable scraps - things like onion and carrot peels, parsley and dill stems - to give it more flavor. Then I strain the solids out and let the stock reduce a bit so that what's left is nice and flavorful. Once it's cooled down, I freeze it in mason jars, yogurt containers or ziploc bags so that I always have stock on hand when I need it.

Important note: do NOT just dump the bowl of eggs into the pot of soup. In order to avoid scrambling the eggs, you first pour one cup of the hot stock into the egg to temper it and then you can add it to the pot and let it simmer a little longer.

This is Greek comfort food at its finest. I hope you like it. Stay warm and stay well.

-- print recipe --
Greek Lemon Soup with Chicken Meatballs & Orzo adapted from Cooks Illustrated
Serves 4

Ingredients

* 8 cups chicken stock
* 1 lb ground chicken or turkey
* 1 small onion, grated or finely minced
* 1/2 cup breadcrumbs
* 3 Tbsps chopped, fresh dill
* 3 Tbsps chopped, fresh mint
* 1/4 cup chopped, fresh parsley
* 4 eggs
* 1 cup orzo
* 3 carrots, peeled and chopped (optional but they're good!)
* 3 Tbsps fresh lemon juice
* Sea salt
* Freshly ground pepper

Directions

1. Bring the stock to a simmer in a medium-large pot. Meanwhile, make the meatballs: put the ground meat, onion, breadcrumbs, chopped herbs, 1 of the eggs, 1 tsp salt and 1/2 tsp pepper in a bowl and knead (I use my hands) until well-mixed. Shape into one-inch meatballs.

2. Add the meatballs, orzo and carrots to the stock and simmer for about 15 minutes, until the meatballs are cooked through and the carrots and orzo are tender.

3. Whisk the lemon juice and eggs together in a bowl. Whisking constantly, gradually add one cup of the hot stock to the bowl then gradually add the egg and stock mixture back to the pot, whisking all the while. Simmer gently on low heat until slightly thickened  for another 2-3 minutes. Season with salt and pepper and serve.

You might also like:

• 8 Soups That'll Warm Up Your Winter
• Tzatziki - Greece's Ubiquitous Cucumber-Yogurt Sauce
• Preserved Lemons For Fabulous Flavor

For more delicious recipes, gardening ideas, foraging tips, and food-related inspiration "like" the Garden of Eating on Facebook, or follow me on Twitter and Pinterest.

8 Soups To Warm Up Your Winter

Thanks to the revolving door of colds and coughs my kids bring home from school, I've been making quite a lot of soup. On the plus side, I love soup.

Some are old favorites while others, like this spicy red lentil soup with meyer lemon, are new favorites. Every one is warming and delicious. My advice to you is:

• Save your vegetable scraps - they make great stock - details here; and
• If you make more than you need, freeze what's left over - you'll be glad you did, especially next time you catch a cold and do not feel like cooking.

Swiss Chard, White Bean & Sausage Soup
This is one of those soups that is a meal in and of itself. Hearty and full of flavor, thanks in part to the vastly underutilized trick of saving your Parmesan cheese rinds to give your stock a huge boost. You can use kale in place of the chard - both are good. Simply skip the sausage if you want to make a vegetarian version.

Quick Coconut Vegetable Stew
This is a wonderful go-to meal that is packed with flavor and also wildly good for you. The vegetables are flexible but kabocha squash is one of my favorite additions because its dense, sweet flesh pairs so nicely with the warm curry powder and the rich coconut milk. Vegan to boot!

Creamy Roasted Garlic & Potato Soup
This is one of the most addictive soups I've ever eaten - it ranks right up there with my favoriteThai soup, tom kha gai. The nutty, mellow flavor of the roasted garlic is the perfect foil for potatoes' sweet starchiness. Add a little heavy cream and you are officially IN BUSINESS.

Curried Lentil & Sweet Potato Stew
A perfect vegetarian meal packed with protein and flavor. The exotic flavors of the curry marry beautifully with both lentils and sweet potatoes. Whatever other veggies (carrots, etc.,) you want to add are just icing on the cake.

Jerusalem Artichoke (Sunchoke) & Sweet Potato Soup
I discovered this recipe as a result of Eatwell Farm, our old CSA back in Berkeley that helpfully included it in a share box that featured a big bag of sunchokes. At the time, I had no idea what they were or what to do with them so I took the easy way out and made the soup even though it sounded a little weird to me. But it was sooooo good - sweet, nutty and with a nice kick from the green garlic! Now I yearn for sunchokes and am thinking about planting a bunch in the spring even though I've been warned that they have thuggish tendencies and like to take over. Considering how tasty they are, that might not be the worst thing in the world...

Red Lentil Soup with Chili Paste & Meyer Lemon
This is my new favorite soup, inspired by a recent New York Times recipe. Like all lentil soups, it's quick, hearty and nutritious and the chili paste and lemon juice pack a nice little punch of flavor.

Winter Squash & Pear Soup with Sage
Pear adds a lovely, floral sweetness to the nutty squash and sage anchors the flavors with its earthy astringency. Add a dollop of sour cream or crème fraîche to make this extra rich and serve with peasant bread or brown rice and a green salad.

Curried Butternut Squash Soup
A super simple, super tasty (accidentally) vegan soup made with roasted butternut squash, creamy coconut milk and warm, exotic curry powder. You can't lose with this soup! If you're not a vegan, top with a little sour cream, crème fraîche or plain, whole milk yogurt.

You might also like:

• 15 Unbeatable Kale Recipes
• Winter Squash Wonderland: 22 Recipes You'll Love
• 23 Delicious & Easy Thanksgiving Recipes

For more delicious recipes, gardening ideas, foraging tips, and food-related inspiration "like" the Garden of Eating on Facebook, or follow me on Twitter and Pinterest.

Potato Leek Soup (a.k.a. Vichyssoise)

I made a big pot of this wonderful soup earlier in the week. It is comfort incarnate, especially when served hot, topped with a dollop of sour cream or crème fraîche, which is how I like it. Traditionally, vichyssoise is served cold but this is simply not the season for cold soups, at least not here in the northeast...

I've had potatoes on the brain because they were one of my aunt Maggie's favorite foods and a mainstay of her diet during the rough periods in her battle with lymphoma.

She grew her own spuds in the dirt of her ever-expanding garden in Putney, Vermont. She'd eat them baked with lots of butter or blended in potato leek soup in an effort to put some meat back on her tiny bones during rounds of chemotherapy when, as she said, "It is often harder not to throw up than to."

Maggie with a "heart potato" she grew.

I've been re-reading Maggie's emails and her postings on her CaringBridge site since she died and I've found so much wisdom, courage and sweetness in her words. This excerpt from an entry Maggie posted after her cancer returned is a poignant reminder not to sleepwalk through our precious lives, to be present even when things are difficult or painful.

think of all the things we take for granted (excuse my sounding like a hallmark card, but i am struck so often by these thoughts); just brushing teeth, rubbing cream on face, slicing apples for a pie, eating a bowl of coffee ice cream cold on tongue, feeling the road under my boots.....an endless sensory barrage that we don't even realize we are experiencing until it may be taken away; YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YA GOT TIL IT'S GONE, thank you joni mitchell. maggie

One of the things I love about cooking is experiencing the beauty of the ingredients. The unique color, shape and texture of each potato, the vivid chartreuse core you find when you cut into a leek, the crunchy, white crystals of Kosher salt, the thick, smooth surface on a cup of cream. It's a feast for the senses.

This is one of the simplest soups to make - you start by slicing the leeks and chopping the potatoes, then you saute the leeks in butter or oil.

Once they've softened, you add the cubed potatoes and saute a bit longer.

Then add the stock and bring it to a simmer until the potatoes are cooked through.

Then it's time to break out your trusty immersion blender - one of my top five favorite kitchen tools - and blend until smooth (or not, it's up to you so just blend until it reaches your desired consistency.)

Although I sometimes make this soup with chicken broth and cream, I made this batch with vegetable broth (I was making a batch at the same time from my frozen veggie scraps) and skipped the cream, making it vegan. It's good either way.

Top with a dollop of sour cream and a sprinkling of fresh herbs - dill, fennel, thyme, marjoram - pretty much anything goes well.

-- print recipe --
Potato Leek Soup (Vichyssoise)
Serves 6

Ingredients

* 4 organic potatoes, cubed (peel them if you want a really smooth soup)
* 6 leeks, white parts only, washed well to remove any dirt or sand, and chopped
* 6 cups vegetable or chicken stock
* 1 cup of organic milk, 1/2 & 1/2 or cream (optional)
* 3 Tbsps olive oil or butter
* A generous handful of fresh herbs, rinsed and chopped (dill, fennel fronds, thyme, marjoram, cilantro, etc.)
* Sea salt to taste
* Freshly ground black pepper to taste
* Sour cream or crème fraîche (optional)

Directions

1. Heat the butter or oil in a soup pot over medium heat. Add the leeks and saute them until soft - about 4-5 minutes. Add the potatoes and continue to saute until softened, another 8-10 minutes.

2. Add the stock and bring to a simmer. Cook until the vegetables are completely softened, about 20 minutes. Add the milk or cream, if you're using it.

3. Puree the soup in the pot using an immersion blender (or in batches in the blender) until completely smooth or until it reaches your desired consistency.

4. Season to taste with the salt and pepper. Serve warm, topped with a dollop of sour cream or crème fraîche and a sprinkling of fresh herbs.

You might also like:

• Winter Squash & Pear Soup with Sage
• Potato Celeriac Gratin
• Roasted Fingerling Potatoes with Garden Herbs & Garlic

For more delicious recipes, gardening ideas, foraging tips, and food-related inspiration "like" the Garden of Eating on Facebook, or follow me on Twitter and Pinterest.

Swiss Chard, White Bean & Sausage Soup

This soup's got everything - hearty greens, chunks of spiced sausage, creamy cannellini beans, sweet carrots, flecks of bright basil and oregano and a deeply flavorful tomato-based broth that's good enough to be a soup in its own right. I start by sauteing a small mountain of onions and garlic, then brown the sausage and throw in the chard ribs and carrots for a couple minutes. Then I add a Mason jar of pureed tomatoes and some vegetable stock.

But the secret ingredient is something most people throw away... I add the rind that's left when you've gone as far with a block of Parmesan as you think is wise. I save my Parmesan and Romano rinds in a ziplock bag in the fridge and toss them right into the broth to simmer. It adds depth and a wonderful savory flavor.

Although this is best with fresh chard (which is one of those vegetables you can usually find fresh for much of the year), you can also use frozen with great results. I've been freezing the excess chard - I planted way too many plants - from my garden.

I remove the ribs and chop them up to freeze them separately, then blanch the leaves for about two seconds, ice them, dry them and freeze them in ziplock bags for making soups and stews in the winter. The summertime me thinks it's kind of a pain but the wintertime me will think the summertime me is a genius. If you can't find fresh chard, you can also probably buy it frozen. Around here, the good folks at Hudson Valley Harvest sell great frozen kale, chard and other veggies, all from local farms.

I like to use cannellini because of their firm skin, creamy texture and mild, slightly nutty flavor but you could use navy beans or great northern beans, too. If you have time to cook dried beans from scratch, they'll be tastier, cheaper and probably a little more nutritious. But that's not always realistic so if you're using canned beans, I usually choose Eden Foods because all of their cans are BPA-free (more about buying BPA-free) However, I do NOT endorse the company's stance on birth control.

I used a jar of our canned tomatoes (thanks again to the summertime me!) but if you don't go in for that whole canning production, I would recommend using either a container of Pomi tomatoes or a glass jar of Eden's crushed tomatoes for the same reason, they're BPA-free. At this point, I don't believe anyone has yet figured out how to create a metal can that can withstand the acid in tomatoes without using BPA so glass or a Tetrapak package are the only options. Of the two, glass is clearly the safer option.

Once the slicing and dicing is done, the rest is a breeze. Just keep on adding things to the pot, bring to a boil, turn down the heat and simmer for half an hour.

Soon, delicious smells will begin to fill the air and people may start to flock to the kitchen in anticipation... Ladle your steaming, Parmesan-spiked soup into bowls, top with some chopped parsley, a blizzard of fresh Parmesan cheese and serve with a green salad and crusty bread with butter and salt.

-- print recipe --Swiss Chard, White Bean & Sausage Soup
Serves 6-8

Ingredients

* 1 large bunch Swiss or rainbow chard, washed, dried with the ribs removed, chopped and set aside
* 1 large or 2 medium onions, diced
* 3-4 large cloves of garlic, minced or pressed
* 3-4 carrots, sliced
* 2 cans of cannellini beans, rinsed and drained
* Half a bunch of fresh basil, rinsed, dried and chopped
* Handful of fresh oregano, rinsed, dried and chopped
* 1 lb organic pork sausage, uncased (try to buy from a farmer near you)
* 1 quart of pureed or chopped tomatoes
* 1 quart of vegetable stock  (I often make my own from kitchen scraps but when I don't have any in the freezer, I use Better Than Bouillon's organic veggie base)
* However many Parmesan or Romano rinds you can rustle up
* A few tsps chopped fresh parsley for garnish (optional)
* Freshly grated Parmesan cheese for garnish (optional)
* 2 Tbsps olive oil
* Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Directions

1. Heat the olive oil over medium heat in a large soup pot. Add the onions and saute for 3-4 minutes until they begin to become transparent then add the garlic and cook another 2-3 minutes until the garlic becomes fragrant.

2. Add the chard ribs and carrots and saute for another 3-4 minutes. Clear some space in the middle of all those vegetables and toss the sausage in. Cook, stirring frequently and kind of chopping it up with the spoon or spatula to cut the meat up into manageable chunks. Saute until the meat is browned.

3. Add the tomato and vegetable stock along with the Parmesan rinds and half of the basil and oregano and bring to a boil, then turn the heat down to low and simmer for 20 minutes. Add the chard leaves, the beans and the rest of the herbs, stir, then add salt and pepper, taste it and adjust as needed. Cook for another 10-15 minutes then serve, topped with a sprinkling of fresh parsley and a lot of fresh, grated Parmesan.

You might also like:

• Swiss Chard & Barley Gratin
• Slow-Cooked Pinto Beans with Pork Belly & Skillet Cornbread
• Classic Beef Stew

For more delicious recipes, gardening ideas, foraging tips, and food-related inspiration "like" the Garden of Eating on Facebook, or follow me on Twitter and Pinterest.