The basic framework:
- Put some tomatoes in a pot with seasonings
- Cook until thoroughly softened
- Lightly strain out the solids (and remove any large pieces of herb), reserving the juice
- Puree the solids to make a thick tomato soup (or base for pizza sauce) perfect for dunking grilled cheese into
- Use the juice as a broth for another soup
For example: I put onions, garlic, fresh sage, and fresh rosemary, and olive oil in. I used the juice to make a kale & white bean soup.
I’ve been playing around with this idea since our CSA has given us about 15lbs of tomato in the past month+, and one of our neighbors sells tomato from his porch for $1.25/lb.
I made it twice last year, and I’m planning to make it again because it’s tomato season!
Some notes:
- Picking out the herbs prevents a way-too-strong flavor. First time I made this I left too much rosemary in, and it was a little astringent. Could probably use cheesecloth to hold the herbs together & avoid the need for digging.
- There are loads of ways to vary this: roast the tomatoes before souping them to get a caramel flavor going, add cream to the thick soup, save all the herbing until they’ve been separated (extra work, but more control over final flavors).
- You can leave a portion of the solids in the juice, as part of the thin soup. Similarly, you can leave more or less of the juice in the solids to thin out the thick soup.
- The kiddos seemed to like both soups.