Tomato soup
See this recipe step by step

Tomato soup

To make the tastiest tomato soup you’ll ever experience wait until the tomatoes are at their most ripe and juicy, around September

Difficulty and servings

Easy

Serves 4 for lunch or 6 as a starter

Preparation and cooking times

Total time

Vegetarian Freezable

Vegetarian, Vegan, Low-fat

Method

  1. Firstly, prepare your vegetables. You need 1-1.25kg/2lb 4oz-2lb 12oz ripe tomatoes. If the tomatoes are on their vines, pull them off. The green stalky bits should come off at the same time, but if they don't, just pull or twist them off afterwards. Throw the vines and green bits away and wash the tomatoes. Now cut each tomato into quarters and slice off any hard cores (they don't soften during cooking and you'd get hard bits in the soup at the end). Peel 1 medium onion and 1 small carrot and chop them into small pieces. Chop 1 celery stick roughly the same size.
  2. Spoon 2 tbsp olive oil into a large heavy-based pan and heat it over a low heat. Hold your hand over the pan until you can feel the heat rising from the oil, then tip in the onion, carrot and celery and mix them together with a wooden spoon. Still with the heat low, cook the vegetables until they're soft and faintly coloured. This should take about 10 minutes and you should stir them two or three times so they cook evenly and don't stick to the bottom of the pan.
  3. Holding the tube over the pan, squirt in about 2 tsp of tomato purée, then stir it around so it turns the vegetables red. Shoot the tomatoes in off the chopping board, sprinkle in a good pinch of sugar and grind in a little black pepper. Tear 2 bay leaves into a few pieces and throw them into the pan. Stir to mix everything together, put the lid on the pan and let the tomatoes stew over a low heat for 10 minutes until they shrink down in the pan and their juices flow nicely. From time to time, give the pan a good shake - this will keep everything well mixed.
  4. Slowly pour in the 1.2 litres/ 2 pints of hot stock (made with boiling water and 4 rounded tsp bouillon powder or 2 stock cubes), stirring at the same time to mix it with the vegetables. Turn up the heat as high as it will go and wait until everything is bubbling, then turn the heat down to low again and put the lid back on the pan. Cook gently for 25 minutes, stirring a couple of times. At the end of cooking the tomatoes will have broken down and be very slushy looking.
  5. Remove the pan from the heat, take the lid off and stand back for a few seconds or so while the steam escapes, then fish out the pieces of bay leaf and throw them away. Ladle the soup into your blender until it's about three-quarters full, fit the lid on tightly and turn the machine on full. Blitz until the soup's smooth (stop the machine and lift the lid to check after about 30 seconds), then pour the puréed soup into a large bowl. Repeat with the soup that's left in the pan. (The soup may now be frozen for up to 3 months. Defrost before reheating.)
  6. Pour the puréed soup back into the pan and reheat it over a medium heat for a few minutes, stirring occasionally until you can see bubbles breaking gently on the surface. Taste a spoonful and add a pinch or two of salt if you think the soup needs it, plus more pepper and sugar if you like. If the colour's not a deep enough red for you, plop in another teaspoon of tomato purée and stir until it dissolves. Ladle into bowls and serve. Or sieve and serve chilled with some cream swirled in. For other serving suggestions, see opposite.
Try

Choosing the best tomatoes

The best British tomatoes for making soup are Elegance, a deep-red classic tomato (often sold on the vine) with a thin skin and sweet, juicy flesh. Aranca are good on-the-vine cocktail tomatoes with a superb flavour and aroma, but if you prefer the larger beefsteak variety, go for Jack Hawkins. Plum tomatoes to watch out for include Santa, Jester, Mona Lisa and Baby Sweetheart.

Nutrition per serving for four

123 kcalories, protein 4g, carbohydrate 13g, fat 7 g, saturated fat 1g, fibre 4g, sugar 1g, salt 1.08 g

Recipe from Good Food magazine, September 2002.

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Latest comments and suggestions

Results 61-80

  • Binder photo Mabel

    05 October 2009

    Mabel commented on this recipe

    I was disappointed in this soup - very watery. I wonder, do you ever test these recipes? I also added garlic and much less stock than the recipe said. Not mad about it.

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  • Binder photo Annabelle

    09 October 2009

    Annabelle rated and commented on this recipe

    5 stars

    I made this soup with red peppers, carrots, red onion, garlic, tomatoes, bay leaves and lots of basil. I also added a dollop of creme fraiche to serve and some crusty bread. It was delicious. Great recipe.

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  • Binder photo Ellabella

    03 November 2009

    Ellabella rated and commented on this recipe

    5 stars

    THis was the first soup i ever made, as i had grown too many tomato's , it was easy and tasted great !!

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  • Binder photo Kay

    21 November 2009

    Kay rated and commented on this recipe

    5 stars

    This is the first soup I have ever made and it was fab. Put a red pepper in and left out the celery. I put in another good pinch of sugar at the end and added salt and pepper. I used the last of my home grown tomatoes and bought 2 packs. Followed some of the comments like leaving the lid off for the last 15 mins and reducing the stock and this worked really well. It's also amazing how much it thickens up and tastes creamy when you give it a really good blitzing in the blender, no need to add any sort of cream. I froze a few portions and found it tasted even better when defrosted and heated up. Great!

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  • Binder photo Pippifer

    21 November 2009

    Pippifer rated and commented on this recipe

    5 stars

    Delicious! I took other reviewers' advice and used less stock as I prefer a thicker soup and it's perfect! I agree the instructions may be basic but for someone new to cooking or little ones, it's great. A great way to be thrifty and scoop up a load of tom's that are about to be past their prime and turn them into fab comfort food!

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  • Binder photo Jessie

    23 November 2009

    Jessie rated and commented on this recipe

    5 stars

    I made this soup yesterday. I like to make a batch of soup on a sunday for my lunch in the week and this soup is just lovely. Very tasty and will be making it again!

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  • Binder photo feefeescotty

    14 December 2009

    feefeescotty rated and commented on this recipe

    3 stars

    Very easy and very nice. I would add a touch more seasoning next time altough thats just personal prefereance.

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  • Binder photo my dishes

    02 January 2010

    my dishes rated this recipe

    4 stars

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  • Binder photo hello food!!!

    06 January 2010

    hello food!!! rated this recipe

    1 stars

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  • Binder photo Nica

    10 January 2010

    Nica rated this recipe

    4 stars

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  • Binder photo chunky monkey

    17 January 2010

    chunky monkey rated this recipe

    4 stars

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  • Binder photo Humble Recipes

    18 January 2010

    Humble Recipes rated this recipe

    4 stars

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  • Binder photo DocMon

    18 January 2010

    DocMon rated this recipe

    4 stars

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  • Binder photo Reece

    24 January 2010

    Reece rated this recipe

    5 stars

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  • Binder photo suziwong

    01 February 2010

    suziwong rated this recipe

    4 stars

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  • Binder photo suesue

    28 February 2010

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  • Binder photo carmen

    23 March 2010

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  • Binder photo karens

    25 March 2010

    karens rated this recipe

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  • Binder photo gbchef

    05 April 2010

    gbchef commented on this recipe

    This was brilliant my boyfriend loved it! Would make again, but with less chicken stock.

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  • Binder photo lawrj001

    30 June 2010

    lawrj001 rated and commented on this recipe

    2 stars

    I'm not sure about this recipe. It may be the tomatoes that i used but i just found that it didn't really have much taste to it. I could taste the celery more than the tomatoes and i'm not really a big lover of celery. I made it in batches for a diet that i am on and still have some left in the freezer after making it about 2 weeks ago. Because it smelt sooooooo gorgeous when cooking (before being blended) i imagined it to taste out of this world. I added garlic for extra flavour and also some hot chilli sauce after cooking as i felt it would liven u the blandness of the recipe and it did help somewhat. I woudn't make it again.

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Difficulty and servings

Easy

Serves 4 for lunch or 6 as a starter

Preparation and cooking times

Total time

Vegetarian Freezable

Vegetarian, Vegan, Low-fat

Ingredients

  • 1-1.25kg/2lb 4oz-2lb 12oz ripe tomatoes
  • 1 medium onion
  • 1 small carrot
  • 1 celery stick
  • 2 tbsp olive oil
  • 2 squirts of tomato purée (about 2 tsp)
  • a good pinch of sugar
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 1.2 litres/ 2 pints hot vegetable stock (made with boiling water and 4 rounded tsp bouillon powder or 2 stock cubes)
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Nutrition per serving for four

123 kcalories, protein 4g, carbohydrate 13g, fat 7 g, saturated fat 1g, fibre 4g, sugar 1g, salt 1.08 g

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