Our Veggie Kitchen

A couple weeks ago, I found myself with 120 lbs of tomatoes (Thanks MoonTime Farms). Among sauces, soups and salsa, I made Roasted Tomato Soup. The recipe that follows is the bulk, all fresh tomato version of the Roasted Tomato Soup Recipe I posted last year.



Roasted Tomato Soup
20 lbs tomatoes
1/4 cup olive oil
6 red peppers, seeded & chopped
24 cloves garlic, 4 oz
3 lbs onions, chopped
1.5 cups basil leaves
2 quarts vegetable broth
1 tbs salt
1/3 cup sugar

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

Tomatoes: Core each tomato and cut each in half. Place the tomatoes cut-side down on cookie sheets or glass casseroles. Bake in batches for about 20 minutes, until the skins begin to wrinkle. As the tomatoes come out of the oven, pour them(including skins) and liquid, in batches, into a blender. Blend each batch and push through a strainer into a 4-gallon stock pot.

Veggies: Combine the red peppers, onions and garlic into 2 glass casseroles or 2 large cookie sheet and toss with the olive oil. bake in the oven, tossing once, for about 20 minutes, until the onions begin to carmelize. Blend, in batches, adding a little of the vegetable broth and the basil. Push through a strainer into the stock pot. Add a little of the broth to the cookie sheet/glass casserole and scrape with a spatula to get the tasty bits cooked to the bottom.

To Cook: Bring to a boil and simmer, stirring occasionally, until the liquid is reduced by almost half, or about 2 1/4 gallons (18 pints). I used two 2-gallon stock pots and cooked it down until nearly all the soup fit into one pot, with a few cups remaining. I think I simmered the soup for about 3-4 hours.  Stir in the sugar and salt to taste.

To Store:  Now you have 2+ gallons of soup. You can feed a hungry baseball team, refrigerate for lunches, freeze it, or some combination thereof. If you have a pressure canner, you can make it into 18 pints (1 batch in a 23 qt canner or 2 batches in 16 quart canner). I used the USDA guide for soups (published by Presto here), processing pints at 11 lbs pressure for 60 minutes.

18 Servings:  204 cal (5g fat, 39g carbs, 8g protein)