Stranger things: Spicy cinnamon tomato soup edition

I know, so weird. But trust me, so tasty. With a soothing spicy cinnamon note to its tomatoey goodness, It’s basically an adaptation of this recipe from Milk Street (sorry, subscription required), with reference to this recipe from Healthy Canning to ensure it’s safe in terms of acidity and all that. The Milk Street recipe also involves toasted pasta and feta cheese added at the end and yum, but save that touch for when you’re reheating.

Also, I’m fully aware that I swing wildly between metric and imperial measurements. It’s a product of Canadian grade school in the 80s. We learned metric from teachers who were waaay more comfortable with imperial, resulting in a generation of kids who go both ways. Don’t judge. It’s just one of the reasons we travel well. 

You will need: 

• 1 bell pepper (medium)

• 1 onion (medium)

• 4 T onion powder

• 4 cinnamon sticks (weird, I know)

• 1 whole habanero pepper

• 2 tablespoons oil

• 14 lb tomatoes (quartered)

• 4 tablespoons tomato paste

• 1 tablespoon sugar (optional)

• 1 tablespoon salt 

• 1 teaspoon ground black pepper

• Citric acid (or bottled lemon juice)

• 6 quart/litre size or 12 pint/500 mL size mason jars

• Equivalent quantity of snap lids and rings

Instructions for cooking and canning:

1. Wash your Mason jars in hot soapy water and rinse well. Since your soup in jars will be boiling in the water bath for (a lot) longer than 10  minutes, you don't need to pre-sterilize.

2. Wash, stem, seed and chop the bell pepper. I pretty much pulverized it with my little choppy that I so love. (Leave the habanero aside for now.)

3. Do the same for the onion. 

4. Wash and chop the tomatoes into quarters, removing the core. The peel can stay on and seeds in. Set aside.

5. Heat the oil in a very large pot. Add the onion and pepper, sauté for a few minutes until the onion starts to turn a bit translucent (assuming you can tell; mine was almost liquefied so I guessed. 

6. Add the tomatoes.

7. Stir, stir, stir. 

8. Cover pot, and gradually bring to a boil on medium heat.  This may take 30 to 40 minutes. Stir often to prevent bottom scorching.

9. Once the tomatoes start to release their liquids, add the cinnamon sticks and onion powder. Stir, stir, stir. 

10. Wash the habanero and puncture some holes in it with a knife. Leaving it whole, drop it in the pot. (You will remove it when you remove the cinnamon sticks.)

11. Once the mixture starts boiling, reduce heat to a simmer and continue to simmer, covered, for another 30 to 40 minutes or until tomatoes have all broken down and mixture has begun to thicken a bit.

12. Fish out the cinnamon sticks and the whole habanero, squeezing it with tongs or against the side of the pot to ensure it releases its spicy goodness. 

13. Now you need to strain your soup. I use a food mill with fairly large holes that removes the tomato skins and most of the seeds. I’m happy to have some seeds remain in the soup, but you do you. This is why I chop/pulverise the onion and bell pepper as well: so it will pass through the food mill and remain in the soup. 

14. Return the strained tomato mixture to the large pot.

15. Add the tomato paste, sugar, salt and pepper.

16. Taste. Add more sugar, salt, pepper or onion powder to your preference. Don’t add more vegetables though cause you could mess with food safety.

17. Bring back to a simmer and let simmer for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.

18. While your soup is simmering, start heating your water bath. If your water is hard, you can add a splash of white vinegar to help prevent water stains.

19. Put the lids in a saucepan of water and bring to a simmer. Keep them in the hot water until you are ready to use them. (Some lid manufacturers say this is no longer necessary, but I still do it.)

20. Add citric acid to each mason jar: ¼ tsp per pint/500 ml or ½ tsp per quart/litre. *

21. Ladle hot soup into your clean mason jars leaving about 1.5 cm (½ inch)  headspace. If you are working in an air conditioned or otherwise chilly kitchen, it’s a good idea to heat your jars before filling so they aren’t shocked by the heat of the soup.

22. I don’t know that you really have to bubble a smooth soup like this, but I still do.  Wipe each rim with a clean paper towel dipped in vinegar. Place the snap lid down and screw the ring on fingertip tight.

23. Put the jars into your water bath canner. Make sure there is at least an inch of water above the top of your jars. Put the canner lid on and return to the boil for 40 minutes. Don't start your timer until the water is boiling.

24. Remove jars from the canner or let them sit in the canner until everything calms down.

25. Make sure all the jars are sealed before you put them away. Any that still haven’t sealed within 24 hours go in the fridge.

*If you prefer or you can’t track down citric acid, you can use lemon juice instead. Add 1 T lemon juice per pint or 2 T lemon juice per quart. 

12 delicious lunches stashed away for the cold days. Makes me so happy!

Tomato soup, now condensed

I made this soup two weeks ago. Over the course of that week, I processed 75 pounds of tomatoes: 50 lbs of which were for stewed tomatoes and the rest were for this soup. Somehow I forgot that for the soup I didn’t need to peel the tomatoes first. I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry when I realized I could have skipped that step.

This recipe requires a pressure canner. If you don’t pressure can, use last year’s tomato soup recipe and your water bath canner. It was amaaaaazing. The flavours are very similar. I just added some garlic this year because I had it on hand.

You'll need:

• Approx 25 lbs ripe tomatoes (half-bushel)

• 3 cups celery, diced

• 6 cups onion, diced

• 3 cups fresh parsley, chopped

• 2 cups ClearJel - no substitutes

• Black pepper

• Salt (optional)

• Fresh garlic, 4 or 5 cloves, diced (optional)

• Bay leaves (optional)

• 18 or so pint (500 ml) Mason jars with rings and snap lids

• 1/2 teaspoon citric acid PER JAR

• 1/2 teaspoon sugar PER JAR (optional)

Directions for canning:

1. Wash your jars in hot soapy water and rinse well. 

2. Wash your tomatoes well; chop them in quarters and throw the cores into your compost bucket. (Or peel them first if you have lots of spare time like me, apparently…)

3. Place tomatoes, celery, onion, garlic, bay leaves and parsley in a large pot.

4. Cook gently, until very tender, stirring as needed. 

5. Once it is well cooked, press through a food strainer or sieve, making sure you’re getting all the liquid. (Because I had already removed the tomato skins, I had less veggie matter left than I would otherwise have. I saved it and used it to make vegetable broth. I am thrifty!).

6. Return all the liquid to the large pot and turn heat to medium. Gradually whisk in 2 cups of ClearJel while the soup heats.

7. Heat to a boil, continuing to stir or whisk until the soup thickens. [Pro tip: Don’t follow the ClearJel instructions and wait for the soup to boil before adding the ClearJel. I did, and it clumped like crazy. I had to use my immersion blender to set it to rights.]  

8. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

9. Place 1/2 teaspoon citric acid in each jar. Add equivalent amount of sugar if you are concerned about tartness. 

10. Put the snap lids in hot water for a couple of minutes to soften. It doesn't have to be boiling.

11. Ladle hot, thickened soup into pint jars, leaving about 1 inch headspace. 

12. As usual, "bubble" each jar with a skewer or chopstick to release any trapped air. Wipe each rim with a clean damp paper towel. Place a heated snap lid down and screw the ring on fingertip tight.

13. Add hot water to your pressure canner. Mine requires 3 quarts; check your instructions to be sure for yours. Load up the canner and close it, following manufacturer instructions. Here’s the best thing – with my pressure canner, I can stack jars. I could fit all 18 jars in a single canner load. Beauty, eh?

14. At sea level, and Great Lakes level, process pints or half-prints for 25 minutes at 11 pounds pressure.

This soup is much thicker than last year’s version, but not gloppy like Campbell’s condensed. When I heat and enjoy, I do add milk but not an equivalent amount to the soup. I also often cook up some noodles and throw them in, and sometimes grate some cheese on top. A full delicious meal, and oh my heavens, heavenly! Treat yo’self!

So good tomato soup

You'll need:

• Approx 25 lbs ripe tomatoes (half-bushel, aka one of these boxes in the photo)

• 3 cups celery, diced

• 6 cups onion, diced

• 3 cups fresh parsley

• Black pepper

• Bay leaves (optional)

• Salt (optional)

• 16 or so pint Mason jars with rings and snap lids

• 1/2 teaspoon citric acid PER JAR

• 1/2 teaspoon sugar PER JAR (optional)

Directions for canning:

1. Wash your jars in hot soapy water and rinse well. 

2. Wash your tomatoes well; chop them in quarters and throw the cores into your compost bucket.

3. Place tomatoes, celery, onion, and parsley in a large pot. You could also throw in a handful of bay leaves. I don't think I did, but I might have.

4. Cook gently, uncovered, until tender, stirring as needed. 

5. Once it is very well cooked, press through a food strainer or sieve. I used my food mill. The first insert I used had too-large holes so the tomato seeds went right through. I had to go with the finer mesh insert, which worked fine.

6.  Put soup back in large pot and heat to the boil again. Add salt to taste.

7. Place 1/2 teaspoon citric acid in each jar. Add equivalent amount of sugar if you are concerned about tartness. 

8. Ladle hot soup into pint jars, leaving about 1 inch headspace. 

9. As usual, "bubble" each jar with a skewer or chopstick to release any trapped air. Wipe each rim with a clean damp paper towel. Place a heated snap lid down and screw the ring on finger tip tight.

10. Put the filled jars into your water bath canner. Make sure there is at least an inch of water above the top of your jars. Don't start your timer until the water is boiling. Put the pot lid on and boil pints for 45 minutes.

Now the story behind the story: I only had my water bath canner to use as a big pot and didn't have my pressure canner. So I had to cook all the ingredients in the big pot, then transfer it to a series of smaller pots after straining, wash the canner, fill it with water, then heat it, then heat the soup back up... Probably that's why I have few pictures of the process. It was, frankly, a gong show. 

The soup turned out delicious though. I stashed the jars away in the pantry in early September, thinking that they would last through at least some of the winter. As of today, I think there is one maaaaybe two jars left. The boy loves it. 

Next year, I'm going to try this recipe: https://commonsensehome.com/home-canned-tomato-soup/  It has very similar ingredients, but it uses Ultra gel to thicken it like concentrate. Might be gross? Reviews are good; worth a try! 

I had such ambitions...

It was going to be amazing. Jars and jars of glorious spiced carrot and red lentil dal. Flavourful, warm, healthy meals ready to warm up and serve (to roaring acclaim) with a splash of cream and maybe a crusty loaf of bread.

I had the ingredients. 

I had the ambition. I peeled and I chopped and I chopped.

I cooked the soup. I pureed it. 

I served it for dinner, adding cream to the individual bowls.

The Dave had a canker sore, which made this soup a very painful proposition. Kid 1 tried it, said it was "okay, better than I expected." And Kid 2 ate a full bowl and was lavish with praise, going so far as to request it for lunch the next day. (You can guess who's got lead billing in the inheritance sweepstakes at the moment.)  

But really, it was delicious. Definitely worthy of canning and keeping on hand. 

Got out a dozen or so pint jars, washed them, started to heat them in the oven. Got out the pressure canner. The lid looked weird. There was a hole where there shouldn't be a hole. Got out the instructions for the pressure canner to see what was going on. Dammit! The top part of the "air vent/cover lock" was nowhere to be found. The bottom part was rolling around loose in the pressure canner. I looked and I looked. I swept out the pantry three times, hoping the fiddly little metal bit would magically appear. (Hey, it happened to the keys in "Making a Murderer.") Could not find it anywhere.

Apparently, it has gone to live with the blade from my Tupperware chopper and the lid of the spice grinder. They may be on the lam with the odd socks. 

Bummer.

So I ladled it out into a ragtag assortment of Rubbermaid, Gladware, and Tupperware and stashed it in an already jam-packed freezer. The containers with the lids that don't quite fit are gingerly balanced in the fridge to be heated and put into thermoses for tomorrow's lunches.  

It was going to be so pretty. Fortunately, it will still be delicious.  

About the recipe: "Spiced Carrot and Red Lentil Dal" is from the Soup Sisters and Broth Brothers Cookbook. A not-for-profit organization, Soup Sisters and Broth Brothers offers soup-making events in cities all over Canada and a few in the US too. I highly recommend you consider soup-making as a fun get-together with your colleagues, clients, or friends. It's a good time, and there's a chef on hand to supervise and teach some mad knife skillz. The soup is then delivered to recipients in need such as local women's and youth shelters. Their tagline is "Hug in a bowl."