Homemade Tomato Soup (2024)

Anybody else watching their tomato plants put on lots of green fruit??

Me, me! *hand raised*

As I’m waiting for my first ripe tomatoes, my mind is already jumping ahead to canning season!

Now, I’ll be honest, canning season is not my most favorite part of gardening. I love the planting and the tending and the harvesting. And I love seeing rows of colorful jars full of my season’s hard work lining my pantry shelves.

But, the actual canning part?

Yeah, not my most favorite.

On that note, though, I have a fabulous, amazing, mouth-watering canning recipe for you today!

This comes straight from my grandma and a cookbook that was put together in the mid-80’s by the neighborhood ladies (pretty much all were farmwives and one of the main requirements of a good farmwife is the ability to cook!)

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So, when I was growing up, my grandma made the best chili ever!

As adults, my sister and I could not figure out how to replicate it!

So, we asked Grandma and as it turns out, she had a secret ingredient….

Homemade Tomato Soup

Today, I’m going to share that secret with you all so that you can use it to make your own awesome chili (and sloppy joes and anything else you want to put it in! Or just eat it plain as a soup!).

The first main ingredient you will need are tomatoes. (Yeah, you probably figured that one out, lol!)

I typically use a mix of fresh and previously frozen tomatoes. As my tomatoes ripen I throw them in the freezer until I have a good stretch of several days where I can can!

The original recipe calls for 14 quarts of ripe tomatoes.

I use 7 gallon bags of frozen tomatoes. I typically quarter my tomatoes before I store them. When I have a mix of fresh and frozen I use my best judgement on quantities 🙂

You will also need the following:

• 7 medium onions
• 1 stalk of celery
• 14 sprigs of parsley (I use dried and just dump some in, lol)
• 3 bay leaves
• 3 Tb salt
• 8 Tb sugar
• 2 tsp pepper

The original recipe also calls for flour and butter to make a roux of sorts, but I don’t do that.

I blend the onions and the celery with the tomatoes in batches.

I dump it into a large stockpot. After I have that all blended then I add my seasonings and stir it together.

Doesn’t it look pretty????

I bring this whole thing to a boil (while stirring often) then it’s ready to can!

Make sure your jars are clean and warm (I like to either run them through the dishwasher or having them soaking in hot water while I’m waiting for the soup to boil). Fill the jars to with 1/2 inch from the top. Process pints in a water bath canner for 35 minutes or do quarts for 40 minutes.

The Ball Blue Book of Preserving (my go-t0 canning book!) recommends adding 2 Tb of lemon juice to each jar to ensure that the acidity is low enough. I’ll be honest, I don’t do this and neither did Grandma, but if it makes you feel better, go for it 🙂

When you’re all done, you should have these beauties gracing your counter!

I tell ya, you will never go back to boring ol’ tomato juice for chili ever again after using this old fashioned goodness!

What’s your favorite tomato soup recipe? Did your grandma ever have a “secret” ingredient for a childhood favorite dish??