Home Canned Tomato Soup
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This Home Canned Tomato Soup is a great way to add extra veggies to your family’s meal plan.
Home Canned Tomato Soup
And during the long winter months, what could be better (or easier) than popping open a can of fresh garden goodness, adding a few simple ingredients, and serving it for dinner?
I love this recipe for using up fresh summer produce from the garden. It allows me to process tomatoes, carrots, peppers, celery, and onion, all at once!
Please note that this soup must be canned in a pressure canner, and not a water bath canner. While tomatoes are safe for canning in a boiling water canner, other vegetables like carrots and celery must be pressure canned.
It’s interesting to note that the color varies from batch to batch. Some years my soup turns out bright red and sometimes the color is closer to brown. I’m sure this has to do with varieties of tomatoes and peppers used.
But no matter the color, it always turns out delicious!
More about tomatoes:
- The Best Way to Plant Tomatoes
- Basic Tomato Sauce for Canning or Freezing
- Quick & Easy Tomato Basil Soup
- Home Canned Salsa with Lime Juice
- Honey Tomato Jam
- 7 Ways to Use Dehydrated Tomatoes
- How to Make & Use Tomato Powder
- How to Freeze Whole Tomatoes
Serving Home Canned Tomato Soup
To serve this Home Canned Tomato Soup, I like to add full fat coconut milk, unrefined sea salt* and freshly ground pepper, to taste. See my similar recipe here: Quick & Easy Tomato Basil Soup.
Of course if you tolerate dairy, you could also add whole milk instead of coconut milk. I recommend raw milk! Either way, milk adds some creaminess and good fats to all those veggies. Yum!
*This is my favorite brand! Use code KEEPITREAL to get 15% off your order.
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Home Canned Tomato Soup
- Yield: 7 quarts 1x
- Category: Canning & Preserving
Description
This Home Canned Tomato Soup is a great way to use up fresh summer produce from the garden while also adding extra veggies to your family’s meal plan.
Ingredients
- 8 quarts tomatoes, cored and chopped (Fill an 8-cup glass measuring cup four times. According to my research, 1 quart = about 3 pounds tomatoes. So 8 quarts = 24 pounds.)
- 5 cups pureed onion
- 3.5 cups pureed celery
- 3.5 cups pureed peppers (mostly red with a bit of green)
- 2 cups pureed carrots
- 1 TB fresh basil leaves
- 1 bulb garlic
- 4 tsp unrefined sea salt
- 2 bay leaves
Instructions
- Puree the veggies in a high speed blender. I like to puree the tomatoes, too.
- Combine all ingredients in a large pot.
- Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer and cook slowly until thick.
- Stir frequently to prevent sticking.
- Remove bay leaves!
- Ladle into clean, hot jars leaving 1/2 inch head space.
- In a pressure canner, process pints and quarts for 20 minutes at 10 pounds pressure.
- To serve, add milk of choice and season to taste with unrefined sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.
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Yum! I can’t wait to try your soup. But…I don’t know how to can and would be too chicken to try it myself without someone walking me through it making sure I am doing it right! At this point I do not know who that would be SO do you think it would freeze okay? If I make it and let it cool completely, then into freezer bags? thanks! Also where do you get your GF bread in Lancaster, PA? That is where i live and I am also GF.
Yes, you could definitely freeze it, Liz. Personally, I like to use glass jars in the freezer, too, but freezer bags are helpful if space is limited. (By the way–I’ve found the Ball Blue Book to be super helpful in my new canning endeavors.) The bread comes from Roots Country Market in Manheim. 🙂
It’s easy to make, fast and delicious too. Thanks for this tip.
You’re welcome! 🙂
I don’t have a pressure canner, but I have a bather. Can I process in a water bather?
Hi Karen, My understanding is that a water bather is fine for highly acidic foods like tomatoes. But since this soup contains low-acid vegetables, a pressure canner is best. If you have freezer space, you might go that route. ?
Approximately how many pints does this recipe make? Recipe sounds fantastic!!
About 12 pints, Kathy.
Do you remove the skin from the tomatoes?
Nope! 🙂
No additional acid is needed in this soup? This is my first year canning and I’m nervous to not just add citric acid ?
Welcome to the world of canning! 🙂 I don’t add acid. If it makes you feel better, you can add it, but it alters the flavor.
Hi Kathleen! Love your recipe! I was wondering approximately how long it took to boil down your soup before canning it?
Hi, Sarah–Probably 1-2 hours. As soon as I puree each veggie, I add it to the pot (with the burner turned on from the beginning). After all the pureed veggies are combined, I bring it to a boil, reduce heat and then cook until it reduces to a good consistency.
Wonderful! Thank you for answering my question so quickly!
My plan is to make your recipe with a bit of lemon juice added to make it more acidic and then water bath can it. I’ll let you know how it turns out!
Ps. If I chicken out and decide to freeze it… I saw a few comments above that you freeze things in jars. How do you keep the jars from breaking in the freezer? I’d be worried about the expansion.
I need to write a post about that! 🙂
1. use thick mason jars
2. leave plenty of head space for expansion
3. cool completely in fridge first, then transfer to freezer
Ball recommends you only freeze in jars with straight sides, so that would be wide mouth pint and wide mouth pint & half jars, no quart jars.
am confused about the pureed vegetables, do I measure them raw and then puree or is the pureed amount the 3.5 cups?
The pureed amounts are listed. Honestly, I try to get as close as possible without worrying too much about hitting the exact amount.
I am assuming the vegetables are cooked before pureeing?
They’re actually raw. They get cooked after you add everything to the pot.
Can you use cashew milk instead of coconut milk? I hate coconut milk.
I’ve never tried that, Meg, but you could experiment and let us know how it turns out! 🙂
Plan on trying this one this summer, gonna need a pressure canner!
You can do it, Sara! 🙂
I haven’t canned before. It’s on my list of things to learn! I love tomato soup though and would love to try it home made!!! I’ve def written this one down!! Maybe my husband will actually eat this! He’s pickier than my 10 month old lol!
Let me know how he likes it! My pickiest eater will eat it, with encouragement. ?
Coconut milk..interesting! How much would you add to a pint of soup?
It’s totally up to you, Martha! I’d start with half a can of coconut milk and adjust from there.
Thanks! I’ll try that.
(East Texan by choice, not birth)
Looks like a wonderful recipe. Do you purée your vegetables first and then measure ? How many red peppers are in 3 1/2 cups puréed?
I do puree first, then measure. (My Vitamix has cup measuring marks on the side, so I just keep adding veggies until the puree hits the right mark.) And I’m not sure how many peppers it requires! Sometimes I wind up adding frozen red peppers (fire roasted) from my freezer stash.
Found this post via google (trying to find a good tomatoe soup recipe for canning). Had a bowl of the “not enough for another jar” leftovers. Just superb! We added 1/2 tsn Cayenne to the batch, for kick. Now following your blog ?
Yay! Glad to have you, Kim! And don’t you love those “not enough for another jar” leftovers? 🙂
Hi Kathleen,
Just found this recipe on Pinterest and it sounds delicious, just wondering how the carrots change the flavor? This is the first recipe I have seen with them added.
We’ve found the combination of veggies provide a real flavor boost. Enjoy! 🙂
Any idea how many pounds of tomatoes I would need to start with to get my 8 quarts?
According to my research, 1 quart = about 3 pounds tomatoes. So 8 quarts = 24 pounds. Hope that helps!
So I just made this recipe because I love Campbell’s tomato soup and this soup was amazing! I am going to make a couple more batches for my food storage! So incredibly delicious and guilt free to eat because its all healthy!!!!
Yay! Glad you liked it, Caitlin!
Hi I am curious where your reference is for not adding acid for the tomatoes? I haven’t found a reference that says you can pressure can without acidifying the tomatoes as well. Thanks!
I don’t add acid, Leigh Ann. If it makes you feel better, you can add it, but it can alter the flavor. Here’s an interesting thread about the evolution of tomato canning and how the USDA changed its recommendation about canning tomatoes: https://bit.ly/2p2sRXr. More details here: https://bit.ly/2xckkWl. In the end, it depends on the types of tomatoes used and their acidity, as well as your own comfort level. To be safe, just go ahead and add lemon juice!
Hi there! so far this year I’ve canned salsa & spagetti sauce & I LOVE tomatoes soup & looking for something new. Can I water bath the soup & add the lemon juice?
I am getting ready to make tomato soup and haven’t made it in years. I found my old recipe (that I loved) but it has 1 cup sugar, butter and flour in it. I was looking for a healthier version. Can’t wait to try yours.
Hi. Any specific tomatoes for this recipe?
Any tomatoes will work, Lisa, but paste/Roma tomatoes tend to work best for canning because they are meatier with less juice.
i just found this recipe. yay. have to wait until my peppers are red. could i puree the tomatoes and freeze until i get my peppers ripe. also, 1 bulb garlic, is that one head or just one clove. thanks
One head of garlic. 🙂
Do you think this would be okay if I left out the Bay Leaves? I’ve been looking for a tomato soup recipe with no sugar or flour but I don’t like the flavor of bay leaves.
Debra, I’ve never made it that way but I think it would be okay since bay leaves are a seasoning.
Julie, Because this soup contains other veggies in addition to tomatoes, it can be safely canned ONLY in a pressure canner.
My mom hates bell pepper flavor cooked in anything can you omit them?