Outrageous Tomato Soup & Hot Salsa Recipes
There’s only two things that money can’t buy – and that’s
true love and home grown tomatoes.
Guy Clark
I’ll agree with the enthusiastic lyrics of Guy Clark’s song:
money just can’t buy anything as tasty as a homegrown tomato picked right from
your backyard. (Locally grown heirlooms, like the ones on sale this week at the
Co-op come pretty close, though.) Several summers ago, when we were remodeling
our kitchen, we put up 50 quarts of soup and 50 quarts of salsa in our outdoor
makeshift kitchen. Which had some benefits – not heating up the kitchen on a
hot August afternoon being the primary one. Now we’re empty nesters, so we
don’t need those huge amounts, although we still can enough to give our kids
the taste of summer in a jar (Greg
Brown song) as Christmas presents.
Here’s my two favorite recipes for tomato season, adapted
from Putting it up with Honey by
Susan Geiskopf. You may want to check with your county extension agent for
recommended processing times as these may have changed since the 70’s when this
book was written. Personally, I still use these times and they’ve worked for
me.
This is a yummy soup, and there is nothing like it on the
shelves you can buy that comes near to the rich flavors. Eat it as soup, or use
it as a base for chili, spaghetti sauce, etc.
Outrageous Tomato
Soup
12 quarts
quartered tomatoes (If you don’t have 12 quarts worth of tomatoes, just cut up
what you have and reduce the other proportions accordingly.)
6 medium onions
14 sprigs of
parsley
1 head of celery
– the whole bunch
Garlic coves to
taste – I use a whole bulb
Basil to taste –
I pick about a quart of basil leaves
Hot peppers to
taste – I use the equivalent of one cayenne with seeds. Gives it a nice kick.
¾ c olive oil or
melted butter
2/3 c cornstarch
6 T honey
2T non-iodized
salt
Wash and quarter the tomatoes. Chop the onions, celery,
parsley and add the garlic, peppers and basil into a BIG pot! Cook until the celery is
tender; I let it simmer for a couple hours. Put it all through a sieve, food
mill or Squeezo Strainer. (This year my daughter had my Squeezo Strainer, so I
used a food mill to get the liquid out and then 
ran the pulp through my juicer.
It worked great!)
Mix the cornstarch with the oil or butter to make a smooth
paste. Thin with some of the strained tomato mixture. Add this to the soup;
stir in well. Add the honey and salt. Heat until boiling. Pack hot soup into
hot sterilized jars to within ½ inch of the tops. Complete seals. Process 15
minutes in a boiling water bath. Makes 7-9 quarts, depending on how long you let
the tomatoes cook down. Sometimes I’ve let the tomato mixture cook long enough
that I haven’t needed to use the cornstarch to thicken it.
Hot Salsa
2 quarts peeled & chopped
tomatoes – use paste/roma type, remove seeds and squeeze out the juice before chopping.
1 quart chopped peppers – I use a
combination of sweet and mild to very hot peppers. For a hotter salsa, use more
hot peppers. Wear gloves or oil your hands for protection when handling hot
peppers, and don’t rub your eyes. Ouch!
2 cups chopped onion
2 tsp non-iodized salt
1/3 cup lemon juice
Combine all
ingredients and bring to a boil. Pack into sterilized jars. Complete seals.
Process for 10 minutes in a boiling hot water bath. Yield is approx 6 pints. Recipe
can be doubled.