The stuff you see in metal cans from Campbells has thickeners in it so it looks a bit pasty and pale. Canning would be easy to do, and you can control the strength/thickness of the soup just by boiling it down to your own taste. For a very concentrated soup, cook it longer to remove more water, then when you want to serve it, you add what you like. In this way, you can have more soup in less jars with less wasted space. KInd of like making sauce, but going to a tomato paste for the canning process. I like to also use a bit of ground dried tomato powder, as well as some sun dried tomatoes that have been pureed, just to add some more flavor to the soup. For serving, a few bits of choped basil will make for a very nice flavor, to spice it up, a few drops of tabasco sauce. Basil as an added spice while making the soup for canning, can give an off taste, while adding oregano, rosemary, thyme, and even dill weed will give a nice taste for the canned soup.

Thank you ksrogers. It's good to know about the herbs too...I plan to leave most of the cloves out because I find them to be a little too strong in flavor for me.

After thinking about it a bit I decided to do a search and found the recipe for the roasted tomato and garlic soup and am trying that one. I've got the stuff in the oven now and can't wait to try it!

the roasted tomato and garlic soup sounds great. could you please post the recipe or where you found it? thanks sandy

I canned 50 pints of KatieC's soup last year. It is so good, I'm doing 100 this year. Maybe I'll do some in quarts to give to my friends with more than 2 mouths to feed.

Hi Sandy,
Here's the recipe:

Roasted Tomato Garlic Soup
Recipe By :Katie
12 tomatoes -- *see Note
2 carrots -- cut in 1" pieces
1 large onion -- quartered
2 whole heads garlic -- peeled (or more, to taste)
olive oil
2 cups chicken broth -- (or 3)
1/2 cup chopped fresh basil -- (or 1 Tbsp. dried)
cream -- to taste

Core tomatoes and cut in half. Place, cut side up, on foil covered
cookie sheet with carrots, onion and garlic. Brush with
olive oil. Bake at 400F for about an hour, or until vegies
are roasted and a little blackened. Place in a large
saucepan with the chicken broth and basil and
simmer for about 10 minutes. Blend with a stick
blender (or in small batches in a blender) until
almost smooth. Add cream to taste. To can: Process
in a pressure canner, pints for 60 min. and quarts for
70 min.For dial gauge canners use 11 pounds pressure
at 0-2000 ft., 12 lbs. at 2001-4000 ft., 13 lbs. at 4001-6000
ft. and 14 lbs. above 6000 ft. For weighted gauge canners
use 10 lbs. pressure at 0-1000 ft., and 15 lbs. over 1000 ft.
*Note: These measurements are approximate...I use
whatever it takes to cover the cookie sheet. This makes
1 1/2 to 2 quarts of soup.

I didn't have a stick blender so I just put the veggies through
my Foley food mill after roasting them. It worked great.

Annie

Annie posted the recipe for someone who had asked about it in another thread.
I pasted as I copied it from the thread word for word. One thing though...I read the whole thread and from what I understand the cream does not go into the soup until AFTER it has been processed. I could be wrong so hopefully someone will correct if I am.

I tasted the end product before canning without cream and it tasted wonderful. So good in fact, that I'm making more tomorrow...as soon as I get some lids.

Shirley it really is yummy! I did pints today but tomorrow I'm doing some quarts too. I think it would be a great base for a shrimp creole recipe I make!

One more thing about the way I made it. I left the skin on and put everything in my food processor figuring I'd pick out the skins but there weren't any to pick out. I couldn't believe how easy this recipe was!

PS... if I am wrong and I should have canned it with the cream could someone let me know if it will make the soup "unsafe"?

Do not add any milk, cream, butter, etc. to canned foods. It will make them unsafe and a risk for botulism.
The exception is a teeny bit of butter in jam to prevent foaming, but it is a high acid/high sugar product.
That,and there is one recipe for lemon curd, but it only has a shelf life of 3 months, I think it is.

You were absolutely right to leave out the cream. It's not safe to include dairy products in what you can. I'm not talking about 1/2 teaspoon butter in a batch of jam, but canning clam chowder or that sort of thing. It's important to use trusted recipes, can the base product and then add the cream at the time of serving.

It's also more versatile without the cream. I've canned Katie's roasted tomato soup and it can be used for lots of things or enjoyed as a soup just as it is.

Carol

All recipes that I have seen call for adding the cream or milk or half & half before serving, NOT before canning.

Instead of cream,I stir in 1/2 teaspoon of dry coffee creamer to each bowl of the tomato garlic soup before serving. It thickens it slightly. Makes it a great tomato bisque.

I'm glad that I did the recipe the right way and didn't give the wrong information to to sandy. Thank you guys for clearing it up.

I was very surprised on how thick it turned out considering it only cooked for 10 minutes. I know when making my tomato sauce last year it seemed to take forever for it to thicken up.