I mostly use Muir Glen, but sometimes San Marzano. For tomato soup, I prefer to use fresh Roma tomatoes, but I know a lot of places don't have the good tomatoes year round that we do.

Not much help as I usually buy what I can get in low sodium. I do love a good tomato soup; would you mind sharing the recipe?

I'd also like the recipe, please. I'm no help in the brand department, I can my own tomatoes.

Annie

For a super quick ,tomato soup, i put chicen stock in a pot, add a roughly chopped onion and a couple of tins of tomatoes, let cook, liquidise then add any chopped herb before serving.

Islay: Sounds easy, but what size tins to how much stock?

The best tomato soup I ever had was at a German pastry shop in Chicago. It has the faint taste of orange in it and is served with a slice floating on it and a dollop of unsweetened whipped cream. If any one have a recipe like this one, please share!

Here is the recipe:

http://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/six-ingredient-basil-tomato-soup

It is a rich, delicious soup but I usually add light cream instead of heavy whipping cream just to lighten it a bit, but you can leave it the way it is. Either way, it's a winner!

I order 6-in-1 tomatoes from Escalon and have found them to be the best canned tomatoes I have tried, and I have tried many. The best tasting canned tomatoes do NOT have ascorbic acid added to them, and so if you are in the store, check the ingredients and avoid the ones with ascorbic acid, as they will not taste as sweet. I also prefer tomatoes packed in tomato puree. I can sometimes find these in the store, but normally I have to go to an Italian deli to find them, and Bay Cities Deli Santa Monica has a horrible parking situation although it has the best selection. Sorrento Italian Market in Culver City is good (and large) but they do not always have these tomatoes.

Thanks, blueheron!

Annie

Bon Appetit

I made a "knock your sox off" tomato soup a couple of weeks ago. A friend gave me about a gallon of not quite ripe tomatoes from his garden. I had one BLT and then they all ripened at once. There were yellow, black and romas etc....
I blanched, skinned them, put them into a dutch oven, added a box of chicken broth a small onion diced about 4 stalks of celery, a small handful of fresh basil and parsley chopped, couple of small cloves of garlic about 1/2 teaspoon of ground chipotle pepper and 1/4 tsp ground cumin....a bay leaf and the juice of half a small lemon. Simmered about 40 minutes......and it was OH MY! I am sure those last of the season heirloom tomatoes were what put it over the edge.....

Yes, sounds very like the one I make when tomatoes are in season. There's nothing like a tomato soup made with fresh tomatoes. I freeze them in 2-serving containers for DH and me.

blueheron: Thanks for the recipe!

Lizbeth-gardener - I don't have ammounts - sometimes tomatoes are more acid than others, so I add as I go along.But, I would start with 1 decent sized onion, 2 X 400g tins toms and a litre of chicken stock. And a clove of garlic.

Forgive me for posting this, but I'm trying hard to make a tomato soup as tasty as Progresso's delicious Tomato with Basil. Next try is roasting tomatoes first.

Oh, yes, do roast the tomatoes. Also, overripe is better than underripe, and choose the heaviest ones for the size that you can find. If they're not a deep ripe red, and you don't think they'll ripen further, skip it and make red pepper soup instead. Really. A bland tomato will give you bland soup. I've never had the Progresso, but I've made this Ina Garten recipe a few times and it's quite good.

If you want to bump up the tomatoiness of a tomato soup, you can add tomato powder or paste. That's just concentrated tomato. Equivalent of adding a bunch more tomatoes which you've cooked down to nothing. ;)

The Progresso ingredients have a lot of sugar and salt, as well as acids to balance with, and also "natural flavor" which is usually code for MSG. Try some dried mushroom powder to bump up the umami.

Thank You, Islay!