Canned Tomato Soup Recipe

This homemade canned tomato soup recipe is for those who love my previous tomato soup recipe but also wanted a recipe they can preserve.

Unfortunately, making a homemade canned tomato soup is a bit more complicated than throwing any tasty recipe in jars and sending them through the canner.

So, I set out to find another tomato soup recipe that my husband would love. This time, it needed to be canning-friendly.

PREP TIME 20 MINUTES
ACTIVE TIME 2 HOURS
TOTAL TIME 2 HOURS 20 MINUTES

Ingredients

7 lbs tomatoes (Romas work well)
1 cup yellow onion (diced)
½ cup filtered water
3 Tbsp tomato paste
3 Tbsp brown sugar
1 Tbsp dried oregano
2 tsp dried basil
2 bay leaves
2 tsp granulated garlic
1½ tsp salt
1 tsp celery seed
½ tsp black pepper
lemon juice or citric acid (for canning – find organic citric acid here)

Instructions

Quarter tomatoes and dice the onion. Place them in a large soup pot along with ½ cup of water. Cook, uncovered, for 30 min – 1 hour, stirring occasionally, until tomatoes are very soft.
Remove tomatoes from the heat and let them cool slightly. Working in batches, transfer the warm tomatoes to a food processor, blender, or food mill to puree. If desired, press the tomato puree through a fine-mesh sieve to remove any seeds and skins.
Pour the smooth tomato puree back into the large soup pot. (Using a very wide-bottomed pot will give you more surface area as you reduce tomatoes, making the process take less time.)
Add the tomato paste, sugar, herbs, and spices. (Everything EXCEPT the lemon juice or citric acid.)
Bring seasoned tomato puree to a simmer. Cook tomato soup until it has reduced to the thickness you desire. (Mine took 1 hour of simmering.)
While the soup is simmering, wash canning jars and keep them warm. Prepare the water bath canner.
When the soup has reached the desired thickness, taste it and adjust salt as desired.
Add 1 Tbsp of lemon juice to each pint jar or 2 Tbsp lemon juice to each quart jar. (Or ¼ tsp citric acid to each pint and ½ tsp citric acid to each quart.)
Fill jars with the soup, leaving ½ inch of headspace. (I like to use a canning funnel to reduce spills and messes.)
Wipe the rims clean of any spilled soup. Then cover the jars with fresh lids and rings.
Process your canned tomato soup in a boiling water bath canner for 40 minutes for pints or quarts. (Adjust the processing time as needed for your altitude.)
After processing, carefully remove the jars from the water and set them on a cooling rack.
Once the jars and soup have cooled, remove the rings and check that your lids have sealed.
Finally, store the sealed jars in a cool place for up to a year. If any jars didn’t seal properly, refrigerate them immediately and eat within a week.

Notes

The amount of soup you end up with will depend on the type of tomatoes used and how much you reduce the soup. The type of tomatoes used (how much water they contain) will also determine how long the soup needs to cook to reduce down to your preferred consistency.