How to cook perfect tomato soup

As we’ve been so soggily reminded over recent weeks, British summertime is as much a mindset as a season. Although such biblical deluges should come as no surprise (Elizabeth David, looking on the bright side in her essay, Summer Holidays, wonders “in what other climate could one do three month’s work in a fortnight’s holiday?”), they can still throw the cook slightly off balance.

With barbecues and picnics off the menu for the moment, and stews, bakes and stodgy puddings singing their siren call again, it’s not easy to feel inspired about summer cooking. Soup, I think, is the ideal solution. Warming yet light, and perfect for those anaemic seasonal ingredients which won’t quite cut it in a salad, they’re the answer to all your problems. Except, perhaps, how to stop the rain killing your tomato plants.

Lindsey Bareham recipe tomato soup. Photograph: Felicity Cloake

Although we’re well into peak season for commercially grown, greenhouse tomatoes, most home gardeners won’t be enjoying a glut for another couple of months yet. In the meantime, practise with the the ripest ones you can find: if you don’t have a market nearby which sells the squishy ones off cheap, then buy them a good few days ahead and ripen them at home in the fruit bowl: as Lindsey Bareham explains in her mind-bogglingly comprehensive Big Red Book of Tomatoes, “tomatoes are a sub-tropical fruit and dislike the cold”. I know how they feel.

The fruit

Mark Bittman recipe tomato soup. Photograph: Felicity Cloake

Tomatoes come in many forms, and as any cook knows, a good tinned tomato is worth a hundred underripe fresh ones – but can they ever compete with ripe fruit in season? To find out, I choose two recipes using tinned tomatoes: New York Times writer Mark Bittman’s wintertime tomato soup, which seems ideal fare for London in June, and one from the American department store chain Nordstrom which garners rave reviews online. (“In case you’re not familiar with this soup,” the recipe starts kindly, “it’s rather famous, ranked regularly on lists of Best Tomato Soup Ever, enjoying something of a cult following for those who love tomato soup.” So that’s us told.)

Mark drains his tomatoes and roasts them for half an hour until lightly browned before using them along with the reserved juice. Nordstrom, meanwhile, simply simmers them in stock. Mark’s recipe seems bland and thin until I defy him by sticking it in a blender – thickening it up, and giving it a far more well-rounded flavour. The Nordstrom soup, meanwhile, is rich, but comforting, with a subtle but pleasant taste of tomatoes. Both recipes to revisit during the winter months, but I’m hopeful that I can achieve the same result with fresh fruit.

Four Seasons recipe tomato soup. Photograph: Felicity Cloake

Jane Grigson, Larousse Gastronomique and Jamie Oliver simply use fresh tomatoes in their soups, simmering them in stock for 20 minutes or so. Lindsey bakes her tomatoes for her roast tomato soup with basil, for an “intense tomato flavour” while Margaret Costa uses fresh tomatoes, tomato purée and tomato juice in the summer tomato soup in her Four Seasons Cookery Book. Despite the triple tomato whammy, Costa’s soup lacks the rich, umami flavour of roasted tomatoes while Lindsey’s is more tomatoey but rather too acidic. Both Jane Grigson and Jamie’s versions are disappointingly delicate – this is a soup that needs oomph, which, if one discounts the tinned variety, can only come from roasted fruit. This summer at least.

Stock answers

Jamie Oliver recipe tomato soup. Photograph: Felicity Cloake

The other principal ingredient of any soup, of course, is liquid: tomatoes have quite a high water content, but they still need something extra. Chicken stock is a popular choice, used by Nordstrom and Lindsey, while Jamie suggests chicken or vegetable, Jane chicken or light beef, and Margaret Costa will only commit as far as “good stock”. Mark Bittman is even vaguer, with his “stock or water”, and Larousse Gastronomique opts for vegetable, which I find too aromatic, giving the soup a distinct flavour of leek tops and parsley stalks. Beef works surprisingly well, adding a certain meaty body to the soup, and water is predictably unobtrusive, but the star is chicken, which adds a subtle savoury richness without contributing a distinct flavour of its own. Vegetarians should go for a well-diluted vegetable stock.

A note on the amount of stock: perhaps it’s the weather, but I find many of these soups too thin and watery. I think even a tomato soup should have presence on the spoon, which is why I’m going with just over half the amount of stock Jamie suggests. If you prefer something a little lighter, than feel free to increase it.

Wavering with flavouring

Nordstrom recipe tomato soup. Photograph: Felicity Cloake

The usual suspects abound here: Larousse likes celery, Jamie and Bittman go for onion, garlic and carrot with the former also chucking in some basil stalks for good measure, and Jane Grigson uses carrot and onion, seasoned with a bouquet garni. Lindsey keeps things very simple, with a garnish of basil leaves, while Nordstrom’s soup is carrot heavy and uses dried basil. The author acknowledges that “it gets a bad rep for tasting very little like its fresh counterpart. But it’s actually a useful ingredient, and the concentrated flavour is key for a puréed soup like this.” I disagree – to me, it tastes like 1980s pizzas, and the kind of greasy, faded jars of herbs you find when moving house. Fresh basil is a natural match for tomatoes, however, as are onions and garlic, and the carrots are a clever way to add the sweetness the fruit itself might lack. The celery and the bouquet garni seem to me to belong to a different, more wintery dish.

Margaret Costa strikes off on a different path altogether, flavouring her soup with sherry and orange peel which gives it a pleasantly Spanish air – especially as she suggests serving it chilled. Blindfolded, however, I’m not sure I would have positively identified this as a tomato soup – the delicate flavour of the fruit is all but eclipsed by these flamboyances.

Larousse recipe tomato soup. Photograph: Felicity Cloake

Around the time I graduated from tomato sauce in jars, I remember being surprised and then delighted by a River Cafe recipe which called for both vinegar and sugar. The red wine vinegar in Jamie’s soup acts in the same way, accentuating the natural acidity in the tomatoes, but without the balancing sugar, it, like many of the soups I try, is too sour. A pinch of sugar while they’re roasting should, along with some carrots, make up for any deficiencies occasioned by the bad weather, and, taking a tip from Delia, I’m going to use balsamic vinegar, for its complementary sweet and sour flavours.

Rich and thick

Jane Grigson recipe tomato soup. Photograph: Felicity Cloake

Cream of tomato soup is a classic of the genre – the natural wateriness of the fruit makes it an ideal candidate for this treatment, and the soups which eschew any sort of dairy product seem thin in flavour as well as consistency. But it’s important to tread carefully: I think you need double, rather than Jane Grigson’s single cream, which dilutes the flavour without contributing much in the way of body, but Nordstrom add so much their soup becomes somewhat sickly. I can imagine having an eggcup of this before dinner, but a whole bowlful is a daunting prospect.

Jamie whisks in double cream mixed with egg yolks just before serving, which gives his soup a beautifully silky texture, but it’s Larousse’s fromage frais which really inspires me. Its lightness seems more appropriate for the summery, Mediterranean flavours of the soup, and it strikes me that tangy creme fraiche would work even better with the sweet and sour nature of the fruit.

Margaret Costa uses arrowroot as thickener, but this shouldn’t be necessary as long as you keep the ratio of stock to fruit down. Larousse has another trick up its sleeve – their tomato velouté includes potato, which, when blended to a purée, gives it a thick, fluffy texture. It’s a good idea, but it doesn’t feel right for a summery soup like this – another one to keep in reserve for the winter. In any case, the smoothness of cream is more cooling, should the sun ever deign to come out.

Perfect tomato soup

Felicity’s perfect tomato soup. Photograph: Felicity Cloake

Tomato soup is a classic, whatever the weather. Warm up with a bowl on the sofa, or take a flask of chilled soup on a picnic. It is perhaps the ultimate British summer dish.

Serves 4

1kg ripe tomatoes
4 tbsp olive oil
Pinch of sugar
1 onion, chopped
1 carrot, peeled and diced
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
Small bunch of basil, separated into leaves and stalks
600ml chicken stock
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
2 tbs creme fraiche
Extra virgin olive oil, to serve

1. Preheat the oven to 190C and cut the tomatoes in half horizontally. Arrange, cut-side up, in a baking dish, drizzle with half the oil and season with salt, pepper and a pinch of sugar. Bake for about an hour, until softened and beginning to char around the edges.

2. Heat the remaining oil in a large, heavy-based pan over a medium heat and add the onion, carrot and garlic. Cook, stirring regularly, for about 7 minutes until softened. Meanwhile, chop the basil stalks, and then add to the pan and cook for another minute.

3. Add the tomatoes, plus any juices from the dish, to the pan along with the stock. Stir and bring to the boil, then turn the heat down, cover and leave to simmer for 25 minutes, until all the vegetables are soft. Leave to cool slightly.

4. Use a blender to purée the soup, then stir in the vinegar and creme fraiche, and season to taste. Reheat gently, while you tear the basil leaves into pieces, then serve with these and a drizzle of olive oil on top.

What’s your favourite tomato soup recipe – or do you always prefer Heinz? How else do you deal with a glut of tomatoes, and can anyone else suggest any summery dishes for this resolutely unsummery weather?

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