Follow this step-by-step tutorial to learn how easy Canning Tomato Soup can be. The ultimate comfort food, this tomato soup base recipe can be pressure canned or preserved via water bath canning.
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Homemade tomato soup is amazing and tastes so fresh, but peeling and pureeing tomatoes each time you want soup is super time-consuming. Not to mention that tomato season is only like six weeks long here in Seattle.
So what is a soup-obsessed girl to do? Can her own tomato soup base!
Which Tomatoes Are Best For Canning Tomato Soup?
Easy answer – whatever tomatoes you have! Paste-style tomatoes are thicker and have fewer seeds, but their flavor is not usually very exciting.
Throughout the growing season, I’m busy canning (whole) tomatoes and canning stewed tomatoes, but I save canning tomato soup for the end of the season when all that is left are the random tomatoes. Random tomatoes make the best soup because you get all the complex amazing tomatoey flavor in one delicious bowl.
You need about 45 pounds of tomatoes for 14 pints or 7 quarts. Since I never have that many at once, I do small batch canning and might produce 1-4 quarts at a time. It all eats the same.
Pro tip: if you grow your own tomatoes and don’t have enough to can at once, you can freeze them on baking trays and then transfer to freezer bags (I love these reusable silicone bags) until you have a critical mass for canning.
Why Do I Need Bottled Lemon Juice?
The lemon juice is needed to regulate the acidity of the tomatoes to keep the ph level consistent. Storebought lemon juice generally has the same level of acidity (5%) from bottle to bottle. You don’t get that guarantee with freshly squeezed lemons.
Canning Supplies
Check out this in-depth post for a complete list of canning supplies.
You’ll need:
- Tomatoes (no surprise there)
- Bottled lemon juice or citric acid
- Pressure Canner or water bath canner
- Large saucepan (I use my enameled dutch oven)
- Canning funnel
- Pint or quart canning jars (thrift stores are my favorite sources for these!)
- New lids and clean rings
- Jar lifter
- Large mixing bowl
- Strainer
- Plastic chopstick or another long plastic utensil
- Food mill (optional but highly recommended)
- Slotted spoon
- Ice
- Clean towels – 2 large ones for the counter, and 2 clean washcloths
- Comfy shoes
How to Can Tomato Soup (Pressure Can) – Step by Step
I’ll walk you through the process here in photos because it really helps, especially if you’re new to canning. At the bottom of the post, you’ll also find a printable and detailed recipe card. The recipe card also contains water bath canning instructions if you don’t want to pressure can this soup.
Rinse all your awesome tomatoes and cut them in half. If you have big ol’ hunkers, then cut them into smaller chunks. Add a strainer/colander to a large bowl.
Wash and clean your jars. For canning soup, I recommend quart-sized regular mouth jars. It is no longer necessary to sterilize jars before canning (hurray!) but you should make sure they are preheated enough to not crack when placed in hot water.
You can put them in a clean dishwasher and run them through a quick wash cycle, or place them in a large pan with some water in a low heat oven (my lowest temp is 170 degrees) until you need them. I’ve even just put hot tap water in them before and left them on the counter.
Wash your lids with hot soapy water and place them in a clean bowl for now.
Add the tomatoes to a pot of boiling water and parboil them until you see the skins start to come off one of the tomatoes (about 1-2 minutes). You can read a more in-depth tutorial on How to Blanch and Peel Tomatoes.
Use a slotted spoon and remove the tomatoes and place in the strainer.
Run the tomatoes through a food mill to remove the seeds and skins. If my tomatoes are particularly watery, I will strain them a bit through a mesh strainer.
Pro tip: when you have a bowl completely full of skins and seeds, run them through the food mill two more times. I always get almost an extra quart out of these scraps.
Transfer the tomato puree to a pot over low heat or a crockpot set to low. Keep warm until ready to can.
Add 3 quarts of water to your canner and put it on a burner set to high. Make sure there is a canning rack in the bottom of the canner. (Reminder: these are pressure canning instructions. See the recipe card for water bath canning details).
Place a funnel on a canning jar, add the lemon juice or citric acid, and ladle in the warm tomato puree, leaving 1 inch of headspace. Headspace is defined as the space between the top of the soup and the top of the jar. Remove any bubbles from the jar (I use a plastic chopstick).
Use a wet clean rag and wipe the rim of the jars to make sure they are free of any food.
Place a clean lid and then a ring on the jar and tighten the ring to fingertip tight (tight enough that it won’t come off, but not so tight that the Hulk couldn’t budge it).
Place the jars in the canner. If you don’t have enough jars to fill the canner, consider Canning Water in a few jars to stock your emergency drinking water supplies.
Lock the lid. Soon, steam will start coming through the vent pipe (I call it the steam chimney). Allow the steam to pass through for about 10 minutes. Then put the pressure regulator (I call it the chimney cap) on top.
Pretty soon, the air vent will pop up. That is a sign that you’re starting to build pressure inside the canner.
Under normal conditions, tomato soup needs to be pressure canned at 11 pounds of pressure for 15 minutes for both pints and quarts. See chart below for any changes to processing times.
When the dial gauge reaches 11 pounds of pressure, reduce the burner temp to medium, and start your timer for 15 minutes. The pressure must stay at 11 or (a little bit) above for the next 15 minutes.
You’ll likely need to adjust the temp on the burner a few times depending on your stove.
When the 15 minutes are up, remove the canner from the burner and allow it to sit until you hear a distinctive “click” of the air vent dropping. Remove the pressure regulator and carefully remove the lid (Pro tip: I always use oven mitts when I take the lid off because the steam is crazy hot).
Let the jars sit for 5 minutes in the canner and then lift them out with canning tongs. Place on a towel where they can sit undisturbed for 12 hours.
After a few hours, to check for sealing, gently press down in the middle of the lid. If the lid has no give, it’s sealed. If you can press the lid in and it pops a bit, your jars are not sealed. You can reprocess them or store them in the fridge or freezer (only freeze jars that are wide mouth). Store in a cool dry place for up to 12 months.
Ok, So Why Can’t I Add Spices and Stuff to This Soup? Huh, Bossy Pants?
When you are canning with lower acid foods you don’t want to mess with any of the tried and true and TESTED recipes. Too much of one ingredient or too little of another can throw off the safety of your final product.
Instead, I treat this recipe as a base, much like you would if you bought a can at the store. But when cooking with it, I never just add water; it’s more fun and flavorful to doctor it up. Check out this recipe for my favorite gluten-free tomato soup recipe. <— this recipe calls for whole tomatoes but using this tomato soup base allows you to skip the pureeing step.
Why Do I Need to Remove All the Seeds and Skins?
Gosh, it would be so much easier to just blend the tomatoes whole, right? Technically you don’t need to remove the seeds and skin, but I find too many seeds will turn your soup completely bitter; what a waste. Skins can also give your final product a weird texture and throw off the taste.
If you’re in a rush, canning whole tomatoes might be more up your alley. And they’re super versatile and easy to use in soups and stews. Or you could even dehydrate tomatoes.
Canning Tomato Soup Base
Equipment
Instructions
Pressure Canning Tomatoes
- Rinse the tomatoes and cut in half, or quarters for larger tomatoes.20 lbs tomatoes
- Add a strainer/colander to a large bowl.
- Wash and sanitize your jars. You’ll want to keep them warm to avoid having them crack when placed in the canner. You can fill them with hot water, or place them on a tray in the oven at 170F.
- Wash your lids with hot soapy water and place them in a clean bowl for now.
- Add the tomatoes to a pot of boiling water and parboil them until you see the skins start to come off one of the tomatoes (about 1-2 minutes).
- Use a slotted spoon and remove the tomatoes and place in the strainer.
- Run the tomatoes through a food mill to remove the seeds and skins.
- Transfer the tomato puree to a pot over low heat or a crockpot set to low. Keep warm until ready to can.
- Add 3 quarts of water to your pressure canner and put it on a burner set to high. Make sure there is a canning rack in the bottom of the canner.
- Add lemon juice or citric acid to your canning jars.Quarts: 2 tbsp lemon juice OR 1/2 tsp citric acid. Salt (optional) 1 tspPints: 1 tbsp lemon juice OR 1/4 tsp citric acid. Salt (optional) 1/2 tsp10 tbsp lemon juice
- Place a funnel on a canning jar and ladle in the warm tomato puree, leaving 1 inch of headspace. Headspace is defined as the space between the top of the food and the top of the jar.
- Using a long utensil (I prefer a plastic chopstick), remove all the air bubbles from the jar.
- Use a wet clean rag and wipe the rim of the jars to make sure they are free of any food.
- Place a clean new lid on the jar. Add a ring, and tighten to fingertip tight.
- Using canning tongs, gently place the jars in the canner. Lock the lid. Soon, steam will start coming through the vent pipe.
- Allow the steam to pass through for about 10 minutes. Then put the pressure regulator on top. (see photos in post above to see this in action)
- Pretty soon, the air vent will pop up. That is a sign that you’re starting to build pressure inside the canner. Tomato soup need to be pressure canned at 11 pounds of pressure for 15 minutes for both pints and quarts. (see time chart in post for adjusted times for elevation and water bath canning).
- When the dial gauge reaches 11 pounds of pressure, reduce the burner temp to medium, and start your timer. The pressure must stay at 11 or (a little bit) above for the duration of the cooking time. You’ll likely need to adjust the temp on the burner a few times depending on your stove.
- When the time is up, remove the canner from the burner and allow it to sit until you hear a distinctive “click” of the air vent dropping. Remove the pressure regulator and carefully remove the lid (Pro tip: I always use oven mitts when I take the lid off because the steam is crazy hot).
- Let the jars sit for 5 minutes in the canner and then lift them out with canning tongs. Place on a towel where they can sit undisturbed for 12 hours.
- After a few hours, to check for sealing, gently press down in the middle of the lid. If the lid has no give, it’s sealed. If you can press the lid in and it pops a bit, your jars are not sealed.
Water Bath Canning Tomatoes
- Complete steps 1-8 above.
- Fill your canner so that there will be 2 inches of water over the tallest jar that you are canning. Set it on a large burner set to high.
- Complete steps 10-14 above.
- When the water has reached a rolling boil, place the jars in the canner and place the lid on top. Process pints for 35 minutes or quarts for 40 minutes.
- When the time is up, remove the canner from the burner and let the jars sit for 5 minutes in the canner and then lift them out with canning tongs.
- Place on a towel where they can sit undisturbed for 12 hours.
Notes
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when water bathing tomatoe soup, is it ok if the liquid (water) from the tomatoes falls to the bottom to the jar after canning and the thicker part of the sauce stays on top of the jar? It’s almost like there’s a separation of liquid. Yes, I did use lemon juice in each jar and I followed a canners recipe to the letter, except for the type of tomatoes I used…she used
Roma’s, and I used beef steak. I did remove most of the seeds and all of the skin first.
Oh yeah, that’s totally fine! And it happens allllllll the time. We call it “tomato pee” in our house. 🙂
Beef steak tomatoes are higher in water content than romas and thus your tomato puree let out a lot more water when they were canned.
Disappointed that you tell how to make a soup base, but then don’t tell what to add to actually make a tomato soup. I clicked on the recipe for tomato soup and that was for use with canned whole tomatoes.
KkAREN, yes that recipe uses whole canned tomatoes BUT in that recipe, you blend them. Using this base allows you to skip the blending step. Use the recipe as a guideline for spices/flavoring and simply skip the blending step.
I am not familiar with your canner so maybe the jars are above the water as they should be.Water does not compress , air does. If your user manual says 3 qts water then so be it but I’m thinking it says one.I’ve been doing this around 40 yrs so I’m no novice.
Hi Charles, yes my canner’s instructions do specifically say 3 quarts of water. I’m using a Presto pressure canner which is probably the most popular pressure canner in the United States.
Additionally, The National Center for Home Food Preservation suggests that at least 3 quarts of water is needed in a pressure canner. They call for 2-3 inches of water in the canner, and I cannot think of a single large pressure canner that would be so shallow and narrow that only one quart produces 2-3 inches of water. While you are definitely not new to the canning process, it appears that best practices have been updated in the last 40 years.
I’ll copy and paste the specific portion of their instructions below and then the link after that.
“Put the rack and hot water into the canner. If the amount of water is not specified with a given food, use enough water so it is 2 to 3 inches high in the canner.” (source)
How do I process tomato s0up made with celery and onion and white beans that I add for fiber and thickening?
Hi Patricia, I responded to your previous comment a few hours ago letting you know it isn’t safe to can a non-tested recipe with additional ingredients. You can however freeze it.