The Concentrated Ingredient For Bolder Tomato Soup

A bowl of tomato soup makes for a comforting meal any day of the week, especially with the ultimate grilled cheese sandwich. You might have a favorite recipe for a homemade version or prefer to keep it simple with canned soup from the store, but there's always a way to improve even the most delicious batch. For a bolder tomato-forward flavor, add a squirt of tomato paste into the pot with your other ingredients. This will work to elevate the flavor of canned tomato soup or spruce up that recipe you've used for decades.

Tomato paste is different from tomato sauce because it's concentrated, mostly only consisting of the acidic fruit and not too many other additives or ingredients. That concentrated paste will give a bold flavor and sweetness that's hard to replicate with other ingredients. It also passes on that flavor without more sauce so the soup's consistency won't be altered. You'll still want canned or fresh tomatoes, aromatics like garlic and herbs, and plenty of spices to make the most flavorful soup, but the paste will help achieve next-level flavor.

Any tomato paste will work for the soup, whether it's in a can or a tube. Keep in mind that a canned variety might have citric acid to preserve the tomato paste, while the tubbed paste will have more salt. Either way, you won't need much of this concentrated ingredient to make a bolder pot. A squirt or two should be sufficient. If you're a home cook who strongly prefers to follow a recipe with precise measurements, two tablespoons of tomato paste for every four servings will do the trick. Of course, you can always add more to taste as you cook.

While this method is a surefire way to obtain a bolder soup, there are other clever tips for the best homemade tomato soup you've ever tasted. To make the soup even more flavorful, use sweet Vidalia onions to balance out the acidity of the tomatoes, consider a spoonful of sugar to temper the flavor, add hot sauce for spice, or use broth instead of water to get more layers of flavor to match the richness of the tomato paste. With these suggestions in mind, your next bowl with be anything but ordinary.