This time of year, those of us who live in the northern hemisphere are not quite as fortunate as those who live in the southern hemisphere; I’m referring to being able to source the best produce, of course. Personally, I think tomatoes are the greatest disappointment by far (next to strawberries). More often than not, I bite into a tomato and taste nothing. Nadda. Mealy. Pasty. Nothing. This time of year, I tend to gravitate toward the best canned tomatoes, knowing that they were picked and packed at their prime. But somehow, when it comes to using the humble tomato as the main ingredient, the STAR as it were, I feel that canned just wouldn’t cut it and alternative measures must be taken.
Some of you who have been on this journey with kitcheninspirations will recall that I posted a rant and a solution about unseasonal tomatoes a few years ago (4 to be exact) and todays post is about a great use for those oven-dried tomatoes. Oven drying is a long procedure but well worth it, particularly because there is little to no effort involved. Just a few clicks on the hydro metre and you’re almost all the way to a delicious tomato recipe.
Roasted Tomato Soup
Serves 4-5 150-175 mL servings
Ingredients:
- 1 kg (2.2 lbs) tomatoes ~ this doesn’t have to be precise (I used vine ripened)
- 500 mL to 1 L chicken stock (or vegetable stock)
- 6 cloves of garlic, roasted
- 2 tbsp olive oil (or chicken stock stock)
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 4 tbsp goats cheese, at room temperature
- 4 tsp unflavoured yogurt
Directions:
- Pre-heat oven to 250° F (121° C).
- Remove all loose skin from each garlic clove, leaving the tight skin on. Place the cloves into a small ramekin and add about 2 tbsp olive oil and some sea salt. Cover with foil wrap and tuck into the corner of the oven. If you prefer not to bake the garlic at the same time as the tomatoes, you may roast the garlic in a 350° F (177° C) oven for 40-45 minutes or until soft.
- Wash and slice the tomatoes into thirds (believe me, the tomatoes lose a lot of water in the dehydration process so you must leave them THICK). Place cut side down on some paper towel for about a minute.
- Rub a cooling rack with a lightly oiled paper towel and place directly over a baking sheet (to catch any drippings).
- Arrange the tomatoes cut-side up on the prepared cooling rack and place in the centre of the pre heated oven. “Bake” for 4-5 hours until most of the moisture has been eliminated from the tomato.
- Once dehydrated, add all of the tomatoes and the roasted garlic (skin removed), baking soda into a heat-proof bowl and slowly add the stock. Blitz with the immersion (stick) blender until smooth, adding more chicken stock until the desired consistency has been achieved. Season with salt as desired.
- Push through a fine sieve and blitz once more for added creaminess.
- Combine the goats cheese and the yogurt and whip until fluffy. Set aside for serving.
- When ready to serve, heat the soup through and add a dollop of the goats cheese and yogurt into the centre. Serve piping hot.

This thick, creamy soup is perfect for cold, snowy days. It would also be delicious chilled on a hot summers day.
Notes:
- The addition of baking soda came from JT, he uses this trick in his delicious Chicken Cacciatore to quell the acidity of the tomatoes. It really brings out the tomatoes’ sweetness — try it instead of adding sugar!
- I whipped the goats cheese with yogurt to make it easier to melt into the soup, we swirled it in and it was delicious.
Roasting is a great way to get a little flavor out of tasteless store bought tomatoes…especially the winter ones. Thankfully, I’ve got lots of summer tomatoes from my garden in various forms in my freezer to use in cooking. Your soup looks great!
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Okay – two things. First, thank JT. I’m definitely going to try his trick! I’m a sucker for adding sugar to tomatoes and tomato laden pasta dishes (for my serving only – Mike hates it). He may have just solved my decades long bad habit. 🙂 And secondly…the goat cheese. I love tomato soup, but you have sold me on your version with not only the roasted tomatoes, but the goat cheese. Mmmmm!!!!!
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Hi Kristy, the first time I tasted his sauce I didn’t believe him that he didn’t add sugar, it was that incredible. Personally, I’m not one to add sugar to tomatoes but I love that the baking soda quells the acidity. I hope you enjoy this little trick.
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Now this is quite a unique way to prepare tomatoes for soup.. I love this, it’s so challenging to find good produce here too, as you can imagine. And the baking soda trick is awesome as well.. your tomato soup has the purest color I’ve seen, a true tomatoey yummy look to it! And I love how thick it is.. perfect for Valentine’s Day:)
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Thank you Barbara, that baking soda trick is indeed useful. The colour was quite incredible.
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that soup looks so amazing. rich and creamy and i just love the goat cheese addition
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Thanks Jessica, the goats cheese is a perfect partner for tomatoes!
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Love the idea of whipping goat cheese with yogurt! And we’re eating only canned tomatoes at the moment — even the grape and cherry tomatoes, which sometimes have a bit of flavor at this time of the year, have been miserable. Lovely soup — I’ll bet it tastes like summer!
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Thank you John, I have also noticed that the little grape and cherry tomatoes are sometimes better but they are duds right now too.
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Such a cute frame for your pictures! I love it! The soup sounds and looks so summery… I guess we all miss the delicious summer tomatoes… I agree that tomatoes and strawberries are the worst when out-of-season.
I also think that dried ones bring a lot of flavours. As you might remember I also dry tomatoes (but usually the small ones) and they are really delicious, even in the middle of the winter. The baking soda trick sounds very mysterious. I must test it one day.
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Thank you kindly Sissi, I wanted something special because when I post to Facebook, it’s all about the first photo.
I recall your unique drying technique, sadly I only have one exposed radiator in our living room and it’s not large, upstairs is just not practical. But I did dry some orange zest the other day and I plan to flavour Macarons with it. Lime is on my list next!
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Actually I dry tomatoes only in the oven (due to the splash of olive oil I add… I don’t want it to end up on my radiators).
I’m happy you are drying stuff too! I’m very curious about the lime zest!
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I love homemade tomato soup. I’ve used the dehydrator to do mine but I love your method. There are wonderful tomatoes everywhere here right now.
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We’re in sync Eva! I just posted a tomato passata story and you’re right, we’re in the midst of tomato season at the moment!
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What a neat method you’ve come up with to recover the taste of tomatoes and frankly the roasted garlic appeals to me just as much. For me the most off-putting part of an off-season tomato is the grittiness — you can sometimes get that in apples too — there’s no resistance or punch when you bite into them, just crumbly, tasteless grit. So canned or roasted it is 🙂 Love the sounds of this delightful soup!
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Thank you kindly for your beautiful words, Kelly. I know what you mean about the grittiness, a particular winter traite in Apples that I despise — I have been put off apples for far less.
I had a boss some time ago who would make a roasted garlic soup…must give that a try sometime, thanks for the idea!
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I agree that in the modern world, tomatoes and strawberries are the most maligned fruits. Your soup looks so good and I love the brilliant colour of the tomatoes xx
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Thank you Charlie, so nice of you to say. It had a really bright flavour too.
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This looks and sounds delicious. I have found that the brand Pomi is a really high quality tomato product that I can rely on during the winter months. Otherwise, I don’t even bother with fresh tomatoes until summer. Drying your own is so smart!
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Thanks so much Chef Mimi. We’ve used Pomi quite a bit too, I agree that it is a superior tomato product. I believe they are an Italian brand and their sodium isn’t too bad in it either (some, particularly the more economical brands) are just awful for sodium!
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My mum is sick of using cans for her soup I will recommend your recipe to her, it oohs so creamy 😀
Cheers
Choc Chip Uru
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Thanks CCU, I often do large batches of the oven roasted tomatoes and freeze them to make it worthwhile.
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Tomato soup made from canned tomatoes is a staple in our house. Add a couple of grilled cheese sandwiches and everyone is happy 🙂
Hmmm…I agree with you on out of season tomato flavour. But here they’re also really expensive when they’re out of season. Are they expensive there too? I could spend up to $20 for a kilo of fresh tomatoes in winter, or $4 for a few cans.
Vine ripened sounds great though. Vine ripened seems to really improve the flavour, but I don’t think I’ve had vine ripened out of season tomatoes before.
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Hi Genie, yes tomatoes are rather expensive this time of year but I try to get them on sale. The tomatoes smelled great but there was very little flavour. By oven roasting them I was able to coax the sugars out and made them quite delicious! We used to have grilled cheese with tomato soup when I was a kid.
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I bought some organic tomatoes today and they are tasteless :-(( Your tomato soup looks so creamy and tasty.
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Hi Angie, I too find the organic ones not as flavourful too. The soup had a strong tomato flavour and although there is no cream in it, it was very velvety.
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I may still have roasted tomatoes in my freezer from last summer’s harvest going to check so I can make this soup.
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Thanks Norma, I do hope you enjoy it.
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Eva, it sounds like roasting the tomatoes resulted in a great bowl of soup.
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Thank you kindly Maria.
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Sometimes tinned tomatoes are more flavoursome than fresh! I’ve only picked three from my garden this season! Lovely recipe, Eva, as always : )
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Thank you Lizzy, our neighbour’s tomato plants didn’t do well last summer either…I wonder why.
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