Tomato Soup From Scratch

This recipe is from my mother-in-law, possibly as far back as the late '90's. I don't remember. I haven't made it in many years, but I'm in a wintery, soupy, cozy mood, so I made a half-batch. I'll write this as the full recipe. For reference, a half-batch made 12 500mL (2 cup or 1 pint) jars.

Ingredients

2 pails of tomato chunks

1 head celery

3 large onions

3 green peppers

3 jalapenos (with or without seeds, depending on preference)

2 cloves garlic (individual cloves. Not two heads of garlic!)

3 bay leaves

3 Tbsp dried parsley (or 1 cup fresh)

2 Tbsp dried basil (or 3/4 cup fresh, loosely packed)

1 tsp paprika

1 tsp black pepper

1 cup butter

1 can tomato soup

1 small can tomato paste

1/8 cup ketchup

1 tsp baking soda

1 cup cornstarch

3/4 cup flour* 

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 cup salt

Directions

Prep veggies and roughly chop. Add into a very large pot with the herbs and spices. Boil for 45 minutes, stirring periodically. Remove the bay leaves, then use an immersion blender to zap the soup. The soup can be poured through a strainer at this point if a smoother end result is prefered.

Combine the next set of ingredients in a separate pot, add to main pot once it's combined.

In a separate bowl, combine dry ingredients. Add into the soup pot while running the immersion blender to ensure there are no cornstarch blobs.

Bring till almost boiling and then ladle into prepared jars.

Notes

When I did the half-batch, I used the full cup of cornstarch without any of the flour. I really like the texture and thickness of how this turned out.

Gluten-free: This recipe would be so easily GF, if you omit the flour and ensure the commercial tomato soup is also GF.

Store-bought tomato soup is concentrated and intended to be diluted with water or milk. This recipe is ready-to-serve.