The Perfect Time To Add The Paste When Making Tomato Soup

Everyone loves tomato soup. We all grew up on the ubiquitous silky canned variety, preferably served with a melty, toasty grilled cheese sandwich alongside a glass of cold milk. And that's still a wonderful, comforting lunch. But if you've never had homemade tomato soup, now is the time to try it. There's really no comparison.

Tomato soup is simple to make, especially if you use canned tomatoes. You just combine the tomatoes with stock, perhaps flavoring the mixture with onions and garlic or herbs, and let it simmer. But for the best and richest tomato flavor, you need to add a special ingredient — tomato paste. This paste is concentrated tomato pulp, made by cooking tomatoes for hours until they turn into a rich, thick melange, according to Food & Wine.

Can you just plop some tomato paste into your soup? You can, but your soup will be missing something. There is a perfect time to add the paste when making tomato soup.

You can buy tomato paste in a can or a tube. If you are only going to use a small amount, it's better to buy the paste in a tube, because it's easier to store in the fridge. 

While all canned tomatoes are delicious, they can have a bit of an acidic edge. That's why many recipes for tomato sauce call for a bit of sugar. But there's another way to mute the acidity in your tomato soup and add some deeper flavor notes — caramelize the tomato paste.

To do this, add the paste to the pan when you are sauteing the onions and garlic in butter or oil. Cook the mixture for a few minutes until you start to see the tomato paste darken a bit and see some brown spots develop. What's happening is that the sugars in the tomatoes are reacting to the heat. The bonds in the sugar molecules break down and they recombine, forming as many as 1,000 new compounds for fabulous depth of flavor, per Food Crumbles.

Just be sure to watch this mixture. You don't want the paste to burn or your soup will taste rancid. Continue with the recipe when you see brown spots. And be sure to scrape up those brown spots, also known as fond (per Food Network), when you add the liquid because that's where all the flavor is.

Whatever recipe for tomato soup you try, this tip will ensure that the finished soup has a rich, complex flavor without that sharp acidic edge. Use it whenever you make tomato sauce or marinara sauce too.

Use this caramelization trick to make creamy tomato soup, or make your soup with carrots and cream. You can even use gin! Top your soup with fresh basil leaves, with homemade croutons, or stir in some melted cheese. Or for a fancy spin on a kid's favorite, make tomato soup with mini grilled cheese sandwich toppers (via Betty Crocker).

And you can serve your own tomato soup with any kind of sandwich, such as the classic grilled cheese sandwich made with any kind of cheese or toppings you'd like. Other options like baked ham and cheese sliders, a pan-roasted chicken thigh sandwich, or a zesty chicken salad sandwich would be wonderful on the side of your tomato soup, too.