Tomato Basil Soup

1/2 bushel recipe yields approx. 12-14 quart jars of soup. (1/2 bushel = 26lbs, full bushel 53lbs)

Ingredients:

1/2 bushel tomatoes

8 onions (diced)

3 stalks of celery (diced) OR 1/2 cup celery seeds

1 bunch of fresh parsley (chopped) OR 3 tbsp of flakes

1 cup fresh basil (chopped) OR 1/4 cup to 1/2 cup flakes

3 sticks of butter

2 cups of sugar

1/4 cup salt (or to your liking)

Prepping: 

Vegetables: Dice the onions and celery stalks *see wise tip above*

Tomatoes: Weigh your 1/2 bushel of tomatoes (or full bushel to double recipe), cut the cores and/or any bad spots, cut tomatoes into quarters

Cooking:

Vegetables: Cook the diced onions and celery in olive oil until tender

Tomatoes: Throw the quartered tomatoes into a large pot and cook over medium heat until the tomatoes are tender enough to put through the juicing strainer. Make sure to stir them often to they don't burn on the bottom.

Directions:

Once the tomatoes are soft, add your tender onions and celery to the pot. Mix well. Carefully ladle out your tomato, onion and celery into the juicing strainer and strain the pot. We have one similar to this (Amazon Affiliate Link) and have used it for many, many years. This will remove all your tomato skins and make your soup!

Now in your strained tomato soup, add your parsley, basil, butter, sugar and salt. Mix well over medium heat.

Optional: thicken the soup with cornstarch and water 

Optional: chunk some blanched tomatoes (can be apart of your 1/2 bushel or additional) and add to your soup for more of a chunky tomato soup

Canning:

Now that your soup is ready, bring the soup to a boil and begin the canning process. You can process with a:

Hot water bath: process in boiling water bath for 15 minutes. Cool for 5 minutes before removing jars

Pressure cooker: Place jars in pressure canner- take up to 10lbs and turn off