I make homemade tomato soup pretty frequently. It’s quick, easy and so good!
Plus all the ingredients are things that are easily kept on hand. I do have buy the tomato juice special, but it keeps in the pantry until I’m ready to use it.
But the last time I made this soup, it curdled. I made sure not to boil it, but it still curdled. Curdled tomato soup is still edible. There’s nothing about it that will hurt you. It’s just not as good, because the texture is off.
So last night I was determined to avoid curdling. I went on an internet search and found a few tricks that might help.
There were several tips for stirring milk into the base or vice versa. A couple of sites mentioned that the heat is part of what causes curdling. One site mentioned using baking soda to help neutralize the acid.
I decided to tweak my recipe with some of these ideas.
I added 1/4 tsp. baking soda to the flour when making the roux.
I used cold milk instead of warmed, which my original recipe called for.
I whisked in the milk very, very slowly. I’m pretty sure I’ve curdled the soup before, just by being impatient and pouring in the milk too fast.
And I heated the finished soup over low heat. It took a few minutes longer, but it worked!
I’ve updated my recipe for Homemade Tomato Soup so it shows all of these steps now.
Don’t miss the grilled cheese croutons to top it off!
I do admit that last night we just had regular grilled cheese with our soup. Either way, this is an easy winter supper.
