3 Excellent Methods for Thickening Tomato Soup

Soup is one of the most popular foods all over the globe. Although the soup itself may not be the most sophisticated dish you’ve ever seen, its simplicity enables it to be a quick lunch for those who aren’t hungry, or it may serve as a blank canvas for you to add your own flare to via spices.

With soup being such a clean canvas, it’s no surprise that people all across the globe like it so much.

When it comes to producing the types of soup that you like, you will notice that there are certain scenarios where it will be more difficult to get the texture that you want in your soup.

As an example, consider tomato soup. Tomatoes contain varied quantities of water content, which means that you may not have to worry about your tomato soup occasionally, but you can wind up with a watery mess other times.

If you find yourself fighting your tomato soup to keep a smooth and creamy consistency, only to be left with a watery and chunky soup in return, you may not know how to cure the soup.

In other situations, you may feel compelled to abandon the soup completely. Although this may result in food waste, there are techniques to thicken your own tomato soup to get it back to the desired texture.

The good thing about tomato soup is that, although it may be difficult to get the texture and consistency quite right at first, there are several methods to enhance it and get the desired texture.

In certain circumstances, you may need to use a dairy-free option to thicken your soup, while in others, you may need to use a wheat-free approach to get the desired consistency.

Whatever dietary limitations you may have, you can be certain that you will be able to thicken your soup without difficulty.

1 – Thickening Agents, Both Standard and Exotic

One of the first measures you should take to thicken your soup is to use your regular thickening agents.

Thickening agents are chemicals that give dishes body and volume, enabling them to thicken for whatever reason you need. Flours, cornstarch, and other types of starch are common thickening agents.

Various kinds of flour may be used as a thickening agent, however the ideal flours to utilize are those that include gluten, since gluten is a highly effective thickening agent. You may also use a variety of starches, such as cornstarch, arrowroot powder, tapioca, and so on.

There are also vegetarian and vegan-friendly thickening agents available, such as carrageenan and agar-agar, implying that almost everyone may find a thickening agent that works for them.

Cornstarch and wheat flour are your greatest choices when it comes to soup. These are the most common and simplest to deal with, and they provide little texture and flavour apart from increasing the thickness of your soup.

Some thickening agents may have a stronger flavor or be more difficult to separate such that the soup’s texture stays smooth.

The majority of the common thickening agents you’ll come across function in the same manner. You will normally combine a little amount of the thickening agent in question with some water.

Occasionally you may omit the water completely and just put a tiny quantity of the thickening agent into a small amount of soup (in a separate dish).

Typically, you will whisk it all together so that there are no clumps of the thickening agent and the texture of the soup stays smooth, and then you will return the thickened part of the soup to the main pot, tossing it all together again to ensure consistency.

Some of the more unusual thickening agents, such as carrageenan, will need more elaborate processing. Also, varying quantities of different thickening agents will be required to obtain the necessary thickness.

As a result, while dealing with more unusual or rare thickening agents, you will need to complete your study on how much you will need and how long it will take to prepare.

2 – Dairy-Based Thickeners (and Dairy-Free Alternatives)

One of the reasons why many people do not use thickening agents in tomato soup is because when tomato soup is excessively watery, the flavor is frequently wrong. Most of the time, the extra water will originate from too watery tomatoes, which will have a significant influence on the taste.

In this case, you’ll need to find a solution to conceal the watery flavor of your tomato soup, and there’s no better way to do it than using dairy-based alternatives.

There are several dairy-based thickeners that may be used in tomato soup, depending on the taste profile you want to achieve and what you have on hand. Cream is the most often used ingredient to thicken soups since it not only thickens but also masks watery soup with a creamy flavor.

Some argue that a good yogurt may have the same effect as cream, but with a lighter outcome and a tangier taste, and that it can be used in lieu of creams.

To avoid over-thickening your soup with yogurt or cream, add a modest quantity at a time.

When you whisk the cream or yogurt into the soup, take little tastes to confirm that the flavor is precisely where you want it to be. If it isn’t, you still have time to add the ingredients and tweak the flavor so that your soup tastes as nice as it should.

If you don’t have any cream or yogurt, you may use milk. Milk will perform similarly to cream or yogurt, although the creamy nuances will be considerably less noticeable. The lesser the percentage of milk, the less creamy the taste will be.

This will not matter as much for soups that already have a strong flavor, but if you are dealing with a soup that has a very high water content that you can taste, this may not be enough to address the issue.

If you are allergic to dairy and cannot add a dairy-based thickening to your soup, you should not attempt to add a dairy-free milk to the soup since this will not provide the desired outcome.

Instead, choose coconut milk, which has far creamier characteristics than any lactose-free milk substitute available at the shop. Coconut milk is widely used in curries to create that creamy taste that people want, so adding it to your soup is the ideal dairy-free answer.

Last but not least, there is a soup addition that may seem complicated at first, but it is really fairly easy. You may add beurre mani to your soup to give it a delicious buttery undertone while retaining the typical tomato flavor and ensuring that it is as smooth as you like.

While the soup is simmering, combine roughly two teaspoons of flour and two tablespoons of melted butter in a skillet. After this has been effectively blended into a paste, mix it into your soup while it simmers on the stovetop.

The butter added to the flour will help disperse the mixture throughout the soup much more easily, allowing for a smoother texture throughout than simply adding the flour to the soup in the first place, and with the addition of butter, you will be able to retain the flavor that you have always desired in your tomato-based soup.

3 – Adding Nuts, Lentils, or Rice to the Soup

There are also certain thickeners that may be used to give the soup more of a physical body to assist fight the soup’s high water content.

From various types of ground nuts to lentils to blended rice, these choices might work for you if you want to add some new undertones of flavor to the soup while also using a conveniently accessible component.

Keep in mind that since these components, with the exception of rice, have rather distinct qualities of their own, you should be prepared for a notable influence on the flavor of your tomato soup.

Since there are so many various types of lentils to choose from, you’ll want to be sure you’re adding the proper ones to your recipe. Normally, red lentils are best for tomato soups since they not only match the color of the soup but also have a taste that complements the flavors of most tomato soups.

This is the ideal kind of lentil to utilize since most rice is used to thicken soups with cauliflower and other lentils are used in soups with a variety of base components.

Although different lentils may be used to thicken soup, they may have a greater influence on the look and flavor of the soup than you are comfortable with. If you’re not sure how adding lentils will influence the flavor or look of your soup, start with a little amount at a time.

That being stated, in order to prepare the lentils for your tomato soup, you will need to first simmer them until they are delicate in texture.

From here, carefully and methodically incorporate them into your soup. It is critical that you move slowly so that if you realize that it is affecting your soup too much, you may stop before the whole bowl of soup is ruined.

Most of the time, some high-quality red lentils will do your tomato soup justice, adding body and robust overtones to the flavor, leaving you with a satisfying and tasty soup.

Ground nuts were historically one of the earliest thickeners used in soups and sauces all throughout the globe. Odds are, if they worked successfully centuries ago, they will perform just as well now in thickening your soup while also complementing its flavor.

Typically, you’ll want to choose a nut that complements the taste of your soup. Hazelnuts, for example, would not be appropriate in tomato soup.

If you’re not sure what sort of nuts to use to thicken your soup, go with something that has a more neutral taste profile, such as almonds or cashews, with cashews being one of the safest default options for this kind of dish.

When it comes time to thicken the soup, start with around a handful of almonds so that you don’t overpower the texture or taste of the soup.

You’ll want to ground down the handful of nuts until they’re almost paste-like. You don’t want them to form a paste, but you do want to ground them down as finely as possible so that you can’t detect the nuts when you take a mouthful of the soup.

After the nuts have reached the correct consistency, whisk them along with a part of the soup liquid, and once well combined, add this to the main section of the soup.