Tomato Soup with or without skins?

[BML]

I have just looked at a recipe for Tomato Soup and unlike other such recipes I saw no mention of removing the skins other than to run the soup through a blender. Does that really work?

[Geoff]

Life's too short, just blitz them complete for all the goodness and flavour in the skins.

[robo]

I try to remove every bit of skin I've even bought a new stick blender as I was not impressed with the one we had , my daughter takes every cherry tomato she can get off me as she uses them for soup and leaves the skin on , if you roast them in the oven first the skin fall off

[Monika]

In all my, perhaps, 60 years of making tomato or vegetable soup, I have never ever taking the skin off. If it's going to be blended, then the skin will disappear anyway, if not, you can always cut the tomatoes up very small prior to cooking. Anyway, the skins provide roughage, good for the digestion. Life is too short to be skinning tomatoes!

[jeff64]

tomatoes with skins on with the rest of the ingredients, bring to the boil blend seive, better than anything i,ve had out of a tin.

[Primrose]

I regularly make tomato soup when I have surplus tomatoes and I never ever remove the skins. If you use a stick blender it completely blitzes the skins into oblivion and they're an important source of fibre/vitamins so shouldn't be wasted. I also make lots of tomato purree for the freezer for subsequent use as sauces in soups, caseroles, Spag Bol type mixtures and never remove the skins.

For the record I never peel the outer skin off mushrooms. . As others have said, life's too short, and in doing so you lose part of the vegetables' goodness. very young new potatoes don't get peeled either.

[PLUMPUDDING]

I've never been able to digest tomato skins so can't see the point of eating them so my Mouli sieve is brilliant for removing seeds and skins while at the same time pureeing the cooked tomatoes as I know I've said numerous times before☺ just cook them tip them into the sieve over a bowl and whizz the handle. It takes less than two minutes.

On the other hand I've just read a study that says the skins and seeds have lots of nutrients under test conditions so perhaps if they are digestible blitzed ones will be more nutritious. I'll have to see how fine I can get them.

[robo]

After reading the replies I decided to make some tomato soup using the cherry ones I have , the new stick blitzes them far better than the old Morrison's one after a good go with it there was not much skin left only little tiny bits that stick in my teeth most annoying

[Westi]

I used to take the skins off but found that by roasting them with all the flavourings (onion, garlic etc) in the roasting tray, then blitzing it all with just my hand blender there was no need to. You do have to totally blitz though or will get bits of skin left which when I first tried it I didn't blitz enough & it drove me mad digging out bits. It does take longer than you think to get it totally smooth. I generally freeze it as this thick mix & add stock & further flavourings when I reheat it to use. (Just to have enough freezer space).

[retropants]

I put my roasted tomatoes (with garlic etc) through a passata machine, as when stick blending everything in the past, I always ended up with little quills of skin which really were quite a put off!

[Primrose]

I agree with Geoff. Life's too short to skin tomatoes and anyway, much of the goodness and fibre is in the skins. I use a stick blender to whizz soups when I want a smooth one as opposed to a chunky one. . It's a marvellous device - just stick it in the saucepan for a few seconds and job done. Nice smooth soup, and far less washing up to do than using a food processor !

[Daveswife]

I agree with Monika and others who leave the skins on when making tomato soup. I do the same for bottled tomato ketchup and sauce. A good blitz with a stick blender does the trick.

I do not roast the tomatoes first, I just chop the ingredients roughly, tomatoes, onion, celery, carrot and add a bay leaf. Put into a pressure cooker adding enough water or stock to just cover and cook under high pressure for about 5 minutes.