Cream of Tomato Soup with Toasted Croutons
Tomato powder, milk powder, and a flour roux built in one pot. The croutons come from home.
- calories
- 520
- weight
- 3.5 oz
- cal / oz
- 149
- protein
- 13 g
- serves
- 2, scales
- prep
- 5 min
- cook
- 12 min
- total time
- 17 min
- water
- 500 ml boiled
- cost
- $
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Dinner
- Lunch
- Canister stove
- Liquid fuel
- Car camping
- Backpacking
- Basecamp
- Winter / snow
- Vegetarian
- Nut free
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Basic
Ingredients
| Tomato powder | 1/3 cup | or 3 tbsp tomato paste from a tube |
|---|---|---|
| Whole milk powder | 1/2 cup | |
| All-purpose flour | 2 tbsp | |
| Butter or ghee | 2 tbsp | ghee keeps for weeks unrefrigerated |
| Dried minced onion | 1 tbsp | |
| Dried celery flakes | 1 tbsp | |
| Sugar | 2 tsp | |
| Bay leaf | 1 small | |
| Ground nutmeg | a pinch | |
| Dried basil | 1 tsp | |
| Salt and black pepper | to taste | you will need more salt than you expect |
| Croutons | 1 cup | toasted in butter at home, packed dry |
Method
- Melt the butter in the pot over a low flame. Stir in the flour and cook it for a minute until it smells like toast, not raw paste.
- Add 500 ml of water a splash at a time, stirring after each, until it is smooth. Adding it all at once gives you lumps you cannot fix.
- Drop in the bay leaf, dried onion, celery flakes, and nutmeg. Simmer five minutes to soften the vegetables.
- Kill the heat. Whisk in the milk powder, then the tomato powder and sugar. Off the flame, so nothing scorches on the bottom.
- Fish out the bay leaf. Salt hard, pepper, stir in the basil, and let it sit two minutes to thicken.
- Scatter croutons on top and eat before they go soft.
The home version builds a bechamel and stirs tomato into it, which is a lot of steps for a soup. The structure survives the trip intact, though: a flour roux is what keeps the milk from separating when it meets acid, and that matters more with powdered milk than with fresh.
Fresh tomatoes, whole milk, and a clove-studded onion do not travel, so tomato powder, milk powder, and dried aromatics stand in. The order is the only fussy part. Milk and tomato go in off the heat, after the roux has already thickened the water, or the powder clumps and the pot scorches. Croutons get toasted at home in butter and carried dry; frying bread at camp is not worth the fuel.
Packing
Milk powder, tomato powder, flour, sugar, and all the dried aromatics go in one bag. Butter or ghee in a small screw-top jar. Croutons in their own bag, or they turn to dust under the rest of your food.
Variations
- Tomato paste from a squeeze tube instead of powder: stir it in at the end, same as the powder.
- A handful of instant potato flakes thickens it into a chowder if you are short on calories.
- Crumble a hard cheese in with the milk powder for another 100 calories.
https://www.tasteandtellblog.com/cookbook-of-the-month-recipe-cream-of-tomato-soup