Southwest Tomato Soup

Name: Southwest Tomato Soup
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 30 min
Total time: 100 min
Ingredients: 12 dried New Mexican chile peppers; 2 cups boiling water; 4 garlic cloves (minced); 1 Tbsp olive oil; 5 cups coarsely chopped onion; 6 cups canned diced tomatoes; 1 Quart vegetable or chicken broth (or more, for a thinner soup); 1/2 cup dark brown sugar (firmly packed, optional, or adjust to taste); 2 Tbsp chili powder; 2 tsp salt; 2 tsp ground cumin; 1 tsp ground red pepper

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Southwest tomato soup is a smoky, warming bowl you can pull straight off the pantry shelf, with roasted New Mexican chiles giving it a gentle heat you can dial up or down to suit your table. A few pints put up now mean a cozy, satisfying soup is ready in the time it takes to heat a pot, topped however you like for a quick lunch or an easy weeknight dinner.

Notes from My Kitchen
Quick Look at the Recipe
Choosing the Chiles for Southwest Tomato Soup
Ingredients for Southwest Tomato Soup
Southwest Tomato Soup Variations
How to Make Southwest Tomato Soup
Canning Southwest Tomato Soup
Altitude Adjustments
Tips for Success
Serving Ideas for Southwest Tomato Soup
Yield Notes
Southwest Tomato Soup FAQs
Soup Canning Recipes
Southwest Tomato Soup Recipe
Meal in a Jar Canning Recipes

This recipe has been reviewed for safety and accuracy by a Master Food Preserver certified through the University of Cornell Cooperative Extension.

This soup started with Ball Canning’s enchilada sauce from the All New Ball Book of Canning and Preserving. The first time we made that sauce, it struck us how much it tasted like a rich tomato soup with a little kick from the Hatch-style green chiles, so my husband thinned a jar with some broth and we ate it as soup. It was good enough that we worked the idea into a full Southwest Tomato Soup, processed in a pressure canner the same way as other pressure canning recipes.

The result lands somewhere between an Italian-style roasted tomato basil soup and something with a southwestern edge. It is still a vegetarian soup canning recipe if you use vegetable broth, just with more warmth and depth from the toasted chiles and cumin. Because it is low in acid, it has to be pressure canned rather than processed in a water bath.

Notes from My Kitchen

The part that makes this soup for me is toasting the dried chiles. It takes only a few seconds a side on a hot pan, but that quick blistering is where the smoky, slightly sweet flavor comes from, and skipping it leaves the soup tasting flat. I keep a close eye on them, since chiles go from toasted to scorched fast, and a burnt chile turns the whole pot bitter.

We keep ours on the milder side for the kids and let everyone add heat at the table, but you can build it as warm as you like by your choice of chile and chili powder. A jar reheated with a spoonful of sour cream and a handful of tortilla strips has turned into one of our regular cold-weather lunches.

Quick Look at the Recipe

Recipe Name: Southwest Tomato Soup
Recipe Type: Soup Canning Recipe (Tomato)
Canning Method: Pressure Canning
Prep Time: About 30 minutes
Cook Time: About 50 minutes
Canning Time: Pints 50 minutes (half pints process at the pint time)
Yield: About 8 pints
Jar Sizes: Half pint or pint
Headspace: 1 inch
Ingredients Overview: Dried chiles, tomatoes, onion, garlic, broth, brown sugar, salt, and spices
Safe Canning Recipe Source: The All New Ball Book of Canning and Preserving (adapted from their enchilada sauce)
Difficulty: Moderate. Toasting and rehydrating the dried chiles is the step that gives this soup its flavor.
Similar Recipes: Canning Southwest Tomato Soup works a lot like other tomato soup canning recipes, such as roasted tomato basil soup and heirloom tomato soup. For something in the same southwestern family, try southwestern vegetable soup or stir a jar of southwestern corn salsa into a bowl at serving.

Choosing the Chiles for Southwest Tomato Soup

The dried New Mexican chiles do most of the work here, and they come in a range of heat levels. Look for whole dried pods labeled New Mexican or Hatch-style, since they have a deep, slightly fruity flavor that holds up to the long process. Mild varieties give you almost no heat and let the toasted, smoky character come through, while hotter pods add a real kick, so check the label or ask at the market if you are not sure what you are getting.

You control the heat in two places. The chiles set the base, and the chili powder you stir in later builds on it. If you want a warmer pot, reach for a hotter chili powder. For a milder soup, swap in sweet paprika in place of some or all of the chili powder, which keeps the color and body without the burn. Either way, you are adjusting seasoning, not the tested amounts of vegetables, so the soup stays within the same recipe.

Ingredients for Southwest Tomato Soup

Here is what each part of the soup is doing, so you know where there is room to adjust and where there is not. The exact amounts are in the recipe card below, since changing the proportions of the vegetables in a pressure canned soup changes how heat moves through the jar. Think of this section as the why behind the ingredient list.

Dried New Mexican chiles: The backbone of the soup. Toasting them brings out a smoky depth, and soaking softens them so they blend smooth. Choose your heat level by the chile variety, and reserve some of the soaking liquid, since it carries a lot of flavor back into the pot.
Tomatoes: The body of the soup. Canned diced tomatoes keep things simple and consistent, and they give the soup its color and the gentle acidity you expect from a tomato soup.
Onion and garlic: Cooked down until the onions caramelize, they add the sweet, savory base that rounds out the chiles. Caramelizing takes a little patience, but it is worth the time.
Broth: Vegetable or chicken broth thins the tomato base into a soup. Homemade or store-bought both work, and a jar of home-canned broth is a nice way to use what you have put up.
Brown sugar: Optional, and there to balance the acidity of the tomatoes and the heat of the chiles. Start with less and adjust to taste, or leave it out entirely.
Chili powder, cumin, salt, and ground red pepper: The seasoning blend that pushes this into southwestern territory. These are flavorings, so you have room to adjust them up or down to suit your table.

A few things stay out of the jar and go in at serving instead. Sour cream, shredded cheese, and tortilla strips are toppings you add to the bowl, not the soup before canning, since dairy and starchy add-ins are not safe to process. The same goes for any thickener, which belongs on the stove at reheating, not in the canner.

Southwest Tomato Soup Variations

This soup is adapted from the enchilada sauce in The All New Ball Book of Canning and Preserving, thinned with broth and seasoned into a soup. It is a low-acid product, so the pressure and processing time are what make it safe, and they are not adjustable. You cannot process this soup in a water bath canner, and you cannot shorten the time or lower the pressure. For more on why low-acid soups have to be pressure canned, the National Center for Home Food Preservation covers the food safety reasoning.

Where you do have room is in the seasoning. Choose hotter or milder chiles, adjust the chili powder, swap in sweet paprika for a gentler pot, or leave out the brown sugar. What stays out until serving is anything that would change the safety of the jar: cream or cheese, pasta or rice, and any flour or cornstarch thickener. Stir those into a bowl after you reheat, not into the pot before canning.

How to Make Southwest Tomato Soup

The method comes together in two stages. First you build the soup on the stovetop, toasting and soaking the chiles and caramelizing the onions before everything simmers together. Then you blend it smooth, pack it hot, and pressure can it. None of it is difficult, but the chiles reward a little attention.

Prepare the Ingredients

Start by rinsing any dust off the 12 dried New Mexican chiles and patting them dry. Heat a griddle or large skillet over high heat and toast the chiles for about 8 to 10 seconds per side, just until they puff and blister. Watch them closely, since a scorched chile makes the soup bitter. Once they are cool enough to handle, pull off the stems, shake out the seeds, and tear the pods into large pieces.

Put the torn chiles in a bowl and pour 2 cups of boiling water over them, then let them soak for about 20 minutes until softened. Save 1 cup of the soaking liquid to add back to the pot later, since it carries a lot of the chile flavor.

Build and Blend the Soup

Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add the 4 cloves of minced garlic and cook for about 30 seconds, until fragrant, then stir in the 5 cups of chopped onion. Cover and cook about 10 minutes, stirring now and then, until the onions soften, then uncover and keep cooking another 5 to 10 minutes until they turn a rich caramel color.

Add the 6 cups of diced tomatoes, the quart of broth, the brown sugar, 2 tablespoons chili powder, 2 teaspoons salt, 2 teaspoons cumin, 1 teaspoon ground red pepper, the softened chiles, and the reserved soaking liquid. Stir it all together, then blend until smooth with an immersion blender or in batches in a stand blender. Return the soup to the pot, bring it to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer uncovered for about 25 minutes, stirring occasionally, until it thickens and deepens in color.

Pack the Jars

While the soup simmers, prepare your jars and lids and keep them warm. Once the soup has thickened to your liking, ladle it hot into the warm jars using a canning funnel, leaving 1 inch of headspace at the top.

Run a non-metallic bubble remover around the inside of each jar to release trapped air, then wipe the rims clean. Set the lids on top and screw the bands down until they are fingertip tight, snug but not cranked.

Canning Southwest Tomato Soup

This is a hot pack soup, and you will want to put up at least a small canner load at a time, a minimum of 2 quarts or 4 pints, so the canner comes up to pressure properly. A full batch fills about 8 pints, give or take, depending on how far down you simmer it.

To can, prepare your pressure canner, jars, and lids. Fill the canner with a few inches of simmering water, set the packed jars on the rack so they are not touching, lock the lid, and vent steam for a full 10 minutes before bringing it up to pressure.

Process pints (or half pints) for 50 minutes at 10 pounds pressure in a weighted gauge canner or 11 pounds in a dial gauge canner, adjusting for altitude. When the time is up, turn off the heat and let the canner return to zero pressure on its own. Never force cool it. Let it sit another 10 minutes, then remove the lid, lift the jars out, and cool them on a towel-lined counter. Once cool, check the seals, label, and store.

Altitude Adjustments

With pressure canning, the processing time stays the same at higher altitudes, but the pressure changes. Here are the altitude adjustments for pressure canning Southwest Tomato Soup, and you can find more detail in the full guide to altitude adjustments for pressure canning.

For dial gauge pressure canners:

0 to 2,000 feet: 11 lbs pressure
2,001 to 4,000 feet: 12 lbs pressure
4,001 to 6,000 feet: 13 lbs pressure
6,001 to 8,000 feet: 14 lbs pressure

For weighted gauge pressure canners:

0 to 1,000 feet: 10 lbs pressure
Above 1,000 feet: 15 lbs pressure

Tips for Success

Give the chiles your full attention while they toast. A few seconds a side is all they need, and the line between toasted and burnt is thin. If a pod scorches, toss it rather than letting it turn the whole pot bitter, since one burnt chile carries a long way through 8 pints of soup.

Blend in batches if you are using a stand blender, and leave the lid cracked or vented so steam can escape, because hot soup builds pressure in a sealed jar. An immersion blender right in the pot is the easier route if you have one. And if you like a thinner soup, you can add a little more broth as it simmers to reach the consistency you want before you pack the jars.

Serving Ideas for Southwest Tomato Soup

When you are ready to eat, open a jar and heat the soup on the stovetop. This is the point to add anything that could not go in the canner, so stir in a swirl of cream if you want it richer, or thicken it with a little flour or cornstarch slurry on the stove if you prefer a heavier bowl. Fresh cilantro stirred in at the end brightens the whole thing up.

For toppings, a dollop of sour cream, a handful of shredded cheese, and some crispy tortilla strips turn a bowl into a meal. A couple of spoonfuls of southwestern corn salsa add texture and a little sweetness. It pairs well with cornbread or quesadillas, and it sits comfortably alongside other soup canning recipes like classic vegetable soup or butternut squash and white bean soup on a soup night.

Yield Notes

A full batch fills about 8 pints, though the exact count shifts with how long you simmer the soup down, since a longer simmer concentrates it into fewer jars. Half pints work well if you tend to open a single serving at a time, and they process at the same time as pints.

The recipe halves and doubles cleanly if you keep the proportions the same. Just hold to a minimum canner load of 2 quarts or 4 pints so the canner can come up to pressure and hold it, and never overfill the canner past what your model allows.

A few questions come up often with this one, so here are the answers before you get started.

Southwest Tomato Soup FAQs

Can Southwest Tomato Soup be processed in a water bath canner?

No. Southwest Tomato Soup contains low-acid ingredients, so it is not safe for water bath canning. You need to use a pressure canner to make safe, shelf-stable jars.

Can I thicken it before canning?

No. Flour, cornstarch, and other thickeners are too dense to let heat move through the jar safely, so they are never added before canning. Thicken the soup on the stove when you reheat it to serve.

How do I make it spicier or milder?

Adjust the heat through your choice of dried chile and the chili powder, since those are seasonings rather than safety ingredients. Use hotter chiles and chili powder for more heat, or swap in sweet paprika for a milder pot. Do not increase the total amount of peppers, which would change the recipe.

How long does it keep?

Properly processed and sealed jars keep for about 12 to 18 months in a cool, dark place, though they stay safe longer. Refrigerate after opening and use within 3 to 4 days.

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