Soup's On

About six months ago we though our daughter might be allergic to gluten so I set out looking for recipes that were gluten-free.  Luckily it turns out she is not allergic to gluten, just refined foods.  We now buy all whole grains and she no longer has stomach pains...unless she eats too much of them :-)

The recipe that inspired this soup was from my Gulten-Free searching.  I liked the premise of a tomato-type soup that had more depth to it.  Let's face it, most tomato soups are like eating thick tomato juice...no personality.  I added some things to the original recipe and took others away (not a fan of sweet potatoes).  You can easily adapt this to whatever veggies you like.  I canned seven pints of this and plan to can as many tomorrow, but that was from a double batch (two crockpots).  So roughly seven pints from a single batch.

Oh, and yes, you can add the equal amount of fresh tomatoes instead of the canned called for in the recipe, I was just using what I had on hand.

Garden Soup
1 medium onion, chopped
1 green bell pepper, chopped
5 cloves garlic, minced
1 large potato, peeled and diced
1/2 small head green cabbage, cored and chopped
12 baby carrots, chopped
Salt and fresh black pepper, to taste
28 ounce can cruched tomatoes
2 14ounce cans diced tomatoes
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon sugar
2 tablespoons dried basil
2 cups vegetable stock

Add everything to the crockpot and stir to mix well.  Set to low and allow to cook for 10-12 hours.  Puree in food processor or blender until desired consistancy (less time for chunky and more for a smooth soup).

To can the soup, pour the hot soup into hot, sterlized jars and process in a pressure canning at 10 pounds pressure for 75 minutes for pints and 90 minutes for quarts. 

There are many sites that can tell you how to can using a pressure canner, so I will not re-invent the wheel.  :-)  Besides, I am just learning to use the canner I received from my Ninnie. Which I found out today needs a new pressure gauge.  Not bad for a 60-something year old pressure canner.  If you are in the market for a pressure canner, All-American pressure canners with the metal-on-metal seal are the best you can buy, as mine is a prime example of!  It also says something that the company is still in business after damn near 100 years and I can still get parts for my cannner.  Anyway, enough rambling, go cook some soup :-)