When life gives you tomatoes, make freezer tomato soup

It’s that joyous time of summer when the tomatoes are ripening. Even with one plant, I have more tomatoes than I can possibly eat on my own. And since we’re still working from home, I can’t take them to the office.

I decided to use up some of the tomatoes by making tomato soup. Don’t even speak to me of canning. I spent a day five years ago with my stepdad while he canned tomatoes, and it was tedious. I prefer to freeze my harvest.

I didn’t really follow a recipe for this. One of my special skills is throwing things together randomly and coming up with something delicious. Why I’m not a recipe developer, I will never know. That would have been a really fun career.

Anyway, I grabbed my Instant Pot and got to work. First, I set it on the sauté function. Once it was ready, I added a little olive oil and some minced garlic — two cloves — and sauteed. Once that was done, I added 1 cup of veggie stock. Then I added in 7 rough chopped tomatoes and their juices (I had 6 medium to large and 1 small). I splashed in some Worcestershire, then added some cracked sea salt and pepper. (You see a pattern here, right? I literally never measure anything unless I’m following a recipe.)

I sealed the lid and set the Instant Pot on manual high pressure for 6 minutes.

Once the 6 minutes was done, I did a quick release.

Then I got out my immersion blender. Once I took off the Instant Pot lid, I sprinkled in 2 tablespoons of sugar. Then I got to blending until it was mostly smooth. (The immersion blender can’t get all the seeds and skin — for that, a regular blender is needed — but I do the best I can with the tools I have, and I don’t mind the odd seed or sliver of skin.)

I finished with a generous sprinkling of Flavorgod Italian Zest seasoning.

I’m pleased with how it turned out. I am freezing 4 cups, and I saved the remaining (which was maybe 1.5 cups?) for lunch tomorrow.

And now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to collapse. I spent the better part of three hours today cleaning, peeling, slicing and blanching all the carrots I picked, which are now in the freezer. Between that, making the soup, and all the cleaning I had to do because of these activities, I’m wiped out.