How to Can Your Own Soup

Dear Reader-

Today I have a treat for you!

My bloggy pal Ott, A (from A Latte’ with Ott, A) is sharing her canning secrets with all you Super Mommies out there!

A while back a few of you asked about tips on canning soup, so I turned to my canning guru pals and Miss Amy agreed to share all her soupy secrets with ya!

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First off you should know I can a Latte’, (cheesy I know, but true) as it is a great way to use up produce you can’t consumer while in season.  I grew up canning alongside my mother in the kitchen, so naturally as soon as I got married and we started a garden I started canning green beans, potatoes and all kinds of tomato products to last us throughout the winter months.  After you make the initial investment of purchasing your canner and jars; canning produce is a great way to save money, for instance this recipe for vegetable soup that I’m about to share with you cost me nothing but my time.  Can you imagine that?!?!  Two hours one Sunday afternoon in August will produce at least 4 meals for 2 people.  And, because I grew the tomatoes, potatoes, carrots and got the sweet corn from my parents garden we will eat soup for free on some cold day this winter.

How do I make this free Vegetable Soup?  I’m glad you asked as it does take some prep work to get all your ingredients ready to be canned.  To start with I clean and remove the tops from 6 pounds of tomatoes (or about 24 medium sized tomatoes).  I place them in a large kettle and boil in water for about 5 minutes.  While those are boiling I start peeling and slicing 2 cups of carrots and put them in a pot of water on the stove over medium heat. I also peel and dice 2 cups of potatoes into bite size chunks, and place them on the stove in a pot of water on medium heat.  (I put just a splash of lemon juice in the potatoes to keep them from turning brown.)  (I don’t want to cook my vegetables but I do want them to get warm.)  At the same time I get 4 ears of sweet corn in a pot and let them boil for about 8 minutes.   By this time your tomatoes should be done so I drain them and then turn them into Tomato Juice.

Then I drain my carrots and put a 1/2 cup into each jar. Quick Tip: As you can see I’m using every burner on my stove for this project and while canning your kitchen is getting warm.  Even though I have the AC cranked up I usually have a ceiling fan or a box fan going just to keep air circulating in the kitchen and keep me somewhat comfortable.

Potatoes are next and again I measure out a half cup of potatoes into each jar.  (Don’t let the color of my potatoes fool you as I planted Blue Adirondack Potatoes this year so they are a purple color.)

Now, at this point you may be wondering why I bother with measuring out my ingredients like this, well this is so I get an equal amount of vegetables in each jar so their is consisteny in my soup and also keeps my jars processing time consistant.

Then I add my lid to jar and place a ring over that.  Make sure the ring in screwed on tightly.

And then I place the jars in my pressure cooker, which is on my stove and the water should be hot, but not quite boiling.

The water inside the pressure cooker should completely cover the tops of the jars.

Once the water is boiling I place the lid on my canner along with 10 pounds of pressure.  I wait until the canner has pressurized before I start my time.  (On my canner I have this little pressure valve that pops up to let me know it’s pressurized but some canners have a guage with a needle to let you know.)  Once pressureize turn down the heat just a little because I want the canner to maintain this level of heat and not continue to get hotter.  Then set your timer for 125 minutes as that’s how long it takes to process vegetable soup.

Now don’t those jars look beautiful?  And all you have to do this winter is pop one open and heat up on the stove and wa-la…. free vegetable soup for two.

If you would like to learn more about canning then I hope you will join us for our Canning Week Blog Party August 22nd – 26th.  Each day we blog about recipes for canning and give step by step instructions on how to can it. Along the way we will have a linky party with a guest judge and lots of Canning related Give-a-ways!!  It should be a lot of fun and a great way to learn more about how to can for yourself.