Expert tells when to add tomatoes to soup
Soup is a hearty and popular dish. However, if you don't want to cook it according to a complicated recipe and you have a lot of ingredients in the fridge, use an effective method - combine everything in one pot. This is the easiest way to make a light and tasty soup.
"However," writes the Tasting Table website, "there are no limits to perfection, and you can make your dish not just delicious, but divine. This is especially true for recipes that use tomatoes. Our advice is not to put them with all the vegetables, but to add them later. In this case, the tomatoes will not be overcooked, will retain their shape, and the soup will not be too sour."
The acidity of tomatoes intensifies the cooking of ingredients
However, it's not just the cooking time that matters. While chili, minestrone, and vegetable soups would not taste the same without their acidity, it is a quirk of culinary science that lowering the pH of a dish prevents hard vegetables, such as beans, from cooking.
Therefore, to avoid getting a pot full of undercooked pieces (especially if you're cooking fresh rather than canned beans), wait to add these products until the recipe has about 20 minutes left to cook.
This will allow the rest of the ingredients to soften to perfection and give the tomatoes enough time to cook.
By the way, studies have shown that longer cooking time for tomatoes reduces the amount of vitamin C in them.
As for the question of whether it is better to use fresh or canned tomatoes, there is only one answer - take whatever you like. Both are sour, and they are equally suitable for the vast majority of recipes.