Home made tomato soup

I have been remembering the Heinz tomato soup I used to enjoy in England (I once worked for Heinz in their London factory and used to get staff discount on slightly damaged cans.)  Unfortunately we cannot get Heinz soups here; some Heinz products - vinegar, ketchup - but not soups.

It occurred to me that I might be able to make tomato soup using tomato paste.  Heinz used huge cans of tomato concentrate, so I figured tomato paste was something near what they use. I would need onion powder, garlic powder, milk powder, spices. salt, pepper. No problem with the garlic powder, but onion powder was more expensive than I was prepared for (sold in small jars, that's why I guess) so I sliced up a medium onion and diced it small, thinking I might put the soup through the blender, a messy business.

First I cooked the onion over low heat in a little oil, then when it was soft I opened the tomato paste (75 g) and warmed it in the same saucepan.  I added some baking soda, to make it somewhat less acidic so the milk didn't curdle so easily.  Not much, though, half a teaspoon or so. Then a heaped teaspoon of garlic powder.

In a separate saucepan I transferred about half the tomato paste/onion mixture over low heat and added water till the mixture was something resembling soup, but still thicker.  I stirred in a couple of heaped tablespoons of milk powder (actually "Bear Brand" which is a product containing some milk but mostly other substances such as vegetable oils. It's used a lot here as a milk substitute and is rather sweeter than milk, but since we are making tomato soup and might even want to add some sugar I thought that would be ok.)

This mixture tasted rather too milky so I added more tomato paste, tasting as I went. When there seemed the right balance I added a pinch of cloves, about half a teaspoon of oregano powder, salt, heaped teaspoon of brown sugar and more pepper.  I wanted to add paprika but my paprika jar was unnaccountably empty so that had to be left out.

I recently bought some balsamic vinegar.  Our store occasionally does have unusual products and I bought this because I had never seen it before. It's delicious, made from grape juice and very concentrated, somewhat viscous and I like to put a teaspoonful in a shot glass and sip it.  I put about half a teaspoon of this balsamic vinegar into the soup and I think it made an improvement.

Only remained to add a little more water, re-heat and serve.  Two servings (there's just Rose and me.)  It's all gone so it must have been OK, and it never went through the blender!