Gordon Ramsay’s Easy Upgrade for Store-Bought Tomato Soup

This upgrade takes just seconds and transforms even store-bought tomato soup.

On Netflix Culinary class warsA chef adds sugar to enhance the pumpkin’s natural sweetness, impressing the judges and winning the round. They praise the chef’s skill at enhancing the pumpkin’s inherent sweetness with added sugar. Likewise, I find it intriguing that Gordon Ramsay enhanced his tomato soup with a sour, slightly sweet addition: balsamic vinegar.

How I Use Gordon Ramsay’s Upgrade to Make Exceptional Tomato Soup

Ramsay’s tomato soup recipe is a little difficult for my liking. As a working mom preparing to write a fourth cookbook, I needed an easier way to incorporate Ramsay’s secret ingredient into any tomato soup. So I looked in my pantry and found a carton of Pacific Foods Creamy Tomato Soup.

This brand makes my favorite store-bought tomato soup because it’s shelf-stable, easy to make, and quite delicious right out of the can. To reheat it, I poured the contents of the carton into a saucepan and gently warmed it on the stove.

In Ramsay’s recipe, he recommends drizzling a splash of balsamic vinegar over the tomatoes as they roast. He said: “A small pinch of aged balsamic vinegar gives a lovely dark, rich acidity to the soup. »

Since he didn’t specify a specific amount, I started by adding a tablespoon of balsamic vinegar to the soup once it started to simmer. This amount hit the sweet spot for me, and adding it towards the end kept its rich, bright flavors intact.

Immediately after adding the balsamic vinegar I noticed a difference, and I’m not kidding, the soup underwent a complete transformation. Although my store-bought tomato soup is quite flavorful and creamy right out of the can, it is noticeably sweet and lacks punch. The soup could also benefit from a more savory touch.

With its acidity, subtle sweetness, and woody caramel notes, balsamic vinegar adds depth and brightness while complementing the natural sweetness of tomatoes.

The result was a fuller-bodied, more complex soup, with each spoonful brightly hot, tangy, sweet and salty all at once. Best of all, this shortcut only took a moment and left me licking the bowl. With the time I saved by not making tomato soup from scratch, I whipped up a melty grilled cheese to serve as a side.

If you have time to follow Ramsay’s recipe, go for it. If, like me, your lunch breaks are short and sweet, this quick upgrade using Ramsay’s secret ingredient will make any homemade or store-bought tomato soup sing.