Tomato Vegetable Juice

Tomato Vegetable Juice

What do you do with an excess of garden vegetables? One very versatile product is a blended collection of vegetables. One of the best combinations is  a blend of tomatoes and vegetables such as cucumbers and celery. The tomato needs to be the dominant taste, and I prefer to keep tomato content at 60-70 percent.

The advent of the electric blender really made a difference. As a 10- year old in my grandmother's kitchen, my job was to use the hand-powered meat grinder to turn the vegetables into a paste. Now I have the monster home blender - the Ninja. This very fast and very powerful device allows for the blending of large volumes of vegetables quickly.

Ingredients

1 bucket of tomatoes (makes about 6 quarts, when blended)

1  large celery plant  (4 cups, when  blended)

2 cups lemon juice

2 cups of blended onions

2 cups of blended bell peppers

4 cups of blended lemon cucumbers

2 teaspoons salt

2 teaspoons pepper

2 teaspoons of dried Italian spices

1/2 cup Vegemite

1/2 cup Worcestershire Sauce

1 teaspoon garlic powder


You will need a 10-quart soup pot. Wash the tomatoes well, remove all blemishes, cut into quarters and blend. Because of their natural juices tomatoes will blend easily. Cucumbers and celery will need help, so add a cup of lemon juice to help with the blending. Do not try to blend the Vegemite. The Vegemite will dissolve easily when the mixture is heated and stirred. If you do not have access to Vegemite, you could delete this ingredient or you could get the Vegemite or Marmite online.

Place all ingredients in the soup pot and bring to a slow boil for 10 minutes while stirring well.

Some Uses for the tomato vegetable juice

This tomato/vegetable juice will have plenty of uses including:

a. As a soup by itself or as a soup base.

b. As the main ingredient in a shrimp cocktail sauce recipe.

c. As an important ingredient in meatloaf, rissoles, hamburgers, etc.

d. As a base for Mulligatawny soup or casserole.

e. Just add the liquor and you will have a Bloody Mary.

f. When cooled, it is a great tasting and very healthy drink.

g. As the base ingredient in a pasta sauce.

To thicken this recipe for use as a pasta sauce, add dried potato flakes and bring to a slow boil while stirring.

This is a very safe ingredient for canning. The 10-minute slow boil does serve to pasteurize the mixture and the presence of tomato and lemon juice ensure a high acid content that, when canned, aids long-term storage in a cool place. This should make about 8 quart bottles.