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As a private chef, I used to serve tomato soup with crab as a starter all the time. It was a crowd favorite and remains one of my personal favorites to this day.
Make a double batch of the tomato soup and store it in the freezer so it’s always on hand for this recipe.
If it happens to be late June or July, substitute both the vine and canned tomatoes for fresh summer tomatoes, and you’ll be mind blown 🙂
Chef Tips:
- Use vine tomatoes, or substitute with canned tomatoes in the winter
- If your tomatoes are sour, your soup is going to take on that flavor. The onions to balance it out with some sweetness, but I recommend that if it’s deep in the winter time and you can only find Roma tomatoes, skip that and just use more canned tomatoes.
- Keep your prep simple with fresh tomatoes (aka keep the skin and seeds)
- Many recipes will call for you to remove the skin and seeds of the tomatoes before dicing, but to be honest, that’s very French and not necessary. I’ve made this recipe at least 10 times with the skin and seeds of the tomatoes, and it is delicious. If anything, I recommend removing the core where the vine grows, but that’s it.
- Use fresh or refrigerated canned crab meat
- There are a lot of different types of crab out there. Of course fresh is best, but it can be expensive or time consuming to manually shell.
- For a quicker and still delicious option, you can use canned crab meat – look for the ones in the refrigerated section (do NOT get the ones that aren’t refrigerated). I’ve been able to find these at H Mart and Costco. I’ve found that for about $20 / lb, you can get nice canned crab meat.
- Pick through your crab meat
- Especially if you buy already shelled crab, it’s important to run your (clean) fingers through the crab meat and find any hard pieces of shell that might have gotten mixed in with the crab.
- Serve the tomato soup HOT
- Since the crab meat is chilled and doesn’t need to be reheated, make sure your soup is HOT when labeling into the bowls. To ensure it stays hot, feel free to warm the bowls before ladling in.
Tomato Soup with Dungeness Crab
- Total Time: 60 minutes
- Yield: 6-8 1x
Description
As a private chef, I used to serve tomato soup with crab as a starter ALL the time. It was a crowd favorite and remains one of my personal favorites to this day.
Ingredients
Units
Scale
For the Tomato Soup:
- 1 yellow onion, diced
- 2 cloves garlic, smashed
- 1 tablespoon tomato paste
- 1 1/2 lbs fresh vine tomatoes, diced
- 14 ounces crushed San Marzano tomatoes
- 4 cups vegetable broth (can substitute water, but vegetable broth will add a deeper flavor to the soup)
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 parmesan or manchego rind (optional)
- 1/4 cup heavy cream
- 1/2 lb Dungeness crab meat
- 1/4 cup chives, finely chopped – for garnish
- Kosher salt
- Black pepper
- Pinch of flakey sea salt (like Maldon salt)
Instructions
Tomato Soup:
- In a heavy-bottomed pan, cook the onions on medium-low heat with a pinch of salt for about 15 minutes. Stir occasionally to prevent burning. A little bit of color is ok.
- Add the smashed garlic and tomato paste, stir around, and cook for about 2 minutes, or until you can smell the garlic aroma.
- Add the diced tomatoes, crushed tomatoes, cheese rind, and a pinch of salt. Stir and cook for about 5 minutes.
- Add the stock or water, bay leaf, and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer, cover, and let cook for 20 minutes.
- Remove the bay leaf, taste the soup, and add additional salt and pepper as desired.
- Immersion blend the soup until smooth. Add the heavy cream and mix. Taste and adjust seasoning with more salt and pepper.
To Assemble with the crab:
- Pick through the crab meat to make sure there aren’t any shells.
- Ladle about 8 oz of soup into each bowl.
- Using your fingers or tongs, pinch about 2 tablespoons of crab meat and place it gently into the center of the soup.
- Garnish with flakey sea salt on top of the crab meat, then finish with chives and a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.
- Serve immediately, and enjoy!
Notes
Keep the crab meat chilled until serving
- Prep Time: 30 minutes
- Cook Time: 30 minutes
- Category: entertaining made easy
- Method: stovetop
- Cuisine: american
