How To Elevate Canned Tomato Soup With Your Favorite Flavored Oil

While making it yourself is always satisfying, nothing beats the sheer convenience and comforting, nostalgic taste of canned tomato soup. There are many ways to upgrade canned soup, and one especially easy way to give your bowl a boost is also incredibly quick and extra-tasty. It simply involves drizzling a swirl of flavored oil over the top of the soup before serving it.

The oil to go for will depend on the can in question since different brands of canned tomato soup have different flavor profiles and can be sweet, salty, spicy, or creamy. In general, oils flavored with garlic or fragrant herbs such as basil make great partners for tomatoes. Add a little heat and smokiness with a drizzle of chili oil, or bring a burst of freshness with lemon oil.

As well as enhancing the taste, oil also adds a luxurious mouthfeel to basic canned soup. But be careful not to pour too much — use a bottle with a spout or partly cover the opening with your thumb so you get a controlled drizzle rather than an oily mess. To really take your soup to the next level, try making your own flavored oil, which means you can put your own spin on it and create flavors you might not find in the grocery store. It's a simple process and means you'll have an instant flavor enhancer ready to give soups (and other dishes) a boost. 

There are two methods for making flavored oils: cold-infusion and heated-infusion. The method used depends on the specific ingredients included. Use a mild-tasting olive oil for the best results. Cold-infusion is ideal for fresh, delicate herbs such as parsley, cilantro, or chives, as well as fresh ingredients such as chilies. Use around a cup of herbs for a quart of oil. Blitz the herbs in a food processor, mix with the oil, and then strain out the solids. Create your own unique blends by combining different ingredients — add lemon zest to herby oils, for example, or fresh ginger to garlic oil. Keep it refrigerated in a sterilized, dry bottle, and it should last for a week.

For woody herbs like rosemary or thyme, or dehydrated ingredients such as dried mushrooms or tomatoes, a heated-infusion works best. Heat the oil to no more than 150 degrees Fahrenheit, remove from the heat, add your ingredients, and then let them steep before bottling. 

While fragrant oil on its own will add extra depth of flavor to canned tomato soup, you can combine it with other add-ins to further elevate the taste and texture. Think hot chili oil along with a spoonful of herby pesto and some crunchy croutons or toasted pine nuts, for example. Pair basil oil with grated Parmigiano-Reggiano or parmesan for an umami-rich result, or drizzle mint oil and scatter the soup with crumbled feta for a refreshing finish.