I received a phone call from my husband yesterday:
“Babe, I want something really good for dinner.”
“Okay. We have something really good for dinner every night. Sooo….? And I already have the meals planned for the week.”
“No, I mean REALLY good. You ready? I know what I want: Tomato Soup & Grilled Cheese. I need some comfort food.”
So, because I am a REALLY good wife, off to the store I went. I needed a few miscellaneous things anyway. This recipe is so easy and so cheap & I figured I’d make my standard double or triple batch so I had a bunch to freeze. I originally found this recipe in Everyday Food many years ago. I have tweaked it & used different ingredients to see what makes the best batch. I have it nailed. I LOVE this tomatoey soup. Hope you do too!
Classic Tomato Soup
(found in Everyday Food Magazine here)
Serves 6
Ingredients
- 4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) butter *I use unsalted
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 medium onion, chopped
- Coarse salt and ground pepper
- 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 3 tablespoons tomato paste
- 2 sprigs fresh thyme (or 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme)
- 2 cans (14 1/2 ounces each) reduced-sodium chicken broth *I use low sodium Swanson broth
- 2 cans (28 ounces each) whole peeled tomatoes in juice (with basil if available) *my favorite canned tomatoes are the Market Pantry tomatoes from Target
Directions
- In a 5-quart saucepan or Dutch oven, melt butter over medium heat; add oil and onion, and season with salt and pepper. Cook until onion is translucent, about 5 minutes. Stir in flour and tomato paste; cook 1 minute.
- To saucepan, add thyme, broth, and tomatoes, breaking up tomatoes with your fingers. Bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer, 30 minutes. (Remove thyme sprigs before blending.)
- Using an immersion blender, puree soup in pot, leaving a fair amount of the tomatoes in chunks. Or, working in several batches, puree half (5 cups) of the soup in a conventional blender until smooth; return to pot. Season with salt and pepper. Serve immediately, or let cool to room temperature before dividing among airtight containers (leaving 1 inch of space at the top) and freezing.
My Tweaks
- I always use two big handfuls of fresh basil from my garden. I chop it & add it to the onion/oil/butter mixture, just before adding the flour & saute for up to a minute
- I never seem to have thyme, so I rarely use it
- I add very little salt
- My immersion blender is having issues, so I throw all of it in the regular blender as we like it pretty smooth
- Always serve with grilled cheese
- This freezes beautifully for months, so I always make 2-3x’s the recipe at once
- Sometimes I add a handful of cooked jasmine rice (as with the batch pictured)
& thank you for the suggestions for adding a styleberryFOOD category! If you check out the “categories” link in the green bar across the top, you will notice some structural changes! For the better! Love your creative suggestions!! :D Keep them coming!
