Tomato Soup.

Back when Sarah and I first got married, we had a lot of grilled cheese sandwiches. We still have them now, just not as often, unless we get into a food rut. Sarah loves to have Campbell's tomato soup with hers, while I prefer Ramen Noodles. When I started trying to make things from scratch that we usually buy, tomato soup was one of the things I tried. I found a recipe in an old cook book, and to my surprise, Sarah really liked it (it was pretty good). I've tried other recipes for tomato soup, but my problem with it is the tomatoes. I don't like them to be chunky in the soup, and I really don't like putting the soup into a blender, because it's hot and you have to do it more than once. Yes, I know I can let it cool off, but I never give myself enough time to do that. I bought one of those stick blenders, but all that does is leaves smaller tomato chunks in the soup and also coats everything in an 8 inch radius with tomato.

I wanted to try a different tomato soup recipe last night. I found one that you have to simmer it for an hour, then finish it off with cream. We both ate lunch late, so I figured this would be a good time to try it. I halved the recipe and I put in cold half and half after it was done simmering, and it fit nicely in the blender. I originally thought that it was the best soup I ever made, but this morning I thought about this one and I changed my mind. So here is the recipe, I found the original on allrecipes.com and modified it a bit. Here's my version:

Tomato Soup

1 29 oz. can diced tomatoes
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 teaspoons sugar
2 tablespoons chopped onion
1/4 teaspoon baking soda (optional)
1/2 teaspoon basil
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 1/2 cups water
1 tablespoon chicken bouillon granules
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
2 cups half and half
salt and pepper to taste

1. Saute the onion and garlic in olive oil until soft.
2. Add the tomatoes, sugar, baking soda, basil, water, bouillon, salt and pepper and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer for an hour, adding more water if needed.
3. After simmering, let cool, and puree in a blender or food processor. Return to pan and add half and half and vinegar. Heat through.
4. Make a grilled turkey and cheese sandwich to go with it, and enjoy!

NOTES
1. You can of course use fresh tomatoes, which I cannot wait to try. You should peel them though, even if it is a pain.
2. The original recipe calls for condensed chicken broth. I've never heard of that, but I can imagine it's like mushroom soup or something like that. I just used what I always use for chicken broth, I cup water to 1 TB of chicken bouillon granules. Chicken broth is expensive!
3. The baking soda is there to reduce the acidity of the tomatoes. But I put the vinegar in there, so the baking soda is moot. It's not going to hurt anything if you leave it in.
4. I made half of this recipe, and everything fit into my blender. It dawned on me just now that you don't need to put the half and half into the blender. But it does cool the tomato mixture down for blendering, and it might taste different if you don't. Plus it might make the soup a bit frothier, like a tomato cappuccino. Caveat Blendor!

Again, this is not a food blog, but I wanted to share because I really liked the way it turned out. Enjoy!