Creamy Tomato Soup Recipe. YUM.

If you can believe this.... I had never had tomato soup before 2011.  Like - never ever.  I'm not sure if it was because my dad isn't a big fan - or because my mom didn't like it.  No clue, but we never had it in our house growing up.  Probably because we would have turned up our noses at it, because we are so dumb.  For real.

Anyways, I'm not really a chef by any standards... but the tomato soup that follows is so yummy that I ate it for breakfast once this week and considered pouring it into a thermos on another day for the road.

So basically, it's good.

Ingredients

• Small Onion
• Couple of Carrots
• Red Bell Pepper
• Garlic (I totally use the diced garlic sold ready-to-go in the grocery store)
• 1-2 T butter
• Can of Chicken Broth
• 2-3 large cans of tomatoes
• Can of tomato paste (OPTIONAL)
• Balsamic Vinegar
• Dried Basil
• Half-carton of heavy cream

Once you've gathered all of your ingredients, get to chopping.

Bonus points if your pepper and carrots are on their last legs.  This is the perfect dish for using up some overlooked veggies from a long week.


Chop chop chop.

I've used a food processor to just pulverize the heck out of them before, and I'm not sure I noticed any difference.  So - that's even easier!  Unfortunately, my new food processor is kinda iffy compared to the sturdy old model I used to have, so I haven't pulled it out much.

The other ingredients... 

  

I know some people are picky about their tomatoes... I'm just not.   I always waver over the "seasoned" vs just plain diced/petite diced tomatoes and have found no reason to commit to either.

So, I fire up my stove and heat a heavy-bottomed pan with the butter inside... and toss in the carrots to cook them down a bit.  Since they are the only crunchy thing in my recipe, I always give them extra time on the heat.

But after a couple minutes, add in the onion, garlic, and red pepper.  
 

Cook cook cook it down till the onions are nice and see-through.

And then - in goes the broth, tomatoes, and basil seasoning. 

The basil likes to float to the top for some reason, so I just give it a nice stir every 15 minutes or so.  

I'm not sure it matters how long you cook it, but I usually end up doing somewhere between an hour and two hours.  Turn it to medium-low (bubbling, but not going to burn the stuff on the bottom), throw the lid on, and wait wait wait.  Go watch a DIY show.  

And then we're back.

Somewhere in the midst of cooking, I decided it needed a little more punch - so I threw in a tablespoon of balsamic vinegar.  You could probably add more, but I was afraid.

And an hour or two later, you've got this bad boy.  And you are impatient, so you probably eat a small bowl of essentially warm tomatoes and veggies.  YUM.

I took mine off the stove for 10 minutes so it wasn't scalding - and then into the blender she went.  I don't have an immersion blender, but it honestly was no big deal in the regular blender.  I had 2 blender-pitchers full, so I just used another bowl as a temporary holding cell.

After that, you've got a delicious pot of tomato-y goodness.  And honestly, you COULD stop right here.  But you shouldn't because extra calories make the world go 'round.

Find your heavy cream in the fridge and throw a couple of tablespoons in.  I've heard horror stories of it curdling when it hits too-hot soup, so I'm always rushing to mix it in and not ruin things.

And then you've got it.  Creamy tomato soup perfection.  Better than Panera's, according to myself and my husband.  But he may be sleeping with the chef, so I'm not sure if he's lying or not.

Bonus points for adding copious amount of cheese and a grilled cheese sandwich to the mix.  And eating it in your robe on the couch at 7 pm.

Just living the dream, folks.

The tomato-y dream.

Now go make some soup.  Now.