Wednesday, February 22, 2017

Creamy Tomato Soup


I asked my son what he wanted for dinner yesterday and he told me, rather quickly and emphatically, that he wanted tomato soup. So I obliged and whipped this up and served it with the classic grilled cheese. Then today my son (and husband) took the leftovers for lunch. Needless to say, it's a favorite around here.

Once again this recipe is from Mel's Kitchen Cafe with only a few changes. The first time I made this soup, I got all the way to the end when I needed to add the cream and realized I forgot to pick some up at the grocery store. Feeling panicked I searched in my fridge for a replacement and spotted some leftover cream cheese from another recipe. I figured it couldn't hurt, so I threw in 4 oz. The results were so good that I now use cream cheese instead of cream for this recipe. I love the tangy richness it adds. Plus, I'm pretty sure anything with cream cheese has to be good. Right?

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Creamy Tomato Soup
Prep: 10 minutes Cook: 25 minutes Servings: 6

Recipe adapted from www.melskitchencafe.com

2 28oz cans diced tomatoes
3/4 cup vegetable broth
3 Tb butter
1 onion, diced
1 bay leaf
1 tsp brown sugar
2 Tb Tomato paste
2 Tb AP flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
salt & pepper
4 oz reduced fat or regular cream cheese

  • Drain the tomatoes, saving the drained juice
  • Add the vegetable broth to the drained juice to make a total of 3 1/2 cups of liquid
  • In a large pot or dutch oven, melt the butter and saute onions for 3-4 minutes.
  • Add 2/3 of the drained tomatoes, bay leaf and brown sugar to the onions and cook, stirring frequently for about 10 minutes or until the mixture becomes fragrant and thick
  • Add the tomato paste and flour and stir until mixture darkens. 
  • Stir in the remaining tomatoes, tomato juice, baking soda and a 1/2 tsp salt.
  • Bring the soup to a boil, then simmer on low heat until thick, 5 - 7 minutes. 
  • Then add in cream cheese chopped into smaller sections. Stir around until the cream cheese melts and is mostly incorporated into the soup. 
  • Remove bay leaf from soup and puree the soup with an emersion blender or in a regular blender. 
  • Add soup back to pot and season with additional salt and pepper to taste. 



1 comment:

  1. I just made this for the first time tonight, but I used fresh tomatoes instead of cans, because we are drowning in cherry tomatoes from our garden. I didn't skin them or anything, just roasted about 12 cups of tomatoes in the oven for 20 min at 400. It turned out delicious! And now I've only got ONE giant container of tomatoes on my counter. Miracle of miracles! Wish we could share with you :(

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