Fresh Tomato Soup

Photo by: Taste of Home

I had a few tomatoes that I needed to use. I already made BLT sandwiches on Sunday and we even had sliced tomatoes with oil, vinegar, and oregano as a side dish one night; but I needed to use the rest of the tomatoes. I had been thinking that fresh tomato soup sounded good, but since I had never made it, I was a little reluctant. I looked in my Taste of Home Big Book of Soups and they had a recipe that sounded yummy. I made it and it was yummy!

You need to not think of it as Campbell's Tomato Soup, but it is tasty, nevertheless. Today when I started the blog, I didn't have the cookbook with me so I went to the Taste of Home website and typed fresh tomato soup in the search and found the very same recipe from my cookbook.

My sons voted that this is a keeper, but one of them said, "... and cheese sandwiches?" I guess some things just go together like peanut butter and jelly or tomato soup and cheese sandwiches.

Fresh Tomato Soup
Taste of Home

1 cup chopped onion

¼ cup butter, cubed

3 pounds fresh tomatoes, peeled, seeded, and chopped

2 Tablespoons tomato paste

1 Tablespoon sugar

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon dried basil

½ teaspoon dried thyme

¼ teaspoon pepper

¼ cup all-purpose flour

4 cups chicken broth, divided

1 cup heavy whipping cream

In a large saucepan over medium heat, saute onion in butter until tender. Add the tomatoes, tomato paste, sugar, salt, basil, thyme and pepper; simmer for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Combine flour and 3/4 cup broth; form a smooth paste; gradually stir into tomato mixture with remaining broth.

Bring to a boil; cook and stir for 2 minutes, or until thickened. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 30 minutes or until tomatoes are tender. Remove from the heat. Stir in cream; serve immediately. Yield: 4-6 servings.

Prep: 10 min. Cook: 45 min.

What I Do: I did not add the tomato paste. I added a little more flour and blended it well in the blender with some broth before adding it to the tomatoes. I am not a fan of chunks of tomatoes in my soup, so I cut the tomatoes into fourths (but I did not peel or seed them) and pulsed them in the blender for a few seconds before adding them to the soup. The soup had texture, but not chunks. I did not add the sugar and I wish I had added more basil. You remember that my son says, "Basil makes everything better!"

Nutrition Facts: 1 serving (1 cup) equals 305 calories, 23 g fat (14 g saturated fat), 75 mg cholesterol, 1,131 mg sodium, 22 g carbohydrate, 4 g fiber, 5 g protein.