Meat Free Monday: Tomato Soup v2

So this is how this recipe made it on the menu.  I bought one of those big clam shells of tomatoes from Costco and I didn’t want them to go bad.  So I pulled up the last recipe I tried for tomato soup.  Two things from the ingredient list were missing in my house….drats.  Normally I’d just make a quick grocery store run, or sometimes I’m able to improvise with what I have, but it was too cold to go out and I wasn’t in an improvise mood.  It was easier to just google another recipe.  And voila, this recipe was found.

It’s not very red-looking, but I swear it has about 6 or 7 tomatoes in it.  The milk and flour mixture really lightened up the color.  But who cares about the color?  The taste was awesome!  It totally hit the spot on a cold, winter evening. 

A quick note about peeling tomatoes….I think I did it the hard way last time.  This time I consulted the internet once again (because it is all-knowing, of course) and found an easy way to peel the tomatoes.   Cut a cross on the bottom of the tomato, put it in boiling water for about 30 seconds, or until you can see the skin peel away slightly, then immediately move the tomato to an ice bath to stop the cooking process.   Just look how easily the skin peels right off:

 

So now you have two delicious tomato soup recipes to choose, depending on what you have on hand.  Enjoy!

Jersey Fresh Tomato Soup

click here for printable version

Ingredients

7 cups peeled, seeded, and chopped tomato – despite the recipe name, I did not use Jersey tomatoes, just regular roma tomatoes 

1 cup finely chopped carrots – did not have any, so I omitted

3/4 cup finely chopped onion

1 (13.75 ounce) can chicken broth – I substituted vegetable broth

1 tablespoon white sugar

2 teaspoons sea salt – I only used about 1 tsp

3 tablespoons butter

3 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1 cup 2% milk

2 teaspoons dried basil

1/2 teaspoon celery salt

1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

Directions

1.  Bring the tomatoes, carrots, and onion to a boil over medium-high heat in a stockpot, then reduce heat to medium-low. Simmer for 30 minutes. Stir in the chicken or vegetable broth, sugar, and salt.

2.  Melt the butter over medium-low heat in a small saucepan. Whisk in the flour, stirring until thick. Slowly whisk in the milk until smooth. Cook and stir, whisking constantly until thickened, about 5 minutes, then stir milk mixture in to the stockpot. Season with basil, celery salt, black pepper, and garlic powder. Continue to simmer the soup on low to reduce and thicken, about 1 hour.

Note:  I ran the soup through a blender after it was done cooking for a smoother, creamier texture.