10 Minute Cream of Tomato Soup

The outside temperature has taken a dive and I spent most of the day warding off a chill with thoughts of a toasty grilled cheese sandwich and comforting bowl of steamy tomato soup for dinner.  Oh yeah, that was going to fix me up!  Of course I didn't realize there was no tomato soup in the pantry.  When dinner time arrived I found diced tomatoes, whole tomatoes, crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, tomato puree, sun dried tomatoes... even ro-tel tomatoes, but not one single can of simple tomato soup.  So I surveyed the ingredients at hand, threw a few things together, and this is what I came up with - an incredibly delicious version which only took about 10 minutes to make.  I hope you'll give it a try.

Enjoy!

10 Minute Cream of Tomato Soup

Serves 2-4

Printable Recipe

Ingredients

• 28 ounce can of San Marzano crushed tomatoes or tomato puree

• 1 cup milk

• 1 cup half and half

• 2 teaspoons dried basil

• 1 teaspoon dried granulated onion or onion powder (not onion salt)

• 1/2 teaspoon celery seed (not celery salt)

• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

• 1/2 teaspoon finely ground black pepper

• basil oil for garnish

Directions

1. Combine all ingredient together in a medium saucepan and heat; stirring occasionally.

2. Drizzle with basil oil and serve.

Note

• For silky smooth soup, puree in blender before serving.

Chilled Strawberry Soup

What do you do when you have a plethora of strawberries and Greek yogurt in the fridge? Make Strawberry Soup!

Chilled Strawberry Soup

makes about 7 cups

Printable Recipe

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 pounds fresh strawberries, cleaned and diced

• 1/4 cup granulated sugar

• 1 cup plain Greek Yogurt

• 1 cup half and half

• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Directions

1. Place diced strawberries in a large bowl and sprinkle with sugar; stir to coat.

2. At this point you can proceed with the recipe right away, but I usually allow the strawberries to macerate for about an hour until they exude their juice (don't discard the juice). Put everything in a blender (juice included) and puree until smooth.

3. Chill before serving.

Now for the design. This is how I made it. Sorry, no photos, but I’ll draw a diagram for you.

I used a squeeze bottle to add a circle of heavy cream to the top of my cold soup.

Then I swirled a toothpick through the cream in a circular pattern like this. In reality my swirls were much bigger - sorry, I can't draw to save my life, but you'll figure it out.

Voila! Now you try - prepare yourself for all the oooh and ahhhs.