A few weeks ago I found myself with too many tomatoes and too little time to do anything with them. We were going away for the weekend, so I put them in the refrigerator and forgot about them. Three weeks later I decided I needed to throw them away. But when I looked at them, there were a few bad ones but most were still good.
I decided to run them through the food mill and freeze them. But wait, I still have several jars of tomato puree, from last year, in the freezer, so I decided I would make a tomato soup. I didn't have a recipe but I know onion makes it sweet and garlic and thyme go well with tomatoes, so I started creating a recipe and it turned out really good.
The end result was so delicious.
Melt butter in a large pan. Add onions and gently cook until they are soft and melted. Add garlic and celery and sauté until soft. Mix in remaining ingredients. Bring everything to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer until reduced by almost half, about 30 minutes. Taste for seasoning. Remove the thyme sprigs.
Smooth out the soup by running an immersion blender through it to make a nice creamy texture.
Mine tasted a bit metallic, so I added 1/4 teaspoon baking soda, 1 teaspoon sugar and 2 Tablespoons balsamic vinegar.
To serve the soup, make grilled cheese croutons. Just a simple grilled cheese sandwich, then cut into small chunks.
Freeze the leftovers into serving sized proportions. I put mine in pint jars, which are probably 2 servings each.
*the next time I make the grilled cheese croutons I will use a crustier bread or just make a chunky, parmesan crouton. My grilled cheese croutons got too soggy too fast.
Important Note: It is not recommended to water bath can tomato soup to store on the shelf. I used canning jars but have stored the soup in the freezer.
Sounds yummy! Tomato soup and grilled cheese always go together at our house - very fun to do the croutons instead of a sandwich!
This sounds wonderful, I am going to try it next weekend and stash a way a few servings for me!
Yum..my! And your photos could be published in a food magazine! You are such a talented lady Di!
I love tomato soup! Two questions... one, how many tomatoes is that and can I use my food processor? and do you seed them or anything? And two, how do you freeze glass jars?
This looks so good - Tomato soup is one of my favorites and nothing goes better with it than grilled cheese!
I've pinned it. It looks so good.
I do love a freezer full of good soup!
This is similar to what I do, but I add in half and half - always 1:1 with the amount of butter. YUM!
This looks delicious! The best part might just be that you topped it with grilled cheese sandwich croutons. That idea I'm totally stealing!
Suggestion for the next grilled cheese crouton... lightly toast the bread prior to trilling it! It dries out the center of the bread! And then of course butter and grill as normal!