Tomato Soup Three Ways

Tomato soup is right up there with chicken noodle, cabbage dumpling, and clam chowder as one of the all-time tastiest and most comforting of the un-fancy soups world. As will all these things, I tend to get sudden cravings for hot tomato soup and crusty grilled cheese at the oddest times that I know that nothing but those two foods will satisfy. Take two nights ago, for instance. I hadn't eaten much all day because of my crazy schedule, and by 7:30 I was starving and grumpy and all I wanted was tomato soup and grilled cheese. There was no getting around it. Tragically, I was all out of Old Faithful and, honestly, out of bread too. In my hunger and stress crazed state, though, I decided to heck with that, it wouldn't take that long to bake some bread and make my own soup....

Of course it did. I didn't wind up eating until almost 11pm, but what a glorious dinner it was! My ugly night-time picture has almost captured the heavenly glow of delicious childish love emanating from the plate:

Round 1 in Mission: Tomato Soup came out a little too thick and a little tarter than our beloved Campbell's classic, but it was still delicious. The bread I made this time was perfect too-- I mixed lots of parsley, rosemary, marjoram, and sage into it for a complex aroma and very mild herby flavor. The cheese, of course, is American.

Round 2 was nicer and a bit more fancy.

Regardless of fanciness, you still need something crunchy to dip into tomato soup in my opinion, so I had this with toast from the same loaf as above. I also whipped up some quick garlicky hummus (the lumpy stuff in the top right); I think hummus is definitely one of those foods where making your own will always be infinitely better than store bought. There are so few ingredients in it that I feel like packaged kinds probably skimp on quality to begin with and then when they add preservatives, they're really noticeable in taste. I made my hummus here by simply mashing chick peas, lemon zest, garlic, salt, pepper, and sesame seeds (I didn't have tahini) together with a fork, then mortar-and-pestling it all for a bit more smoothness. It was still a little lumpy, but I don't mind-- using a food processor would have made it perfectly smooth. Then I just beat oil in with a fork until the whole mess was creamy and spreadable. Herby toast slathered in a thick layer of garlicky hummus and dipped into chunky home-made tomato soup? Maybe even a better match than grilled cheese.

My last demonstration of wonderful tomato soup is a sort of brunch version, suitable for my late waking today.

This soup was from the same batch as the previous; I just strained it this time. I decided I don't really like chunkiness in it after all. If you have a blender, it would be much faster just to blend it of course. I accompanied the soup with just some thick-sliced toast and a sunny-side up egg (after failing miserably, as usual, in poaching one) and a little pile of chewy black beans. Delicious.

I had been scared away from making tomato soup before because most of the recipes I was seeing online made it seem like such a production! Roast this, caramelize that, add precisely this amount of these spices, simmer at exactly such a heat for exactly such a time and then at cream and ONLY cream anything else will RUIN it OH GOD it's not like you're trying to emulate a cheap grocery store soup whose ingredients are high fructose corn syrup and "Flavoring" or anything! So I decided not to follow a recipe and just wing it. Guess what? It's great. Better than Campbell's (and probably better for you) but with the same general flavor and texture.

Tomato Soup

1 28 oz. can of crushed tomatoes (you could use other things here too depending on the texture you like)

1/2 a medium yellow onion

1 small carrot

2 big cloves of garlic

1/4 C milk

not quite 1 T flour

1 T butter or olive oil

seasonings to taste-- a couple pinches of sugar, cracked pepper, parsley, maybe a pinch of red pepper flakes

Now here are the super complicated instructions: put your butter or olive oil into a regular sized saucepan on medium/medium high. Dice the half-an-onion pretty finely and toss that in. Either dice or grate the carrot and toss that in too. Stir everything around to make sure they're not sticking, then chop up your garlic and crack your pepper and add them to the pot. 

Once the onions are just beginning to golden all over, add the whole can of tomato, a generous half-handful of parsley, a pinch of red pepper flakes (this will give it some heat without being "spicy", but of course feel free to omit) and whatever else you like for flavoring. Fill the tomato can about half way with water and pour it into the pot as well. Stir to make sure everything's more or less combined and bring it to a simmer. Once it simmers, reduce heat to medium low, cover, and leave it alone.

In about 45 minutes or so (or whenever you feel like dealing with it again, so long as you check occasionally to make sure too much moisture isn't evaporating and add water if you have to), add the flour to your milk and mix them well. Pour this blend into the soup and stir that too. As long as the soup's still simmering, the flour with thicken it slightly and give you that velvety mouth feel without having to use cream. Taste the soup at this point and decide whether you'd like to add a little sugar to cut any of the acidic tomatoey bite-- as I mentioned above, it tastes fine to me without the sugar, but with just a pinch that sharp aftertaste is cut without actually making the soup taste sweet. Feel free to add more milk or any other spices you feel necessary at this time as well.

Once the taste is how you like it, if you want it smooth you can go about that right now. Either blend it (in the cup kind of blender or with an immersion blender) or strain it through a wire mesh sieve, making sure really smush up the pulpy bits of tomato left behind for all their juices. Once strained (or not), ladle into bowls and enjoy! This much serves about 3 if eaten with sandwiches or other things on the side.