Save Money and Eat In Tonight: Cream of Fresh Tomato Soup

We've made this recipe many times using both fresh and canned tomatoes (recommend using diced tomatoes in tomato juice) and even fresh or dried basil.  Make this once and end up with lots of soup to freeze for later, a great way to save money on having to buy lunch or cook on one of those days you're just feeling too tired to bother with cooking.

Made with yellow tomatoes and yellow carrots.

Ingredients

• 3 tablespoons good olive oil
• 1 1/2 cups chopped red onions (2 onions)
• 2 carrots, unpeeled and chopped
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic (3 cloves)
• 4 pounds vine-ripened tomatoes, coarsely chopped (5 large fresh or 2 32oz cans of diced tomatoes)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons sugar
• 1 tablespoon tomato paste
• 1/4 cup packed chopped fresh basil leaves, plus julienned basil leaves, for garnish (about a tablespoon of dried basil can also be used)
• 3 cups chicken stock
• 1 tablespoon kosher salt
• 2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
• 3/4 cup heavy cream

Directions

Heat the olive oil in a large, heavy-bottomed pot over medium-low heat. Add the onions and carrots and saute for about 10 minutes, until very tender. Add the garlic and cook for 1 minute. Add the tomatoes, sugar, tomato paste, basil, chicken stock, salt, and pepper and stir well. Bring the soup to a boil, lower the heat, and simmer, uncovered, for 30 to 40 minutes, until the tomatoes are very tender.

Add the cream to the soup and process it through a food mill into a bowl (a food processor or stick blender works just fine if you don't have a mill), discarding only the dry pulp that's left. Reheat the soup over low heat just until hot and serve with julienned basil leaves and/or croutons.

Soup is great with a side salad and homemade croutons.


Recipe courtesy of Foodnetwork.com.