classic tomato basil soup

Anybody who has known me for years knows that cooking was never my strong suit. To be fair, I grew up pretty spoiled with parents that were extremely good cooks, so there was little motivation to get good at it myself.

But since I moved away, one of the staples that I have learned to make (and still LOVE) is tomato basil soup. It’s actually pretty easy. I like mine with a bit of kick to it, but the cream nicely balances that out. If you’re vegan it’s also pretty easy to just skip out on the dairy and make a straight tomato basil without the [cream of].

Of course, if you grow your own tomatoes and basil, it makes this even more fresh and fun, but no shame if you’re just wanting to whip something up quickly from what you have in your fridge or cupboards!

Ingredient List:

• 8-10 medium sized Roma tomatoes, sliced in halves
• 1 can of diced tomatoes
• 6 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1/2 of one large yellow onion, diced
• 2 cups basil leaves, cut into small pieces
• 4 cups vegetable broth (I recommend low sodium as you’ll be salting the tomatoes)
• 2 cups of light cream
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• chili flakes as desired for spice
• Olive oil for drizzling tomatoes (for baking)
• 2 tablespoons coarse salt (for seasoning tomatoes while baking)
• 2 tablespoons fresh ground black pepper

A quick and dirty Tomato Basil Soup Recap!

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 450F
2. Place halved tomatoes on baking sheet, sprinkling with salt and pepper, drizzle olive oil over top of tomatoes
3. When oven preheated, place tomatoes inside oven to bake on the top rack for 20 minutes.
4. On the stovetop, on medium heat, heat the 2 tbsp of olive oil, until it starts to sizzle, adding in your minced garlic and diced onion, and cook until browned/ soft
5. Once browned, add can of diced tomatoes, and roasted tomatoes from oven (caution due to heat! Don’t burn yourself!) add chili flakes (optional)
6. Add 4 cups of broth and stir slowly, covering all tomatoes in the broth, reduce to simmer for 10 minutes
7. Add basil and thyme, again mixing slowly to add herbs to the whole pot
8. Using immersion blender on medium/ high setting, blend vegetables and broth together
9. When blended to desired consistency, mix in 2 cups of cream
10. Add salt & pepper to taste