Back to Basics - Tomato Soup

Tomato soup is one of the best comfort food, and luckily its incredibly easy and quick to make.  My version is a little lighter than your average tomato soup - it doesn't use any cream and uses fresh tomatoes instead of canned.  If you want a richer soup, you can add extra tomato paste and add cream at the end of the cooking time.  

Lightened-up Tomato Soup

1 onion, chopped

2 carrots, peeled and chopped

1 rib celery, chopped

2 stalks/fronds of fennel, chopped (these are the tops of the fennel bulb -- its a great way to use the top of the fennel which has tons of flavor instead of just using the fennel bulb)

2 pounds of roma tomatoes, chopped (get the ripest tomatoes you can since they are the base of this soup)
1 tbsp fresh thyme, chopped
2 tbsp tomato paste
6 cloves of garlic, roasted (to roast the garlic, wrap the cloves in aluminum foil and top with a little olive oil and salt/pepper. tightly wrap the garlic in the foil and roast at 350 degrees until the garlic is completely tender and browned, approx. 30 minutes)
2 quarts of vegetable or chicken stock

use this part of the fennel for soup

Directions


To make the soup, first sauté the onions, fennel, carrots and celery in about 2 tbsp of olive oil. Sauté until the vegetables become translucent, about 10 minutes.  

the vegetables should go from looking like this....

to looking like this

Add the tomato paste and coat all the veggies in it.  Allow the tomato paste to cook, constantly stirring it for about 2 minutes.  Add the fresh thyme and about 1 tsp of salt and 1/2 tsp of pepper to the pot, stirring. Add the the roasted garlic.

the garlic should be browned, like this

Add the tomatoes and the stock. 

Bring the soup up to a boil and then reduce it to a simmer.  Allow the soup to simmer for at least 1/2 an hour, but if you have the time let it simmer for anywhere between 1-2 hours.  Use an immersion blender and puree the soup until its completely smooth.  Taste for seasoning - you might need to add extra salt and pepper to it.  If you have fresh basil add it before you puree the soup for a fresh tomato/ basil soup 

Sometimes using fresh tomatoes can be tricky - if they aren't perfectly ripe your soup can end up a little bitter. You can always substitute two 24 oz cans of good quality whole tomatoes for the fresh tomatoes.  If your soup is a little bitter, you can add a little bit of sugar to it to balance out the acidity of the tomatoes.