Joey's Spiced Tomato Soup

 

                  

 

 Many years ago, my school pal, Kathleen, gave me a FABULOUS recipe for tomato soup. It was rich and decadent and SO indulgent with lots of butter and cream included in the recipe. Absolutely delicious.

 But recently I was having a few friends over for a little bonfire get together, and I knew I wanted to do a tomato soup, but maybe not so heavy with cream this time. Plus, I wanted a recipe that I could preserve in jars for my pantry, which means no dairy. So instead of scaling back Kathleen's recipe, I decided to come up with something entirely different. As always, I researched a bunch of recipes, and took inspiration from them. Then I tweaked them here and there to make it my own. And this was the result!

 It's definitely still rich and smooth, so you don't even miss the heavy cream, and it has just the right amount of warm heat on the tail end. The secret ingredient? just a little bit of curry powder. BOOM! This was the AHA moment that says "this is a tomato soup, not just a big bowl of marinara sauce." Perfectly warm and comforting on a crisp Autumn night by the bonfire with cherished friends!

 You'll definitely want to keep this in your repertoire. In fact, make a double batch, and then freeze half. Or do like I do and pressure can it in pints. Then all you need to do is heat it up while you're making your grilled cheese sandwiches. Fabulous. I hope you like it!

 

4 cups peeled whole tomatoes (either your own, or canned)
2 cups peeled roasted red bell peppers (fresh roasted or store bought)
1 large onion, chopped
5 ribs celery, chopped
4 cups chicken broth
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 tsp curry powder
1 tsp dried basil
2 tbs sugar
2 tbs lemon juice


  Simply add all ingredients to a large soup pot. Simmer about 30-45 minutes, stirring every so often.
Use a hand blender to puree all until smooth. (Or do small batches in a regular blender, but be careful! It's hot!) Taste the soup and adjust seasoning, if needed. Keep warm over low heat until ready to serve. 

And that's all there is to it! 

Serve with grilled cheese sandwiches. Or even more fun, cut up your grilled cheese sandwiches into small pieces (as pictured) and use them as bite sized croutons or dunkers. So good!

Optional serving suggestions: You can still add a pat or two of butter or up to a cup of heavy cream to make it richer, or add a pinch of crushed red pepper flakes for a little extra spicy hit.

 

Tips:

  If you don't have fresh peeled tomatoes, then just use canned whole or crushed. You're going to puree everything anyway, so it all works. I used fresh tomatoes because I always keep a supply of my own home canned Jersey tomatoes on the shelf. And I also used my own home roasted peppers. The most important thing with the tomatoes and peppers is to make sure they're peeled. I tried making a batch just adding both without peeling them, and it just wasn't the right texture. Using peeled tomatoes solved that problem! Another solution would be to use a high powered blender. That would definitely make short work of the tomato and pepper skins!

  If it becomes too thick, just add a little more broth, some tomato juice, or even just water, a little at a time, until you reach your desired consistency.

  If you want to make it ahead of time, simmer and blend the soup as directed, but if you're planning to add cream, don't add it until you're ready to serve. This way it'll stay nice and velvetty smooth. Otherwise the citric acid in the lemon juice might make the cream break. And nobody wants that!

 To make it vegetarian, just use veggie broth.

 To make it vegan, use veggie broth and leave out the cream! It'll still be fabulous!