Tomato Soup

We made tomato juice this week and had two quarts more than would fit it the canner so Bev decided to turn them into tomato soup.  We both grew up on Campbell’s Tomato Soup and like it’s strong tomato flavor, but most of the recipes we’ve tried all seem to use so much other liquid that they weaken the tomato flavor.

I had several bookmarked recipes and we decided to adapt the Tomato Bisque recipe from Chef Dennis over at Ask Chef Dennis.

Tomato Soup Ala Beverly

1cup chopped celery

1cup chopped onions

½ lb salted butter

½ cup all purpose flour

3 cups of chicken broth – made from the bones left over from last night’s dinner

2 qts of homemade tomato juice

1 tsp salt

1 tsp black pepper 

Begin by chopping the onions and celery.

In an 8 quart pan, melt the butter and add the chopped onion celery.

Allow the onions and celery to cook for a few minutes, then add the flour to the pan and mix well.

Turn down the heat and allow the veggies and roux to cook for about 5 minutes, do not let the roux get too dark or burn.

Heat the broth in another sauce pan and after the roux has cooked, add it to the roux, use a wire whip and mix well.

Now add the tomato juice and seasonings and allow to simmer for about 30 minutes.

If you have an immersion blender, after the soup has simmered, use it to puree as much of the product as possible, you can also transfer it to a food processor or blender, just be very careful with your hot soup!!  (The recipe called for straining at this point, but since the tomato seeds and skins were already gone from the juice, she just left the little veggie chunks in the soup).

Since we wanted more tomato flavor, she used less broth and since our juice is pretty thick she used less flour and she omitted the sugar per my request.  The original recipe called for the addition of cheese and cream and she had it ready to add, but when she tasted it prior to adding, she had just the flavor she was looking for in a tomato soup, so she omitted it. 

It was Pat’s (SIL) birthday and she came over for a supper of tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches at the dock – not your typical summer or BD meal, but how could you beat it for a special occasion.

I cooked the sandwiches on a griddle on the grill, which worked great as the closed grill lid helped melt the cheese.  They were made from Honey Wheat Berry bread, choice of Cabot Sharp Cheddar, Guggisberg Baby Swiss, and Smoked Gouda cheeses adorned with mayo, lettuce, sliced tomato, and dill pickle.  Here's mine and I used both Swiss and cheddar and it was hard to keep it together.

Both the sandwich and the soup were delicious and it was a great way to utilize some tomato juice and chicken broth we had available.  I've posted this before but think it's worth a repeat regarding the Guggisberg Swiss Cheese.  If you like baby swiss, which is much milder than it's adult counterpart, you should take a look at this - it's the original baby swiss cheese and we really like it.

After supper, the three of us and 4 dogs, piled onto the pontoon boat and headed out on the lake – one of the BD girl’s favorite things to do.  We ended up going about 5 miles up river to the Tellico Marina restaurant which has a band on Thursday - Saturday nights.  We just tied up along side the restaurant facing the band and sipped on the wine we'd taken along. 

It wasn't really our kind of music so a little past dusk we headed home passing the fiirst row of docked boats.

It turned out to be a really nice evening and I believe Pat enjoyed her simple BD get together.

Check out Chris' Nibble Me This blog for a great meal, an interview with Rick Browne and chance to win a copy of Rick's "1,001 Best Grilling Recipes".

All photos can be enlarged by clicking on them.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

One year ago:  Day Two Heading Toward New Orleans

Two tears ago:  It’s Beginning To Feel Like Fall

Larry