Cream of Tomato Soup With Green Chilies and Cilantro Pesto
- Ready In:
- 1hr 45mins
- Ingredients:
- 26
- Serves:
-
4-6
ingredients
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 6 stalks celery, chopped
- 1 leek, chopped (white part only)
- 1 onion, chopped
- 3 lbs tomatoes, chopped (ripe or canned)
- 2 cups chicken stock or 2 cups chicken broth
- 2 tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped
- 1⁄2 cup fresh basil, chopped
- 3 bay leaves
- 3 sprigs thyme or 1 teaspoon dried thyme
- 3 sprigs marjoram or 1 teaspoon dried marjoram
- 6 tablespoons butter
- 6 tablespoons flour
- 2 cups half-and-half
- 4 poblano chiles or 4 anaheim chilies, roasted,peeled,seeded and diced
- 2 tomatoes, peeled,seeded and diced (I usually don't bother peelling tomatoes)
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- salt
- white pepper
-
For the Cilantro Pesto
- 2 cups fresh cilantro leaves
- 1⁄2 cup fresh parmesan cheese, grated
- 1⁄3 cup pumpkin seeds, hulled
- 1⁄4 cup olive oil
- 5 teaspoons lemon juice
- 5 cloves garlic, chopped
- 1⁄2 teaspoon salt
directions
- Heat oil in large saucepan or dutch oven over medium low heat. Add celery, leek and onion and cook for 15 minutes or until vegetables are tender.
- Add next 7 ingredients (tomatoes- marjoram) and simmer for 45 minutes or until vegetables are tender.
- Strain soup, pressing on solids to extact as much liquid as possible, discard solids.
- In same saucepan as used to make tomato broth/soup, melt butter over medium-low heat. Add flour and whisk for about 10 minutes.
- Whisk in soup and simmer for 20-30 minutes or until thickened.
- Stir in half and half and continue simmering until heated through.
- Add chilie, tomatoes, 2 tablespoons pesto, sugar, salt and pepper.
- To make pesto: MIx all pesto ingredients (cilantro- salt) together in a food processor for 2 minutes until smooth. Store in jar in refrigerator (can be kept in refrigerator for 2 weeks or frozen).
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Reviews
-
This is a sophisticated version of my favorite cream of tomato soup...Mom never served this! I had to make some alterations to the recipe because I didn't have some of the ingredients..only a couple stalks of celery, whole milk instead of 1/2 and 1/2,and no fresh chilies, so I used canned...but the finished product was delicious anyway. The pesto was my favorite aspect of this soup and I know it will be drizzled on other things as well. I think it's the pumpkin seeds that create such a mysterious taste. We had this reheated the next day, enjoying the leftovers. thanks ellie2!
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<p>I love cooking and trying different foods, but my favorite cookbooks are now Weight Watchers or low fat/low cal cookbooks as I tend to try and make low fat/low cal recipes. I lost over 90 pounds on Weight Watchers and have maintained for over a year now -- so my cooking/eating habits have changed drastically following my weight loss and to keep it off!</p>