Cream of Garden Tomato Soup - Pressure Cooker - West

Mrs Goodall's Note:

Like most gardners I ended up with more tomatoes than I could use! Was looking for a nice fall weekend lunch and DH wanted grilled cheese sandwiches. Ahhh! Cream of tomato soup! That's what I could make. Looking at my traditional cookbooks, most of the recipes would take about 2 hours and used canned tomatoes. Too long to wait and I had fresh. I looked in my "Pressure Cooker Gourmet" by Victoria Wise and found this gem. The flavor is fabulous and it is extremely easy to make. This recipe lends itself to all kinds of additions...we added a chopped jalapeno and after cooking chopped basil. I strongly recomend the basil. You could also top with a drizzle of sour cream. Add oregano or cumin. All kinds of options with this soup. The cookbook gave a number of options for dealing with the tomato skins. I opted for the easiest and wouldn't do it any other way. I did not peel or seed the tomatoes. When the soup was done cooking I used my immersion blender to puree. The next step was supposed to be running the soup through a food mill, which I did, but there was no peels left to strain. I guess the immersion blender chopped them up. I thought we'd find seeds, but nope. You can peel them if you like, you can also use a blender or food processor to puree. If after pureeing you find any peels, just strain the soup or run through a food mill with the finest blade. This soup also freezes well. And of course the best accompaniment with this soup is a grilled cheese sandwich!

• Total Time: 1 hrs
• Prep Time: 30 mins
• Cook Time: 30 mins

Ingredients:

Servings: 4

• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 large yellow onion, finely chopped (you can also use a white onion)
• 3 lbs tomatoes, coarsely chopped
• 2 teaspoons fresh thyme, chopped (or 1 teaspoon dried)
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper, freshly ground
• 1/2 cup chicken broth (or vegetable broth or water)
• 3/4 cup heavy cream

Directions:

1. Heat the oil and butter in the pressure cooker over medium high heat until the butter melts. Add the onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until wilted, about 5 minutes.
2. Add the tomatoes and their juices, thyme, salt, pepper, and broth and stir to mix.
3. Lock on the lid and bring to pressure over high heat, about 4 minutes.
4. Reduce heat to medium and cook for 15 minutes.
5. Remove from the heat and let sit for 10 minutes to finish cooking (this step also lets the cooker cool down so that the later release of steam is minimal).
6. With the steam vent pointed away from your face, gently release any remaining pressure. Let cool enough to remove lid.
7. Use immersion blender to puree soup (or transfer soup to blender or food processor and puree in smaller batches to avoid buring yourself).
8. If after blending you see any chunks of tomato peel, put soup through strainer or food mill to remove.
9. If using right away, place soup in large pan and stir in cream. Reheat gently without boiling then add garnish of choice and serve.
10. If not using right away, store in the refigerator until ready to use; then stir in the cream, heat and serve.

Reviews

[pichinko]

This was great! Perfect proportion of liquid. I sauteed the onions to the point of carmelizing them, which gave it a nice flavor.