Tomato Basil Soup

Sandi (From CA)'s Note:

Lovely soup with substance. Literally! Not "brothy" but rich... and probably not heathy either. I won't tell if you won't!

• Total Time: 55 mins
• Prep Time: 15 mins
• Cook Time: 40 mins

Ingredients:

Servings: 5

• 9 tomatoes , peeled, cored and chopped (about 4 cups, or the equivalent in canned tomatoes, crushed)
• 2 cups tomato juice (V8)
• 2 cups chicken stock
• 5 tablespoons fresh basil leaves , cleaned
• ½ pint heavy cream (1 cup)
• ¼ cup unsalted butter
• salt and pepper
• parmesan cheese (grated, to garnish)

Directions:

1. Simmer tomatoes, vegetable/tomato juice and stock in saucepan for 30 minutes.
2. Remove from heat and puree with the basil leaves using one of those handy dandy immersion blenders right in the cooking pan.
3. Return to low heat and stir while adding cream and butter.
4. Sprinkle each serving with grated parmesan and basil leaves. I like to float toasted fresh garlic-parmesan croutons!

Reviews

[sugarlovinmom]

Rally liked it. I essentially doubled it, subbing some of the tomatoes for juice since I had a huge can of juice to use. Also used about 9 1/2 t of dried basil, as I found a chart that suggested 1 T fresh basil = 1 t dried, but I might use a tad bit less next time. Also liked the parmesan addition as it gave a bit of substance. I think a bit of sweet sausage may be a nice optional addition for next time.

[IngridH]

Wonderful soup! I love the combination of tomato and basil, and the cream just takes it over the top. I used fresh roma tomatoes from the back yard, homemade chicken stock, and basil from the plants which are exploding in my herb garden. What a celebration of summer flavors! For the salt and pepper, I used 1 1/2 teaspoons of kosher salt, and approx 1/2 teaspoon of white pepper (so no dark flecks in the soup). I omitted the cheese, but added 1 tablespoon of red wine vinegar to brighten the flavors a little bit. Unlike other reviewers, I didn't find this to be heavy or overly rich, but just perfect for a creamy tomato soup. Thanks for posting a great recipe!

[tomsawyer]

Thanks for this delicious soup! I used a ton of tomatoes on this which was great because they were going to get really overripe. I found that it took a looong time to peel and chop all of them. So if you really want a quick meal, go with canned tomatoes. I had to pour my soup into an actual blender and it worked fine all the same. I also cut the heavy cream and butter in half, but it was still really rich. This didn't appeal to my brother as he only likes plain tomato soup, but everyone else really enjoyed it. Thanks for this great recipe.