Creamy Tomato Soup With Pesto

Submitted by Sharon123

"This is from 30 Minute Meals and is so good! Comfort food along with a grilled cheese sandwich or a patty melt. Enjoy!"

 

• Ready In: 35mins
• Ingredients: 17
• Serves: 4

ingredients

• 4 cups whole milk
• 3 (14 ounce) cans diced tomatoes, drained (or use fresh!)
• 2 tablespoons tomato paste
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• salt and pepper
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 4 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons butter, cut in pieces
• 1 stalk celery, coarsely chopped
• 2 cloves garlic

• Watercress and Hazelnut Pesto use 1/2 cup

• 12 12 ounces basil or 12 ounces cilantro
• 1⁄2 1/2 cup pine nuts or 1/2 cup pecans
• 1⁄2 cup extra virgin olive oil, eyeball it
• 2 cloves cracked garlic
• 1⁄4 teaspoon ground or grated nutmeg
• salt and pepper
• 1⁄2 cup grated parmesan cheese

directions

1. Heat the milk over moderate heat in a medium pot.
2. Put tomatoes, tomato paste, onions, salt and pepper, sugar, flour, butter, and celery into a food processor and grind until smooth.
3. Pour mixture into milk and raise heat to bring soup to a boil.
4. Reduce heat and then simmer 15 minutes.
5. While soup cooks, make pesto, if not using storebought.
6. Fill the food processor with watercress, loosely packed.
7. Add hazelnuts, 1/2 of the oil and garlic cloves to the watercress in the processor.
8. Add nutmeg, salt and pepper to the processor bowl, set lid in place and pulse grind the mixture into a thick paste.
9. Add any remaining watercress to the processor and grind into the paste by pulsing the processor again.
10. Transfer watercress paste to a bowl.
11. Stir in the remaining oil and the cheese.
12. Taste pesto sauce and adjust seasonings.
13. Pour soup into shallow bowls and add a couple of rounded spoonfuls of pesto to each dish and stir it into the soup.

Reviews

[AngBBY]

This soup is super simple and super delicious! I used store bought basil pesto and gave it a quick toss in the food processor altogether instead of adding it as a garnish. Great to warm up on a cold rainy or snowy day!

 

[mama smurf]

What a wonderful soup. This is so easy and tastes so yummy! I fixed this for lunch yesterday and I cut the recipe down for two of us...which I shouldn't have. Being a misty/wet day today I would love to have another dish. Followed the directions as given and definately will make this again. Made for Think Pink Cancer Awareness tag 2010 and Cook-A-Thon for Sharon 123. P.S. I made the pesto using basil, pine nuts and a little extra garlic....yummo!<br/>P.P.S. Was going to tag this yesterday for the Think Pink 2013 and realized I made this already...well I went ahead and made this again cutting it down for DH and I and this is as good as it was the first time. YUMMY! Thank you for posting. Oh yes, I realized I didn't give this any stars last time or they didn't stick...wish I could give more.

 

[Lorrie in Montreal]

Made for Photo Tag. In my opinion...no one should EVER open another can of tomato soup when this whips up in literally minutes and has fresh gorgeous flavours of tomato lightly enhanced by onion,garlic,celery and pesto. As you can see I REALLY liked it. LOL.If you're worried about preservatives in your food and want to cook healthy...go for this soup! I also think in place of the fresh garlic clove, a bit of raosted garlic would be delicious...and while we're at it...maybe a toasted piece of baguette floated on with a bit of cheese broiled on top *Voila...Au Gratin!*...Yikes I'm SO doing this next time! :)

 

[mliss29]

I just made the soup part, and it was really good! I overloaded my little food processor so it wasn't as smooth as I would have liked (and would have probably fooled my 3-year-old into thinking it was the junk from the can). Next time, I'll blend smaller batches before combining with the milk. This was "recipe-napped" in the *Vegetarian Recipe Swap* because I wanted to make tomato soup and where to look for a great recipe? Well, the Amazing Sharon has 1700+ recipes and all that I have tried of hers so far have been terrific! Hurray! Another great one!

 

[AQueen]

Delicious, quick and easy. I cheated and used pre-made pesto. I also garnished with crumbled gorgonzola and julienned roasted red peppers. It was wonderful both that night and as leftovers for lunch with a grilled cheese. GREAT recipe. Thank you!