Tomato Soup and Grilled Cheese

I'm fairly certain I've mentioned this before but the good wife is a huge fan of soup.  I think if I made enough she would eat it everyday.  On top of this is the fact that a good soup is a great aid in getting better when you are sick.  Making soup out of fresh ingredients or at least home grown and canned ingredients yields a tastier more effective soup.


A few weeks ago, I came down with something.  It was enough to keep me home from work for 2 days which is something that hasn't happened in over 30 years.  Sadly, the good wife caught whatever it was that I had and worse news is that she has a harder time getting over them than I do.  After a couple of days of feeling better she relapsed a bit yesterday.  When I got home I asked if she wanted soup for supper to warm her up since she was complaining of feeling cold.  When asked what kind of soup she wanted she said tomato.

A hot bowl of Tomato Soup

I'll throw this out right now, I'm not a fan of tomato soup.   That said, I set myself to find the best tomato soup recipe to fix for the good wife's supper.  I would eat left over kimchi soup for my supper.  In looking at recipes online I noticed one glaring fault, they all called for adding either sugar or honey.  Ostensibly this is to "cut the acidity of the tomatoes" and I'm guessing make the soup more palatable.  Considering how much sugar goes into commercially produced soups and sauces, I think they are trying to mimic that flavor so people will not know the difference between home made and commercially made.  In light of that, I put down the laptop and went to the kitchen to do my own thing.


Tomato Soup


1 quart canned tomatoes
1 quart chicken broth
1 medium onion, chopped, about 1.5 cups
6 Tbs butter
3-4 Tbs AP flour
1/2 cup heavy cream or half and half
1/2 tsp celery seed
1 tsp ground turmeric
1-2 tsp ground white pepper
salt to taste


Melt the butter in a stock pot then add the onion.  Cook the onion until it is just translucent.  Add the celery seed, turmeric, white pepper and 1.5 tsp salt and stir to combine.  Add the flour to the pot and stir then cook to form a light roux.  Add the tomatoes, juice included, to the pot and stir.  Add the chicken broth and stir.  Let the pot come to a boil and reduce to a simmer for 15-30 minutes.  Using an immersion blender, blend until the soup is smooth.  As an alternative, let cool and puree in a blender in batches.  Once the soup is smooth, stir in the heavy cream.  Taste and add more salt if desired.  Serve with a grilled cheese sandwich.  Makes 4 servings.

Let's eat!

I think it is one of those immutable laws of the universe that tomato soup has to be accompanied by a grilled cheese sandwich.  In this case, the bread was some that I'd made a couple of days before to go with a pasta dish.  I was going to use plain old sandwich bread until the good wife said she wanted it done with the leftover bread.  After seeing it, I was tempted  to make myself one to go with the kimchi soup and rice. 


Now, it's time to stir things up a bit.  I know that there are sandwiches being plastered all over the internet being called grilled cheese sandwiches.  In this, I'm strictly a purist.  A grilled cheese sandwich consists of 2 pieces of buttered bread on a hot griddle with cheese in between them.  I'll allow that some of those other sandwiches sound good, once you put something other than cheese in the middle it is no longer a grilled cheese sandwich.  OK, that was my rant to begin the new year.


It's time for another confession.  After tasting this soup, I think I could eat a bowl of tomato soup with a grilled cheese sandwich and like it.  I guess that was the problem before, trying commercially made soups.  The prime ingredient in this soup was a jar of tomatoes that were grown in my garden and canned by the good wife.  I'm certain though, that this soup would be good using good quality canned tomatoes from the store.

Give this soup a go the next time cold weather hits or someone in the house is feeling ill.  I think you'll like it as a warmer or a medicine.  Let me know how you like it.


Uncle T