Tomato soup

My cooking skills are noticeably improving, as I stay at home and make meals from scratch most days. I'm not going to say that the days of boxed macaroni and cheese are gone, but they're definitely taking a break while I'm out of work.

The fall specialty is turning out to be soups. Great in the cold weather, and perfect for using up all the harvest that Grandma S. and my MIL give us each week.

This weekend I played with tomato soup and made a variation of a recipe I found on another blog (I'll share the link when I find it again). It was fantastic, and here it is:

1 large onion, sliced up
3 or 4 garlic gloves, diced
3 medium potatoes, sliced (I think I used red potatoes)
A bunch of tomatoes, sliced - I leave the peels on (I probably used 7 or 8 medium sized tomatoes and a hand full of cherry tomatoes)
2 cups of vegetable broth
1 can of white beans, drained
1 Tbsp of brown sugar
Salt & pepper to taste, fresh basil to garnish

The point of this recipe is to use up a bunch of tomatoes, so add as many as you want and just eyeball-adjust everything else accordingly.

In the pot you'll make your soup in, heat olive oil and toss in onions. Heat until soft, add garlic and cook them together for a couple minutes. Add potatoes for a couple minutes. Then throw in the broth and tomatoes, put the lid on and let it all simmer for about half an hour (until the potatoes are soft all the way through). Add the beans, and puree the soup. I did this by sticking my hand mixer in the pot and stirring it all up, but you could also pour it a bit at a time into a blender. Return it to the stove top, salt and pepper and stir in the brown sugar. Add a few basil leaves to each bowl when you dish it out.

I really, really despise tomato soup from a can, but this stuff is actually pretty good. I like how the potatoes and beans give it texture.

Enjoy!

Love, J