Creamy Tomato Basil Parmesan Soup

There is a very good reason for my long post hiatus.

I’d bore you with the details if I thought that it even mattered, but to be honest, I figure you all would rather one good, quality post with a delicious recipe or food event, instead of a glorified picture of a bowl from Chipotle. Or a picture of my Chinese food. Or a picture of the deli meat I ate for a snack. You don’t come here just to see what I’m eating, but rather what I’m cooking.

So, no major stories or anything, but I can assure you that there are a minimum of five stellar posts coming, at least two giveaways, and one very chocolate-centric post!

But for now: tomato soup.

It’s fall here, finally. Like officially, leaves-changing, pumpkins everywhere, apple-picking fall! Fall means soup. My friend Heidi sent me this recipe for crock pot tomato basil parmesan soup and said it was “the best soup ever.”

That meant I had to try it. And I didn’t have time for a crock pot, so I adjusted the recipe for stove top and immediate cooking.

Finely chopped veggies:

Lower-fat options including a substitute of evaporated skim milk instead of the cream, real parmesan cheese, and of course, fresh tomatoes. Lots of fresh tomatoes. Oh, and super-crispy grilled cheese sandwiches cut into tiny cubes as croutons.

It really was, once I got the seasoning right, the best tomato soup I’ve ever had. I wouldn’t recommend using salt-free chicken stock, especially if using fresh tomatoes, since we had to add a significant amount of salt.

But, added salt aside, this was delicious. I ate it for days, shared it, and really loved having a delicious homemade soup at my disposal for nearly a week.

Creamy Tomato Basil Parmesan Soup

From 365 Days of Slow Cooking

My adaptations are in red

2 (14 oz) cans diced tomatoes, with juice (about 2 lbs. fresh tomatoes)

1 cup finely diced celery

1 cup finely diced carrots

1 cup finely diced onions

1 tsp dried oregano or 1 T fresh oregano

1 T dried basil or 1/4 cup fresh basil

4 cups broth

½ bay leaf

½ cup flour (I used whole wheat)

1 cup Parmesan cheese

½ cup butter (2 Tablespoons)

2 cups half and half, warmed (One can evaporated skim milk plus 1/2 cup skim milk)

1 tsp salt

¼ tsp black pepper

Directions

This recipe blog post has been Digiproved © 2012

Tagged as: bread, soup, tomato, vegetables, vegetarian