Cream of Roasted Tomato Soup with Grilled Cheese Croutons

It was quite blustery and chilly tonight. It made for a perfect night for warming soups, which is exactly what was on the menu at my cooking group gathering tonight. It's been a while since I attended an event so it was nice to see familiar faces and meet new people as well. It's always an interesting group of women that get along great.


I was a little worried about this event because I don't do soups. It's just not something that I frequently make so I'm not an expert on it. I know, it's soup - you just cut stuff up, add broth, let it simmer and it's done - but still, I was worried. I wanted to go for something really simple because I would have to make it on a weeknight and I didn't want to use my slow cooker. I decided on tomato soup because I wanted an excuse to make grilled cheese croutons! They've been popping up everywhere so I had to. There sure are a lot of different ways to make tomato soup but I'm so glad I came across this recipe. It cannot get any simpler than this. Very minimal work on your part - the machines do everything for you!



Do not use canned tomatoes for this, please. I would actually advise everyone not to use canned tomatoes at all, but I sometimes resort to them because of convenience. But since this soup's flavor comes from the tomatoes, they should be fresh and juicy ones. I was surprised at the end result of the soup as it had a lot of flavor despite being so simple, and I even used just water. You can make it as thick or as thin as you'd like by adding more bread or water, so it's very adjustable. I love dunking my grilled cheese into tomato soup so the croutons just eliminate getting my hands greasy from buttery bread. It's a unique way to serve up a classic.



Cream of Roasted Tomato Soup
From Family Style Food

3 tbsp olive oil

1/2 large white or yellow onion, sliced

2 lb small vine-ripened tomatoes, sliced in half

1 tsp salt, plus additional to taste

1/2 tsp sugar

1 clove garlic, thinly sliced

Freshly ground black pepper

2 or 3 thick slices peasant-style bread, crusts trimmed

3 tbsp grated Parmigiano Reggiano or Parmesan

1 to 2 cups vegetable broth or water

Heat oven to 425F. Pour olive oil into a baking dish or pan that will hold the tomatoes snugly. Scatter onion slices evenly over the bottom. Arrange the tomatoes cut side up over the onion and sprinkle with the salt and sugar. Roast for 20 minutes. Scatter the garlic over the tomatoes and roast for about 10 more minutes – the tomatoes and onion should be soft and golden and their juices bubbling. Season the tomatoes with the black pepper to taste and cool 10 or 15 minutes.

Transfer the tomatoes to a blender or food processor. Tear the bread slices into small chunks and add to the tomatoes along with the cheese. Add enough broth or water to barely cover the tomatoes – it will depend on how juicy the tomatoes are after roasting. Puree until smooth, in batches if necessary, adding more bread and/or liquid to achieve a consistency you like. Taste for seasoning.

For the grilled cheese croutons, melt some butter in a pan. Place a slice of bread in pan and let it brown. Set aside. Melt some more butter and place another slice of bread in pan. Top with 2 slices of your choice of cheese and the toasted slice of bread you set aside earlier. To flatten, place foil on top of sandwich and press down with another pan. Let go and let brown. Slice into 1-inch squares.

Tomato Bread Soup

This layout is temporary, just until I find what I like which will probably take me a while. I don't have Photoshop, but every computer at my school has it, so I'm gonna try to do something when I go back! That's in a month, so hopefully I'll have a semi-permanent layout up right after that.

Here is another from my Go-To Vegetarian Recipe Collection. I remember seeing this recipe and thought it should be a great one. First off, I love bread. And in a soup?! I mean, I eat bread with soup all the time so why not just combine them? I love tomatoes too. Especially when they are fresh and firm and sometimes sprinkled with sugar.

Up until now, I've been making this recipe another way. It reads that I should blend the tomatoes after cooking them until they are mushy. I didn't have access to a blender before, so I just diced the tomatoes into small pieces so that when they are mushy, I can squish them to look as if they had been blended or just eat it. With no blending, the soup has a clear broth with juices from the tomatoes. It was delicious and refreshing.

But since now, I do have access to a wonderful blender (Hamilton Beach Wave Maker!), I decided to follow the original instructions. While the clear broth was refreshing, I always prefer a nice thick, creamy soup. Blending the tomatoes gave this soup just that texture and I loved it. I added one cup less of water so it'll be thicker. This is really my favorite to make when I see tomatoes on sale!



Quality tomatoes are what will make this soup great. The Wegman's around here was having a sale on local Jersey tomatoes so I went for those. These were so easy to cut through and firm and sweet even without the sugar. Tomatoes I've bought from other markets never yield to my knife. For the bread, you can use any kind. I usually use whole wheat sandwich bread, but a nice crusty baguette or even Italian bread would be even better. I promise this is good, especially if you're a tomato fan.

Tomato Bread Soup [Makes 3 servings]
Adapted from Tasty Palettes

- 1 small onion, chopped
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- Pinch of red pepper flakes
- 1 1/2 lb tomatoes, chopped
- Salt, to taste
- Parsley
- 1 cup water
- 1 bay leaf
- 2 cups bread, cubed

1. In a saucepan, cook the onion, garlic, and red pepper flakes under tender. Add the chopped tomatoes and salt and cook until mushy.
2. Take away from heat and throw in a handful of fresh parsley (or dried parsley flakes is what I used). Blend the mixture with an immersion blender or in a regular blender.
3. Pour back into saucepan and add the water. Bring to a boil. If you want to use the bay leaf, you can add it at this point. I like just a slight taste so I take it out after a minute. Lower heat to medium and add the bread cubes. Let the bread soak the juices and fall apart. Add more water if necessary.
4. Serve, garnished with grated cheese, black pepper, etc.