Today is one of those transition-to-spring days. Warm enough to tantalize you, but cold enough that you wouldn’t want to stay outside for long. I thought it seemed like a soup-for-lunch day. JR thought it seemed like a sandwich (with melted cheese) day. What’s the perfect meet-in-the-middle lunch? Tomato soup with grilled cheese, of course!
I did a quick search for recipes that I could make quickly and with ingredients I had on hand. I settled on this recipe … some day I’d love to have my own standard, go-to, throw-it-together tomato soup recipe. This was good but, to be honest, it wasn’t “it.” Not sure what it was missing; maybe it would have been better if I’d followed the recipe, but I didn’t have celery seed or even any of the substitutes that I googled for celery seed. I also used regular-acid tomatoes and substituted evaporated milk for the half-n-half and regular milk.
This was very tasty, though; I’ll definitely make it again and maybe try to follow the recipe. You can’t beat a very tasty soup made with common ingredients and thrown together in 10 minutes, regardless of the time of year.
Tomato Soup
28 ounces, fluid San Marzano Crushed Tomatoes [I used regular canned, chopped tomatoes]
1 cup Half-and-half [I substituted 1 12-oz can of evaporated milk for the half-and-half and the milk]
1 cup Milk
2 teaspoons Dried Basil
1 teaspoon Dried Granulated Onion
½ teaspoons Celery Seed
½ teaspoons Kosher Salt
½ teaspoons Finely Ground Black Pepper
Basil Oil, To Drizzle Over Soup [I omitted this, but you could definitely use it and make the meal quite a bit more fancy]
Combine all ingredients together in a medium saucepan and heat, stirring occasionally. Puree with an immersion blender. Drizzle with basil oil and serve.