Cream of Tomato Soup

Everyone who gardens even a little bit understands this:

1. Grocery store produce just can not compare with really fresh produce.
2. When something is in season you have to eat it with EVERY MEAL. Okay, you don’t have to, but it will taste so good that you will anyways.

At our house, we have hit that stage with tomatoes. This is a version of my mother’s cream of tomato soup. We usually aren’t picky about the measuring so use this as a guide and adjust the flavours to suit yourself.

Similarly, if you (or your kids) love the store bought version of tomato soup you can blend it up with an immersion blender at the end. If you do this I recommend you use a white onion, white pepper, and leave the basil out. This will produce a pure red coloured soup without any flecks of dark.

However we like it chunky (maybe because it’s less work that way ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ) and spicy so we don’t bother blending it.

If Thai Basil isn’t your thing consider more traditional Italian spices such typical sweet basil, oregano, marjoram, etc.

Ingredients:

• 2 T butter
• 1 small onion
• 1/3 C Sweet Thai Basil
• 1 1/2 lbs saucing tomatoes(such as Juliet or Roma)
• 1/2 tsp ground pepper

Rue:

• 2 T butter
• 2 T flour
• 1 1/2 C milk

Directions:

1. Saute butter, onion and basil until onions are clear and cooked through.
2. Add coarsely chopped tomatoes. Cook the tomatoes down until they are liquidy and sauce like, before you move onto step 3.
3. Make the rue. In a separate pot melt the butter over medium heat. When it is liquid stir in the flour. Stir constantly for about a minute after this mixture starts to bubble.
4. Slowly add in the milk while stirring constantly (or whisking) until this milk mixture is hot and almost bubbling.
5. Now stir the tomato mixture into the rue. Heat through. Serve with a balsamic vinegar reduction for garnish.

Note:

• While making the rue, if you add the milk to the butter/flour mix too fast it will be more difficult to get a really smooth sauce. Add the milk bit by bit, stirring constantly to keep the mixture smooth the whole time.
• If you want to make your own balsamic vinegar reduction check out this recipe for instruction. We used this reduction on our Buckwheat Shoots pizza!