Tomato Vegetable Soup

'Tis the season for fresh garden tomatoes.  It's the time I look forward to every year! You can do so much with them.  I usually home can tomatoes in one way or another each fall (salsa, a variety of spaghetti sauces, etc.), but the past few years I've been doing more and more just plain or stewed tomatoes.  I do this mostly because I LOVE to turn them into soup.  My kids and I absolutely adore this fresh tomato soup, but sometimes I like to make something a little more calorie friendly.  Enter this soup.

I don't tend to like soups that are really thin, they just don't fill me up.  I like my soups thick and tasty. That's what this soup delivers.  It still has that fresh tomato taste but the flavor is punched up with some extra veggies.  I love to serve it up with some fresh artisan bread or even a heaping spoonful of this Southwest Cabbage Slaw (which really needs it's own post by now).

Tomato Vegetable Soup
6-8 cups tomatoes, blanched, peeled and cored
3 carrots, chopped
1 green pepper, cut into 1-inch dice
1 small onion, cut into 1-inch dice
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp. smoked paprika
 2 cup chicken or vegetable stock
handful of fresh basil (about 1/2 cup or so loosely packed), roughly chopped
salt and fresh ground pepper, to taste

To blanch and peel tomatoes, bring a pot of water to a boil and fill a sink with ice water.  Score the tomatoes by making an "x" on them with a serrated knife. Drop about 4-5 tomatoes at a time in the boiling water for 60 seconds.  Remove from boiling water and immediately submerge in ice water.  Continue with remaining tomatoes.  Once tomatoes are cooled skins will slip off easily. remove core with knife or coring utensil.  Set tomatoes aside.

In a  large pot, heat a drizzle of olive oil.  Add chopped onion, carrot and peppers and saute over medium-high heat about 5-6 minutes.   Add garlic and paprika and saute another 60 seconds, making sure the garlic doesn't burn.  Next add tomatoes by crushing them in your fist over the pot as you put them in.  Add chicken stock and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat and simmer until veggies are tender; about 10-15 minutes.

Remove soup from heat, add fresh basil and puree to desired consistency.  You can either do this with an immersion blender or in a upright blender, blending by batches.  Check for seasoning and add salt and pepper, to taste. Feel free to add a splash of whole milk or heavy cream, although it's delicious without it.



SOURCE:  Adapted from Season with Spice