Homemade Tomato Soup
So with fall in the air one of my absolute cool weather meals is grilled cheese and tomato soup. I know it's popular with many. It's so comforting and keeps you nice and warm on a cold fall or winter day. It's definitely the perfect thing to have on a snow day and I always make sure the ingredients are on hand if I hear a storm is coming.
I wasn't sure if my picky toddler would like tomato soup. He could be weird with different textures and things outside of his normal day to day foods like most kids but I wanted to give it a try. The next time I went grocery shopping I got the fixings for grilled cheese and grabbed a big can of the classic Campbells tomato soup. He LOVED it, was even dipping his grilled cheese in the soup like a pro. I figured why not have it for dinner the following week as well. This time I grabbed the "heart healthy" Campbells soup and browsed the ingredients to see the differences in regular versus heart healthy. To my surprise there was high fructose syrup in BOTH kinds, even the "heart healthy". I couldn't believe it. How on earth is this can of soup "heart healthy" like it's promoting???
High fructose syrup is one of the worst things for you and an ingredient I have tried to limit and exclude from our daily foods at all costs. I even get natural ketchup now. During my transitioning to no high fructose syrup it was very shocking all the foods that have it in it that you wouldn't think did. Any new foods I go to pick up I always check the ingredients, but I didn't think I would have to check a can of tomato soup. This goes to show I need to look at ALL no matter what it is which is crazy.
Since the can of heart healthy tomato soup had high fructose syrup I browsed others and was able to find the tomato and rice that didn't have it. Odd since it's so very similar but I bought that. Again weird textures for my son, rice was one of them. He ate the soup still, but didn't touch the rice and didn't like when the rice got on his spoon even.
I realized then it was time to make a batch of homemade tomato soup and it came out great! Way more flavors and better ingredients.
The recipe calls for:
48 oz canned diced tomatoes
1/2 cup light cream
1/2 chicken or vegetable broth
1 tbs minced garlic
1 tbs oil of your choice (avocado oil for me)
spices - italian, oregano, pepper, salt
-- In a large stock pot, add oil and garlic. Cook for a few minutes on medium heat until the garlic begins to brown.
-- Add the tomatoes, light cream. broth and spices of your choice and to taste and mix all the ingredients. Once at a boil, lower the heat to simmer and mix occasionally for about 10 minutes.
-- Continue to simmer and use an immersed blender in the pot to break up the tomatoes. Use the blender until the soup becomes smooth and creamy.
-- Serve hot or cool then store in the fridge.
Enjoy!
Positive vibes,
Jenn
