Easy Homemade Tomato Soup

'Hi all:

Happy Thanksgiving to us here in Canada!  Ordinarily, I would be celebrating with my family with a turkey and all the fixin's, but alas, I came down with a very nasty cold a few days ago so I had to send my family off to celebrate without me.  They are enjoying a full turkey feast, while I am sitting home alone, waiting for the leftovers to come home.  I couldn't risk spreading this cold to my family members; I couldn't let the new baby in the family catch this, nor my brother in law, who has had severe breathing issues since last year. Instead, I am hunkered down with a box of Kleenex and decided to make myself some healthy, healing soup.  It always helps me feel better.

I had some leftover sun ripened field tomatoes and wanted to make myself some homemade tomato soup.  Now, I have made this before with my own cherry tomatoes, but this time, I used large, red, ripe, field tomatoes. Anytime I have seen recipes for homemade tomato soup, it seems so tedious and uses too many complicated steps ; ie. Blanch the tomatoes, skin the tomatoes, put the tomatoes through a sieve!!! Bah!!! Too much work.  I like hearty soups that are chunkier than canned and I have no aversion to tomato skins and seeds. What is the issue with those? Why does it seem these are verboten when it comes to tomato soup?  Well it doesn't have to be that way, with the recipe that I just created today (and it is probably healthier with the skins and seeds left intact).

Here is the simple recipe.

Rosie's Homemade Tomato Soup

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5-6 large field ripened tomatoes

2 c. Chicken stock

2 large carrots - peeled and cut into chunks

1/16 large sweet Walla Walla onion - finely diced

Salt and pepper to taste

1 tsp. sugar

1 small sprig fresh rosemary

2-3 pinches of garlic powder

1 c. Hot water

1 package chicken bouillon 

Splash (about 1/4 c.) of heavy cream

** Note: you need the sugar, carrots and sweet Walla Walla onion to counteract the tangy tomatoes

Wash and dice the tomatoes into pieces.

    Look at how beautiful and red these are. So flavourful! Now those are tomatoes!!

Add the tomatoes to a large stock pot and crush with a potato masher.

I used this much Rosemary from my garden. Add the rosemary, chicken stock (I used Campbell's), salt, pepper, garlic powder, carrots, onion and sugar to the tomatoes and stir. Bring to a boil, then turn to low and simmer for about 1 to 1 1 /2 hours, until carrots are cooked.  At this point, the liquid had reduced down so I added 1 package of chicken bouillon to 1 c. of hot water and added that to the soup. 

When carrots are cooked, use an immersion blender to blend the soup to a smooth consistency.  Add a splash of heavy (whipping) cream and blend again. Serve with a few croutons sprinkled on top.

I love the texture of this soup and actually love the seeds in it. You cannot even notice that the skins were left on the tomatoes.  It all works! Enjoy!!

This was my lonely Thanksgiving dinner!!

Rosie