Fresh Tomato Soup

Many people find themselves with the end-of-the-summer tomato deluge - if this is you, try making this soup. I've also considered making the base first, freezing it and waiting to make the roux until I have thawed the base and am ready to serve the soup. I think that may taste better than freezing the whole thing, but I haven't tried either yet because we never have any leftovers.

I found this recipe last year because I had a ton of tomatoes to use up. I'm so glad I decided to give it a try because I never knew how good freshly made tomato soup could taste! I've tried to make homemade spaghetti sauce a few times, and while it's OK frankly, I've never made a sauce that made my face light up and say "oh my gosh, that's GOOD".

However, this tomato soup did just that. And even better, it's very easy to make. The original recipe is from Allrecipes.com and you can see it here or the original recipe is below.

Garden Fresh Tomato Soup by Charlotte (original recipe)

4 cups chopped fresh tomatoes
1 slice onion
4 whole cloves
2 cups chicken broth
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons white sugar, or to taste

DIRECTIONS

In a stockpot, over medium heat, combine the tomatoes, onion, cloves and chicken broth. Bring to a boil, and gently boil for about 20 minutes to blend all of the flavors. Remove from heat and run the mixture through a food mill (or strainer) into a large bowl, or pan. Discard any stuff left over in the food mill.

In the now empty stockpot, melt the butter over medium heat. Stir in the flour to make a roux, cooking until the roux is a medium brown. Gradually whisk in a bit of the tomato mixture, so that no lumps form, then stir in the rest. Season with sugar and salt, and adjust to taste.

Noelle's variations:

I blanched and peeled the tomatoes before chopping them. To make peeling the tomatoes painless cut a small "x" in the bottom of the tomato, plunge into boiling water for 30 seconds then transfer immediately to a bowl filled with ice water. Let it sit for a few minutes and the peel will slide right off.

I use a whole medium-sized onion (not one slice)
I omit the cloves (spice)
I add 2-4 sliced cloves of garlic (depending on your tastes)
I omit the added salt and sugar
Also, since my little guy is milk allergic I use Earth Balance spread for the roux and it works great.

I use tomatoes from the garden and you just can't go wrong. It's a wonderful soup, easy to make and it's even healthy to boot. Let me know what you think!