Homemade Tomato Soup

in Freezer Friendly, Soup, Stew, and Chili

Classic Tomato Soup

Honey, I’m siiiiiiick.

It’s the only warning shot that my husband gets before it all breaks loose.

It seems the stereotype is that grown men make the worst patients. I’m a terrible patient. I sniffle, I whine, I cough, I whine, and I build a miniature version of Mt. Rushmore out of balled-up Kleenexes. And then I whine some more. I think the only thing that could make me a worse patient is if I had one of those little bells to ring when I needed something. Or, you know, just wanted to whine to an audience.

Lucky for him, there is one thing that can shut me up: A steamy mug of tomato soup with a Cherry NyQuil chaser. It might be canned, condensed soup but I’ve always found Campbell’s Tomato Soup to have a certain healing effect. It’s completely smooth so you can drink it from a mug – who needs to be bothered with utensils when they’re running a fever of 101?

Classic Tomato Soup

I was unfortunate enough to experience the double-whammy that was the flu followed by an equally nasty cold. And equally unfortunate to not be able to find a single drop of soup in the house when my appetite returned. How sick was I? I was too sick to cook dinner the night before and I guarantee that I’ll be too sick to make dinner tonight but I wasn’t so sick that I couldn’t let the NyQuil fog clear to make myself homemade soup for lunch 🙂

I chose Martha Stewart’s recipe for its simplicity and cooking time – lengthy and complicated is fine, but not when you have a fever. It really hit the spot! Now if I could only get rid of this icky cough…

Classic Tomato Soup

Trade in the condensed can for a homemade classic tomato soup.

Ingredients

  • 2 Tbsp butter
  • 1 Tbsp olive oil
  • 1/2 medium onion, chopped
  • Coarse salt and ground pepper
  • 2 Tbsp cup all-purpose flour
  • 2 Tbsp tomato paste
  • 1 sprig fresh thyme
  • 14 1/2 oz reduced-sodium chicken broth
  • 28 oz crushed San Marzano tomatoes
  • 2 Tbsp fresh basil, chopped

Instructions

  1. In a 5-quart saucepan or Dutch oven, melt butter over medium heat; add oil and onion, and season with salt and pepper. Cook until onion is translucent, about 5 minutes. Stir in flour and tomato paste; cook 1 minute.
  2. To saucepan, add thyme, broth, and tomatoes, breaking up tomatoes with your fingers. Bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer, 30 minutes. Remove thyme sprig.
  3. Using an immersion blender, puree the soup in the pot or transfer the soup to a conventional blender and puree until mostly smooth; return to pot. Season with salt and pepper and stir in fresh basil. Serve immediately. Crushed Club Crackers and grilled cheese sandwich optional.

Notes

Yields: 3 servings

Adapted from Martha Stewart Living

Estimated time: 45 minutes

13 comments… add one
  • Hope you’re 100% better now!!

    Such a lovely shade of red for that tomato soup – yum!!

  • LOL! I’m pretty bad when it comes to wanting to be simply over-spoiled when I’m sick.
    I love my cherry Nyquil with a shot of Pellegrino water–always works for me.
    Hope you feel better soon.

  • This soup can cure anything I am sure! It looks so hearty and warming!

  • Hope you feel better soon… and with soup like that, I’m sure you will!! 🙂

  • Hope you are feeling better.

  • You can’t be that obnoxious of a sick person if you still cook! If you were really a terrible patient you’d make the hubs do it for you while yelling him directions the entire time and complaining he was doing it wrong.

  • Delia

    You sound exactly like me!! The soup sounds great.

  • I’m not a bad patient, but I am very sick this week. This soup would not only taste great but feel great on my sore throat. *Sniff*

  • I love tomato soup. Yours looks so delicious!

  • Hope you’re feeling better. The soup sure looks good!

  • What a beautiful cup of soup! Hmmm! Looks so tasteful!

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