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grilled cheese & tomato soup

Grandma's Homemade Tomato Soup (with a slight variation)

The variation from Grandma's recipe is the use of the V8 juice and the blender. Grandma liked her tomato soup with a few chunky tomatoes and quite frankly she did not have an immersion blender, but she did use her potato masher to mash the tomatoes. Grandma also added diced celery but I like to use the V8 in place of the celery. Many times I would watch Grandma use her hands to squish the fresh garden tomatoes into the soup pot if she had fresh tomatoes from her garden. I much prefer the canned diced variety for convenience but I have used fresh. They are equally delish. Grandma also used about 1/4 cup of sugar, but I cut the sugar to a little over a tablespoon a long time ago. :)

Ingredients
  

  • 4 cups tomatoes (fresh, canned, whole or diced) I use diced
  • 3 tbsp1 butter
  • 2 cups V8 Juice (Or you can use canned tomato juice)
  • 1/2 cup Onion (diced)
  • 1/2 tsp garlic powder
  • 1/2 tsp basil (can use chopped fresh basil if desired)
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/2 tsp pepper
  • 1/4 tsp red pepper or red pepper flakes
  • 2 tbsp flour
  • 1 1/2 tbsp sugar
  • 1 cup cream (or half & half)

Instructions
 

  • In heavy dutch oven, heat butter until melted
  • Add the onions and spices and stir until the onions are translucent
  • Stir in the flour cooking over medium to low heat until the flour is cooked, about 3-4 minutes. (You don't want the taste of raw flour in your soup.)
  • Add the V8 juice and tomatoes and cook stirring occasionally for about 3 minutes
  • Turn off heat. Using a hand blender, blend the soup until the tomatoes are all liquid
  • Add the cream and stir over medium heat until well blended and hot.
  • Before serving, Top with croutons, tortilla strips or chopped fresh basil