Creamy Tomato Basil Soup

I have struggled to like tomatoes. I'm ashamed to admit it, being the food geek that I am, I feel that it's weak of me to have any distinct distaste for common ingredients. For instance, I can't stand horseradish. This isn't a huge deal, I mean, how often do you use the stuff? But tomatoes, different story. I'm proud to say I'm overcoming this issue through sheer determination and I think tomatoes and I will be pals from here forward. I should probably blame my mother, as she never once made tomato soup when I was growing up. She passed her tomato prejudice on to me...unknowingly. She's such a good mama though. I'll forgive her, for she is also the one that taught me to be relentless in overcoming my weaknesses.

So, this soup was the start of my tomato appreciation journey. It is seriously the BEST! You can do so many things to make this soup your own, but I encourage you to make it once this way and then decide if you want to get creative and make it your own. Mostly because I want you to just try it this way once, it's such a happy soup! This is of course best served with a hot gooey grilled cheese sandwich.

Ingredients:

1 cup chopped onion

2 cloves of garlic, crushed or finely chopped

1/4 cup butter

4 pounds fresh tomatoes, peeled, seeded & chopped

1 can of Fire Roasted diced tomatoes

2 tablespoons tomato paste

1 teaspoon salt

1/3 Cup Fresh basil (finely chopped)

1 tsp. fresh thyme

1/2 tsp. pepper

4 cups chicken broth

1 cup heavy whipping cream

Directions:

In a 3-qt saucepan over medium heat, saute onion and garlic in butter until tender.

Add fresh tomatoes, fire roasted tomatoes, tomato paste, salt, basil, thyme & pepper. Simmer 10 min., stirring occasionally.

Add chicken broth and bring to a boil, stirring constantly.

Reduce heat; cover & simmer for 30 min or until tomatoes are tender. Remove from heat.

You have a couple choices here. I like this soup thick and chunky, so I just proceed. Alternately you can use an immersion blender and blend it so that it's smooth.

Lastly, Stir in cream and serve.

Makes 6 servings.