Tomato Soup with Grilled Cheese Croutons
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Cook Time: 45 minutes
- Total Time: 50 minutes
- Yield: 4 servings 1x
- Category: Soup
- Cuisine: Dinner
- Diet: Vegetarian
Description
The first Meatless Monday of the New Year! And it’s a good one! As I said the other day when I posted up my New England clam chowder recipe, tomato soup is one of my top five favorite soups! And it’s just so much better when you make it from scratch.
Just like when I make spaghetti, penne vodka, or any other tomato based sauce, the best way to make tomato soup from scratch is to throw all the ingredients in a large Dutch oven pot and roast them. Tomatoes, shallots, lots of garlic, and fresh herbs and boom! super flavorful soup!
After everything is done roasting, it all gets pulverized in a blender. Now, for me personally, I do not like tomato soup to be gritty, so I strain it through a fine-mesh colander straight back into the Dutch oven. It takes some work to get all the liquid through the colander. I take a spoon and scrape back and forth across the colander to work all the liquid through, then scrape underneath to get any soup still clinging to the colander. You’ll know your done when you have pulp smeared across the colander and when you run the back of a spoon across it, no more liquid squeezes through. If you don’t mind the grit, skip this step! My husband actually prefers it… but I’m the chef, so we do it my way 😉.
Once all the grit is removed, I add milk, heavy cream, pesto (for more basil goodness!), and a pinch of cayenne pepper. Have you ever made tomato soup with a hint of cayenne? If not, you have to try it. It doesn’t make the soup spicy. It just adds a very, very subtle edge to the soup, but at the same time, completely transforms the soup, bringing it to a whole new level! I cannot believe how much it transforms the soup!
Most times, I’ll make a grilled cheese sandwich, coated in mayonnaise for the perfect golden brown. But this time, I wanted to switch things up. I had a hankering for grilled cheese croutons, so I made them using Texas Toast and yellow Vermont cheddar! Vermont and Wisconsin cheddars are hands down the best cheddars you can get… except for maybe Kerrygold. The Irish are pretty damn good with cheese too! Anywho, I digress.
You can grill up the Texas Toast in a griddle pan or any convenient frying pan. After it’s done, just cut the sandwiches into bite sized pieces. At this point, you may be asking, why bother? Why not just have them as sandwiches? Well, because topping the soup with little bite size croutons allows the bread to soak up just enough soup for a deliciously cheesy mouthful of soup with each spoonful. It’s soooo good.
This comes together pretty quickly. Most of the time is roasting the tomatoes, which means hands on time isn’t much! Which means, awesome weeknight dinner!
Enjoy!
Ingredients
15 Roma tomatoes, halved
2 large shallots, halved
10 garlic cloves
1 TB fresh thyme
1 TB fresh oregano
2 TB basil
½ cup whole milk
½ cup heavy whipping cream
3 oz pesto
⅛ tsp cayenne pepper
salt and pepper
1 box of butter, garlic Texas toast
8 oz yellow Vermont cheddar, shredded
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 450°
In a large Dutch oven or heavy bottomed pot, add the tomatoes, shallots, garlic, thyme, oregano, and basil. Bake for 40 minutes.
While the tomatoes are roasting, prepare the grilled cheese. Heat a griddle pan or large frying pan over medium heat. Place half of the Texas toast pieces butter side down into the pan. Evenly divide the cheese among the slice and top with the remaining pieces. Cover with aluminum foil and place a grill press on top. Cook for about 4 minutes per side, or until golden brown and the cheese has melted. Remove from the pan and cut into bite size pieces on a cutting board. Cover with aluminum foil to keep warm.
When the tomatoes have finished roasting, remove and transfer everything to a blender. Process until smooth. Place a fine meshed colander over the Dutch oven and slowly pour in the soup. Use a wooden spoon to strain the soup through, scraping the bottom until all of the soup has been processed through and thoroughly squeezed out of the pulp. Place the Dutch oven on the stove over medium heat. Add the whole milk, heavy whipping cream, pesto, and cayenne pepper. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Bring the soup to a simmer.
Dish the soup into bowls and top with grilled cheese croutons. Serve immediately. Enjoy!
Keywords: tomato soup, tomato soup from scratch, tomato soup and grilled cheese, tomato soup and grilled cheese croutons
