Simple and Easy Tomato Soup

Our tomato plant has proven very productive in the past several days.  When you gather a dozen or more tomatoes a day you have to think about what you are going to do with them; and quickly.  You don't want them to go bad.

Our tomato plant is a Roma tomato.  I prefer this type of tomato for sauces and soups.  Today they are for soup.

The first thing you want to do is peel the tomatoes.  These Romas seem to have a really tough skin.

Drop the tomatoes in boiling water for 3 minutes or until you see the skin begin to split open.  Once the tomato skin is splitting, plunge them in a bowl of ice water.

In a 2 quart saucepan, melt the butter and saute the onions.

 

Add the tomatoes that you have peeled and quartered

Add the carrots

thyme

 parsley

 

 and the chicken broth

Bring to a boil, lower the heat the simmer, covered, for 15 to 20 minutes

Run all of this through a food mill to press the good juices out and eliminate the solids.

 You end up with the most wonderful broth

Add a little bit of cream to give the soup some richness.  This, in no way, makes it a thick creamy soup.  It's still on the brothy side.

 What you end up with is a beautiful, creamy broth that pairs perfectly with a grilled cheese sandwich.

Simple and Easy Tomato Soup
Adapted from a recipe from "The Soup Bible"

Serves 4

Ingredients:
2 Tbsp. butter
1 medium yellow onion
2 pounds plum tomatoes

2 carrots
2 Tbsp. chopped fresh parsley
1/2 tsp fresh thyme leaves
2 cups chicken stock
5 Tbsp. whipping cream
salt & pepper to taste
Thyme leaves for garnish

Mise en Place:

• prepare an ice water path in a large mixing bowl
• drop tomatoes into boiling water for three minutes then plunge into bowl of ice water
• peel the tomatoes and quarter
• chop onion
• peel carrots and chop
• chop fresh parsley
• strip thyme leaves from stems 
• measure out chicken stock

 Method:
Melt butter in a 2 quart saucepan.  Add the onion and cook for 5 minutes until soft.

Add tomatoes, carrots, parsley, thyme and chicken stock to the pot.  Bring to a boil.  Lower heat and place a lid on the pot.  Simmer mixture for 15 to 20 minutes until all of the vegetables are tender.

Use the smallest holed disk of your food mill.  Place the food mill over a mixing bowl and pour the entire mixture into the mill.  Purée the mixture through the mill.  Press down on the solids to get as much flavorful liquid out of them as possible.  Discard the solids.

Pour the soup back into the saucepan.  Add the cream to the soup and reheat slowly.  Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Ladle into bowls and garnish with a few fresh thyme leaves.