tomato soup with cheese & garlic toast

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garlic tomatoes carrots onions soup

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This tomato soup was a revelation to me when I first made it. It’s based on a recipe in Peter Berley’s book The Flexitarian Table. How can a soup be so yummy, creamy and rich without any cream or butter in it? I think you’ll love it. In the summer, you can use our local carrots and onions to make it, and it’s wonderful, but I make this recipe all year long. I think it makes a difference to use really good canned tomatoes and tomato paste, and I like Muir Glen.

If you serve the soup alongside Rise & Shine Bakery’s toasted Alaskan cheese & roasted garlic bread, it’s like a gourmet flashback to the toasted cheese and tomato soup cafeteria lunches you ate at school long ago… still comforting and warming, but a lot yummier! I always make a double batch of the soup, because it freezes really well!

Serve this soup with any kind of a simple green vegetable or savory salad, like roasted broccoli with garlic, or roasted brussels sprouts, or green cauliflower with parsley and green olives, or grilled zucchini.

1-2 tablespoons olive oil
4 cups thinly sliced onions (3-4 medium)
sea salt or kosher salt
1 head of garlic, cloves separated and peeled
2 medium carrots (peeled if the skins are tough), sliced
large pinch of red pepper flakes, or to taste
2 tablespoons tomato paste
28-ounce can of whole plum tomatoes or diced tomatoes in juice
2 cups vegetable or chicken stock or water (I use broth left over from cooking white beans with onion and garlic)
two 2-inch strips of orange zest, removed with a vegetable peeler
1 teaspoon dried sage
2 tablespoons chopped parsley, for garnish when serving
Alaskan cheese & roasted garlic bread, or other hearty whole-grain bread

1. I slice the onions and carrots in the food processor—this is especially time-saving if you’re doing a double batch. Just cut off the stem end of the carrots and push them down through the narrow feed tube, pushing with the pusher cup.
2. In a heavy pot, heat the oil over medium-high heat. Add the onions and ½ teaspoon salt and cook, stirring, until the onions have softened—5 minutes or so. Add the garlic cloves, carrots, and pepper flakes, lower the heat, cover, and cook until the vegetables are sweet and juicy and tender, but not browned, 20 minutes or so. Check and stir occasionally, adding a few tablespoons of water if the vegetables are dry.
3. Add the tomato paste and cook, stirring, until well combined, about 2 minutes. Add the tomatoes with their juice, the stock or water, orange zest and sage and bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for 15 minutes.
4. Remove the pot from the heat and discard the orange zest. Puree the soup with an immersion blender, or in batches in a blender. It’s easiest to do this if you’ve let the soup cool for a while first. Season with salt if you like, but I didn’t find it necessary because of the salt already added to the onions and in the canned tomatoes. Reheat the soup before serving, and add water to thin the soup if it seems too thick.
5. If you’re just serving 1 or 2 people, toast slices of the bread in the toaster. If you’re serving several people, heat the oven to 350 degrees and put the whole loaf in the oven, unwrapped and unsliced, for 15 minutes to heat and re-crisp the crust.
6. Ladle the soup into bowls, sprinkle with chopped parsley, and serve with bread or toast on the side.