Garden Fresh Tomato Soup
So many tomatoes!!! Our tomato bushes keep exploding with ripe tasty tomatoes, so we keep coming up with recipes to use them in! This fresh basil and tomato soup can be made on the stove or in a crockpot overnight. Hope you enjoy this soup on a cool late summer night!
When you have a huge crop of tomatoes like this I highly recommend that you try and preserve some for the winter. Why go buy canned tomatoes when you have home grown tomatoes from your own garden ready to use?
Freezing Tomatoes
Freezing tomatoes is a great way for preserving the tomatoes for later use. Much easier than canning and really just a versatile for cooking. Many people will tell you that you should blanch the tomatoes and remove their skins prior to freezing. I disagree, when you thaw the tomatoes for use later the skins will practically fall right off. Basically you will need to clean your tomatoes thoroughly let them dry off and place them on a cookie sheet. Place the cookie sheet in the freezer for about two hours, or until the tomatoes are frozen solid. Next place the frozen tomatoes in a freezer bag and seal. Keep for up to two years in the deep freeze. The tomatoes work excellent in sauces like this enchilada sauce or in soups!
- Clean tomatoes using organic vegetable cleaner.
- Allow tomatoes to dry.
- Lay tomatoes out on cookie sheet.
- Place cookie sheet in freezer for two hours.
- Use spatula to remove tomatoes from cookie sheet.
- Put frozen tomatoes in freezer bag and store in deep freeze.
In sauce pan sauté garlic and onions till translucent. Combine all ingredients (except for cream) in large pot or crockpot. Cook over medium heat in pot for an hour, or 10 hours in a crockpot. Remove bay leafs, then use immersion blender to blend soup, add cream, stir, and serve!
My three year old saw me cooking this soup up, pulled a chair to the counter and asked to help. Hot bubbling soup is probably not what you have your almost 3 year old help out with, so instead we made fresh bread to go along with the soup! Used this French bread recipe from mymundaneandmiraculouslife.com and it turned out great! Only took 1 hour to make start to finish and my son had a blast. The only alteration I made is I added 1 cup of whole wheat flour. Enjoy!
Garden Fresh Tomato Soup
Ingredients
- 4 cups broth
- 2 cup fresh basil chopped
- 1 tbsp crushed garlic
- 4 cups diced fresh tomatoes
- 1 chopped onion
- 1/4 tsp black pepper
- 2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp celery salt
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- Dash paprika
- 1 tsp Honey
- 2 bay leafs
- 1 1/2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
- 1/2 cup half and half dairy or cashew
Instructions
- In sauce pan sauté garlic and onions till translucent.
- Combine all ingredients (except for cream) in large pot or crockpot.
- Cook over medium heat in pot for an hour, or 8-10 hours in a slow cooker.
- Remove bay leafs, then use immersion blender to blend soup, add cream, stir, and serve!