Creamless Creamy Tomato Soup

Oh my, have our tastes ever changed in the past eleven months! Mark LOVES Tomato Basil soup from the restaurant Noodles and Company. For better or worse, the closest location is in The Big City – almost an hour away. So, I decided to tackle a homemade version. I gave myself the challenge to make it vegan since we simply do not have many carnivorous items in our pantry these days. My beloved America’s Test Kitchen came through with a simple and easily-modified recipe. The first batch was so delicious I ended up making and freezing three more batches with tomatoes from a kind parishioner. Since there is no dairy in the recipe, I know it will freeze well and we will have a taste of summer for many months.

Serves Six

Ingredients:

• ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil, plus extra for drizzling
• 1 medium onion, chopped (about 1 cup)
• 3 medium garlic cloves, minced or pressed
• 1 pinch hot red pepper flakes or cayenne pepper
• 1 bay leaf
• 2 (28-ounce) cans whole tomatoes in juice*
• 1 Tablespoon brown sugar
• 3 large slices good-quality white sandwich bread, crusts removed, torn into 1-inch pieces*
• 2 cups chicken broth (or Not-Chick’n bouillon cubes and water)
• Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Heat 2 tablespoons oil in Dutch oven over medium-high heat until shimmering.
2. Add onion, garlic, red pepper flakes/cayenne pepper, and bay leaf. Cook, stirring frequently, until onion is translucent, 3 to 5 minutes.
3. Stir in tomatoes and their juice. Using a potato masher, mash until no pieces bigger than 2 inches remain.
4. Stir in sugar and bread; bring soup to a boil. Reduce heat to medium and cook, stirring occasionally, until bread is completely saturated and starts to break down, about 5 minutes. Remove bay leaf and discard.
5. Transfer half of soup to a blender, add 1tablespoon olive oil and process until soup is smooth and creamy, 2 to 3 minutes. Transfer to a large bowl and repeat with remaining soup and oil. (Or carefully use an immersion blender in the pot.)
6. Rinse out Dutch oven and return soup to pot. Stir in broth. Return soup to a boil and season to taste with salt and pepper.

*Cook’s Notes: I use 3.5 to 4 pounds of peeled, fresh tomatoes per batch. I also substitute our family’s favorite homemade white bread (King Arthur Flour’s Walter Sands’ White Bread) for the store-bought bread. I save the crusts for dunking into the soup.