Tomato Soup

Difficulty Rating:

Recipe:

1 - 1 lb can of crushed tomatoes
2 cups milk
2 tbsp butter
1/8 tsp baking soda
Spices

In one saucepan, heat tomatoes on low. In second saucepan, heat milk and butter on low. DO NOT LET EITHER POT BOIL!

When tomatoes are hot, stir in baking soda to foam. Add in hot milk and butter and stir until well mixed. Add spices and stir.

NOTE: If increasing the recipe, DO NOT increase baking soda.
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Execution:

Again, pretty much the easiest recipe known to man. Most people have never had anything other than the sludge that comes in a Campbell's can - which I'm not knocking, it was my fav as a kid. But we're adults now and we can do better with about as much effort!

I listed one of the ingredients as "spices" just because I generally use whatever's in the house, about a teaspoon to a tablespoon of each. When I made this at home on Friday I used salt, pepper, garlic powder, Adobo and dried cilantro. Tonight I used salt, pepper, garlic powder, and dried basil. Whatever you've got in your kitchen works. Also, please note that for the pictures I didn't have any canned tomatoes so I used fresh - all you have to do is dice them up very tiny and mush 'em a little.

Ingredients:

Five things, super simple. You put the tomatoes in one pot and the milk and butter in another.

(Please excuse Kitchen Buddha - he's a camera hog.)

Heat them both over low to medium-low heat. It's very important that you NOT boil either of the ingredients, because it starts to break down the tomatoes and it generally scorches the milk. I taught my little sister how to make this tonight and she asked, quite smartly, "How do you know it's hot enough if it's not boiling?" The answer: stick your finger in the tomatoes. If it's hot, you'll feel it. For the milk and butter, you're really just waiting for all the butter to melt. If you're less keen on burning your fingertips, just keep an eye on the tomatoes - they'll start steaming a little once it's the right temperature.

Then you just sprinkle in the baking soda and watch as science makes it awesome. It should foam up much like your volcano in the 4th grade science fair, and for much the same reasons. Stir it until it stops foaming, then dump in the milk and butter melty goodness.

Then you just chuck in the spices and stir it some more.

Now, depending on what you're using, the soup may not be thick enough for you. We're all used to the creamy, nummy Campbell's goodness after all. There are two solutions to this problem.

(A) Use heavy cream instead of milk, which usually requires a trip to the grocery store. Be EXTRA careful about not boiling it.

(B) Once you're done and it's still too watery, put a tablespoon of flour in a little bowl and mix in a few spoonfuls of liquid from the soup. Use a fork to mix it up and make sure there aren't any lumps - you can add more soup liquid if it's too pastey - and then pour that mixture back into the soup. Flour is a natural thickening agent, and if you simmer it for another five or so minutes it should thicken right up. You can do this as many times as you like until you get the consistency that you like, but always give it five minutes between adding flour because sometimes the thickening is a little delayed.

Either way, you should have delicious creamy soup in the end!

I like to make this in conjunction with the beer bread; I usually put two slices of beer bread in the bottom of a wide bowl and then pour the soup over it so it soaks into the bread and makes a delicious mushy mess. You can also add regular old saltines and have it be amazing. It goes great with grilled cheese sammiches, and, as we discovered tonight, it's pretty damn good with homemade mac 'n cheese too.

This recipe gives a shout-out to my sister Karli because it's her favorite thing in the world. There's leftovers in the fridge!