Rainy day cream of tomato soup and Asiago cheese croutons

Yesterday was one of those 'blah' days where it was rainy, dreary and just not a nice day outside.  One of those days where you don't want to get out of bed and the thought of putting on "real" pants seems like a daunting task.  All I could think was how perfect it would be to make soup.  

I consulted with the refrigerator and pantry to see what I had that could be used.  It just so happens that I had many tomatoes that were about to spoil. In addition to that, my mom had made bread that was going stale and needed to be used.  So....tomato soup it was.

As I had never made cream of tomato soup before, I referred to Ina Garten's recipe for guidelines on how to create this masterpiece.  

Although I did add a full cup of half and half to the recipe, I stand by that it is still a relatively healthy soup.  With five pounds of fresh tomatoes, fresh carrots, fresh onion and fresh basil, the indulgence of the half and half is minor when it comes to the nutritional value of this soup.  ( Tomatoes= lots of lycopene and vitamin C)

The basis of this soup was two large carrots, a medium red onion and roughly five pounds of fresh tomatoes. I chose to use solely organic ingredients for this soup.  Anytime you eat the skin of a fruit or vegetable, I think that is an important choice to make.

As I have many picky eaters in my family that have issues with texture, I ran ALL the ingredients through the Vitamix. This is the carrot and red onion post Vitamix.  As said before, I love using the Vitamix, not a day goes by that I don't use it for something.  When making this soup I found it to be especially handy and prepping all my ingredients.

The carrot and red onion were sauteed until tender in some extra virgin olive oil.

I put all the tomatoes through the Vitamix prior to cooking as well.  This is the end result.

Chicken stock, garlic, fresh basil, pureed tomatoes, half and half, salt and pepper are added to the pot.  This was brought to a boil and then allowed to simmer for approximately 40 minutes.

Who wants to have soup without some awesome homemade croutons?  My mom had made a few loaves of bread that were going stale.  I cut them into cubes here and coated them in olive oil, garlic and freshly grated Asiago cheese ( yep...I ran it through the Vitamix too.  I wasn't about to grate all that cheese by hand.)

Croutons in the oven.  Bake at 350 for 20-30 minutes.

Croutons and soup ready to be served.

By the end of cooking this, I was really hungry and forgot to take a "pretty" picture of the soup with the croutons.  So, this was my actual plate about midway through eating.  Once the soup was finished cooking, I ran the whole batch through the Vitamix again so that all the ingredients blended together perfectly.  

 My first adventure with making soup using the Vitamix and only fresh ingredients proved to be a success.  The croutons were the perfect pairing for this soup adding a little bit of pizazz with the Asiago cheese.  The soup was eaten last night and for lunch today as well.  It made for the perfect meal on a rainy, gross and dreary day.  


Lots of vitamin C,
Caitlin