At least once this summer, buy plenty of plum tomatoes at the farmers market, or save some from your garden and make this soup! This is one of the best things I’ve made with fresh tomatoes. Yes, you have to boil and peel the tomatoes and roast the garlic in the oven both of which are a few annoying extra steps, but the few extra steps make this soup what it is. The classic San Marzano tomatoes make a great soup, but garden tomatoes simply have the best flavor!
Creamy Tomato Basil Soup Recipe
I made this because I was going to visit my brother and he loves tomato basil soup, so I packed some along. We had it for lunch and he completely approved. He loves the tomato soup at Panera Bread and Zuppas, which means I was up against a few competitors, so I’m really excited it turned out. I decided to add in my favorite things that go with tomatoes and fresh basil leaves; first roasted garlic (because I could eat it plain all on its own. Yes, I’ll admit, sometimes I will roast garlic just to eat it plain on its own, mmm the flavor is incredible. You might consider adding other garden vegetables, such as zucchini, celery, carrots, or yellow squash. Use an immersion blender to blend them to a puree before adding. Whisk in vegetable broth and coconut milk instead of chicken broth and heavy cream if you want to make this a vegan or dairy-free recipe.
But don’t worry, even though it’s one and a half heads of garlic it really is quite mellow. It just adds a delicious garlicky sweetness, then I also added in Asiago because seriously, what would we do without cheese? Nearly everything is better with a generous sprinkling of some sort of cheese. And in this case, Asiago was just the first pairing that came to mind both for flavor and its smooth yet stringy melting characteristics. Shredded parmesan cheese is also delicious! If you don’t want the “Creamy” just leave out the heavy cream for a delicious tomato basil soup (this is what it looks like before adding cream. And I know, I desperately need to bleach my pot again :)…
