Skip to main content

Recipe Friday: Creamy Tomato Soup with Grilled Cheese on Foccacia

Nothing beats a bowl of hot tomato soup with grilled cheese sandwiches. This recipe takes the old standby up a notch.

For the soup:

  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • 1 onion, chopped
  • 2 carrots, peeled and chopped
  • 3 cloves garlic, chopped
  • 2 (14 ounce) cans Italian style diced tomatoes, undrained
  • 2 cups chicken broth or stock
  • pinch of red pepper flakes
  • 1 teaspoon balsamic or red wine vinegar
  • 1 teaspoon honey
  • 4 ounces cream cheese or 1/2 cup half & half
  • chopped fresh basil or parsley for serving

In a large pot, heat oil over medium high heat. Add onion and carrots and saute for five minutes. Stir in garlic and saute an additional minute. Add tomatoes, broth, red pepper flakes, vinegar, and honey. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Bring to a boil; cover, reduce heat to medium and simmer for 20 minutes, or until all vegetables are tender.

Transfer to blender and blend, or use an immersion blender directly in the pot.* Return to pot, and add cream cheese (or half & half). Simmer on low for another 10 minutes, stirring until cream cheese is completely incorporated. (If using half & half, reduce time by 5 minutes.)

Garnish with parsley and basil and serve with Grilled Cheese on Foccacia (below).

For the Grilled Cheese:

Mix cheeses in a small bowl.

Brush bread slices with olive oil (top & bottom slices). Place four slices in heated skillet or on griddle. Evenly distribute cheese on top of the bread. Top with remaining bread and press down with a spatula. When the cheese begins to melt, flip the sandwichs to brown evenly on both sides.

Serve with Creamy Tomato Soup.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

More On Energy: Supply, Demand and the Not-so-free Market

Speculators in the market have, rightly, been targeted for thier use of the Enron-loophole to basically compete (unfairly) in a market that is mixed between highly-regulated (see integrated oil companies) and unregulated players (see commodity brokers). This imbalance of power has led to the free flow of capital to a market from sources that a decade ago largely abandoned investment in oil companies -- in favor of the speculative bubble of the dotcom boom. That lack of capital infusion -- and the capital-intensive nature of the oil & gas business -- led to the mega-mergers of 1999 - 2001. Bear in mind that even with all that merger activity among the multi-nationals, their true competition is with national oil companies -- basically branches of their nation-state governments: Pemex (Mexico), Petrobras (Brazil), Pedevesas (Venezuala), Saudi Aramco (Saudi Arabia), Cinoco (China) ... you get the picture. On the one end, you have national oil companies -- either in OPEC or non-aligned ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Looking back...

It being "the thing to do" on New Years Eve, here are some of the things that came to my mind about the last decade: Houston & the Weather Tropical Storm Allison flooded Houston causing more than $5.5 B in damage and 41 deaths -- as usual, the story was overlooked by the national media because a) it was happening in Houston and b) they were manically covering the Timothy McVeigh execution countdown.  Were it not for 9/11, Allison would have been the largest disaster of 2001. Hurricane Katrina devasted the central Gulf Coast, flooding New Orleans with water and Houston with evacuees.  While the nation watched the Bush Administration fail in its duties, Mayor Bill White and the people of Houston stepped into the void -- providing shelter and a path forward for countless "new" Houstonians. Hurricane Rita taught us that our own hurricane plans were inadequate. Hurricane Gustav taught us how quickly a major storm could develop. Hurricane Ike showed how re...
Post a Comment
Read more

Just Desserts: Double Peanut Butter Bars

This recipe takes the simple peanut butter cookie and "raises the bar"... with three layers: Peanut Butter Cookie on the bottom Rich peanut butter icing in the middle Topped with a chocolate shell Delicious and decadent! For the cookie base: Preheat oven to 350F.  Grease a 9x13 glass baking dish. 1 1/4 cup sugar 1 tablespoon dark molasses 1/2 cup creamy peanut buter 1/4 cup shortening 1/4 cup butter, softened 1 egg 1 1/4 cups flour 3/4 teaspoon baking soda 1/2 teaspoon baking powder 1/4 teaspoon salt Prepare peanut butter cookie dough (per normal recipe)  but do not refrigerate.  Instead, spread dough evenly on the bottom of the prepared baking dish. Bake for about 15-18 minutes.  Remove from oven and allow to cool completely.  For the middle layer: 1/2 cup butter, softened 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter 1 tablespoon milk 1 teaspoon vanilla 2 cups powdered sugar In a small bowl, beat the butter, peanut butter, milk, vanilla...
5 comments
Read more