Tomato Basil Soup

Everybody loves a bowl of warm soup when the frigid winds of winter come upon us! (Full disclosure: we don’t really have seasons in Texas. It’s a balmy 75 degrees outside my house as I write this, and I don’t expect to have to kick on the heater until December at the earliest. But I still love soup!)

First, start with one onion and one shallot. A shallot is like the unholy love child of onion and garlic, so I like to think of this as a little mother-and-son family portrait. Well, if you pretend the knife isn’t there I guess. That does make it kind of weird.

Chop them up and start to sautee them with some olive oil, in the bottom of whatever passes for a giant soup pot in your kitchen.

While those cook, it’s time to prep the tomatoes. You’re going to want about 15 to 18 standard-sized hothouse tomatoes. You could also use roma tomatoes, but you’d probably want to toss in some extras to make up for the size difference. First, cut the tops off, then cut them into fourths. You may notice I messed up and forgot to cut the top off this one first, but the picture came out so nicely I decided to use it anyway.

Now, stand them on their flat side, and run the knife through in a C-shape to remove the inner guts. It’s a lot of cuts, but it goes pretty fast this way. If your tomatoes are super ripe, you won’t even need the knife, you can just swipe your thumb through and it’ll come right out.

Also roughly chop up about six to ten leaves of fresh basil.

When the onions are translucent, dump in all the tomatoes and the basil, and add 4 cups of gluten-free chicken broth. [As always, the brands I use were GFCF at the time of posting, but manufacturers can change formulas without warning. Always check your labels!]

Bring to a boil, and simmer uncovered for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Now whip out your immersion blender, and start pureeing everything in sight. Would it be possible to transfer portions of this to a regular blender and do it that way? Maybe, but I’m pretty sure you’d be left with big chunks of tomato and basil in there. At the very least, you would probably want to peel the tomatoes before cooking them if you’re going to do it that way. (You would do that by plunging them into rapidly boiling water for about a minute, after which the skins should slide right off and you can add them to the soup pot for simmering.) But it’s a wasted effort if you’re using the immersion blender, because those things can pulverize everything you throw at them.

Now add 2 teaspoons of balsamic vinegar. Real balsamic vinegar ought to be gluten free, but it’s always a good idea to double check. Make sure it’s not really just “flavored” vinegar, and it doesn’t have the word “malt” anywhere in it.

Then add one cup of almond milk. It will probably need about 1/2 teaspoon of salt as well, but that will depend on how salty your brand of chicken broth is, so you may need to adjust that measurement a bit.

I’ve already expressed my feelings on fake cheeses, but if your kids like them, by all means, bust out the gluten-free bread and make it a classic grilled cheese and tomato soup meal. I like it with these slightly spicy Rice & Adzuki Bean chips, personally.

Happy Eating!

Tomato Basil Soup

1 onion
1 shallot
15-18 whole tomatoes
4 cups GF chicken broth
6-10 leaves fresh basil
2 tsp balsamic vinegar
1 cup almond milk