Tomato Soup

Here in the south we have a chain of grocery stores called Publix. They make a delicious Tomato Bisque that is on their salad bar almost every day of the week. I have decided to try and recreate this soup...and my first attempt wasn't bad. It doesn't taste like Publix, but hey...IT WAS MY FIRST TRY. I have never made tomato soup before, I am a buy it in the can kind of gal. But I have a new handheld blender (thank you mother) that I was dying to use! So here is the recipe if you want to try it yourself. Enjoy!


2 cans (28 ounces each) of diced tomatoes
3 cups chicken broth
1/4 cup chopped celery
1/2 cup chopped carrots
1 yellow onion chopped
2 cloves diced garlic
Olive Oil
Hot sauce
Pepper and salt

Open and drain both cans of tomatoes, reserving the juice for later. Spread tomatoes out on cookie sheet and season with salt and pepper (don't be afraid to be generous). Place in preheated oven (375) for 20 minutes.

During that time, put a little olive oil, the onion, and the garlic in a dutch oven/big pot and sauté onions and garlic until tender (5-7 minutes). Add celery and carrots and continue to cook and sauté until they are tender (about 5-7 minutes). Add chicken broth and tomatoes (from the oven) and the tomato juice you set aside into pot. Add pepper and salt to taste. You can add a little garlic salt if you want. The recipe called for 4 drops of hot sauce, but I added a little more. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer, cover and cook for 20 minutes.

Use your hand held blender stick (immersion blender) to puree soup (you could transfer to a blender but that's no fun!) You will need to do this for sure, or your soup will not be the correct consistency.

Taste and season with salt, pepper, or hot sauce until you like it.

Once I put the soup in the bowls, I added some feta cheese and a little colby Monterey jack cheese. Yum!

Makes about 6-8 servings, at around 150 calories a serving (before the cheese).