Cooking Class: Classic Tomato Soup

Classic tomato soup is comfort food at its best! Instead of those high sodium, preservative laden canned varieties, make your own with just a few simple ingredients! Add herbs or pesto to make a Tomato-Basil variety or some cream to make a creamy version. You can even throw in some cooked rice for Tomato-Rice variation.

Although you can make this soup anytime during the year with high-quality canned tomatoes, it is especially delicious and nutritious using fresh in-season fruit.  Add in some end of summer pesto, and you have an extra special treat!  (Note: Don't limit yourself to basil pesto!  Any herb or hearty green (think kale or even arugula!) can be used! Also, BTW, you don't need a fancy pesto recipe.  Just grind up the herbs/greens with garlic (if desired) in a food processor or blender.  Add enough oil until you have a thick paste (like peanut butter)!  It is that simple!!)

The recipe calls for peeled tomatoes, but you can actually use the skin and get even more nutrients!  The key is to PUREE the chopped tomatoes in a high-speed blender BEFORE you add to the soup.  When the skins are raw they will blend up smooth and you will not even know they are there!  If you start with just chopped fresh tomatoes and skins, the skin will shrivel leaving large skin pieces that will not puree leading to a less than smooth soup.  If you puree the tomatoes before cooking, you do not have to puree again at the end unless you want to smooth out the onions and garlic.