Saturday Recipes: Part One-Tomato Soup

Each week I like to develop a new recipe. Since it's winter, I've been working mostly on soups and hearty, most times fatty sides.

I have always enjoyed complex recipes and dishes. I also enjoy making comlex dishes and recipes easier and nicer to be around on the kitchen-playground. Here's my newest invention / recreation of an old-style recipe that worked out very well.

Tomato Soup A-la-DJC

Ingredients:

4 (14.5 0z) cans Red Gold Diced Tomatoes with Basil, Garlic, Oregano--DRAINED
1 bundel scallions (chopped)
2 cups veggie broth [can substitue chicken broth--2 cups usually amounts to 1 (14 oz) can]
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon Italian Seasoning
3 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons all-pourpose flour

Directions:

1. In a stockpot, over medium heat, combine tomatoes, scallions, veggie broth, and 1 tablespoon butter. Bring broth to a boild and gently boil for about 20 minutes to blend all of the flavors. Remove from heat and process mixture in a large bowl. [NOTE: By process, I mean you need to puree the mixture to taste. You can do this with a mill, processor, blender, or immersion mixter. I use an immersion mixer and it works just fine].

2. In a second sauce pan (I use a stainless steel one and your sauce pan should be large enough to hold your processed tomato mixture) melt the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter over medium-low heat. Stir in all-purpose flour to make a roux, cooking the roux until it is pale brown. Make sure to constantly whisk.

3. Once roux is ready (about two minutes), gradually whisk in a bit of the tomato mixture so that no lumps form, then stir in rest of tomato mixture. Heat thoroughly, but do not bring to boil. Let stand five minutes then serve.

Adaptions:

Sugar ( 2 teaspoons white sugar): I don't like sweets except on rare occassions when I just eat and eat them and I'm not a big fan of sugar in any sauce that's red.

Balsamic Vinegar (1 tablespoon added at same time as broth): I haven't tried this, but I bet it would be amazing.

Cloves (4 whole): I'm not the biggest fan of this, but some well reviewed recipes call for this.

If you like creamy soups, consider making this into a bisque. Not all bisques are seafood such as the traditional lobster or shrimp bisque. Anymore, unless you're a pureist, tomate bisque is pretty much tomato soup with a milk mixture added. If you translate this into bisque then add two cups of milk to your roux. Actually it might not be that simple. You'll need to look up bisque recpies.

That's pretty much all I have on that recipe. It's good and pretty good for you. Three tablespoons of butter is a pretty significant amount, I guess, but in the world of fast food eaters, this is a sneeze of fat at the Big Mac or any fried food.