Creamy Tomato and Basil Soup

It’s great to be back after a break! While I wasn’t blogging, I’ve been travelling, working and exploring good eats. It’s been an amazing experience spending time in nature, hiking trails, visiting farmer’s markets and checking out local produce and restaurants.

Now that I’m back home I’ve been trying to recreate the flavors and various recipes I came across on my travels. One of them is this creamy Tomato Basil soup that I had in this little French restaurant. I just fell in love all over again with French cuisine with this soup. It’s rich, comforting and perfect after a long day on a chilly evening.

Ingredients

2 cups organic tomatoes, diced and cored

1 cup organic Tomato juice, low sodium

1 cup organic Vegetable broth, low sodium

¼ cup organic, low fat Cream

½ cup organic fat free Milk

(To reduce the amount of cream I used milk for this recipe)

½ cup organic Basil, fresh and finely chopped

1 teaspoon cooking Oil (Olive or Canola)

Salt to taste

Fresh ground black pepper

Method

Mix together tomato juice and vegetable stock and set aside.

In a sauce pan, heat oil, add tomatoes, sauté for 1-2 minutes. Slowly add in the juice-broth mixture. Cook covered on medium-low flame for 15-20 minutes.

Add basil leaves; cook uncovered for 1-2 minutes. Remove from flame and allow cooling for 5-6 minutes.

Using a hand held blender, puree the mixture to a thick pulp, in the saucepan. Add in cream and milk, slowly stirring throughout.

Add salt and stir continuously for 7-8 minutes on medium –low flame. Add fresh ground black pepper, remove from flame.

Serve hot with baguette.

A note of thanks........to My Comfort Food for the Butterfly Award.

It was a pleasant surprise!


I’d like to pass this on to Ramya,Maya ,Suganya and Srivalli.