After reading Robin’s post last week on easy weeknight meals, I was craving that comfort food classic, tomato soup and grilled cheese. I’ve been eating it in various incantations since I was tiny, and I wanted a refined, yet simple version of soup. I looked through several cookbooks for a filling soup that only required ingredients I had on hand, and when I saw Deborah Madison‘s Summer Tomato Soup, I knew I would try something similar. I literally made and enjoyed this dish today and wanted to pass it along.
While not quick (I let this simmer for an hour and a half or so), the hands-on cooking time is next to nothing. The secret is a ton of shallots, one of my favorite underutilized foods. Anthony Bourdain once said that shallots were the ingredient in restaurant food that made you iunable to duplicate dishes at home, and he recommended using them frequently as a welcome flavor boost. I took his advice and believe it to be true. The soup is great either hot or cold.
Easy Tomato Shallot Soup (makes four servings)
You’ll need:
- four shallots, peeled and chopped
- one clove garlic, peeled and chopped
- three tbsp butter, unsalted
- six large, ripe tomatoes (approximately five pounds)
- 1/2 cup water
- 1 1/2 cup milk (I used skim and the taste was still creamy, but you can use any milk or cream you have on hand)
- 1 tbsp sugar
- salt and pepper
- Melt the butter in a medium-sized saucepan over medium heat.
- Add the chopped shallots and garlic. Saute approximately two minutes.
- While the shallots are cooking, chop the tomatoes into 1″-2″ chunks.
- Add the tomatoes to the pan along with sugar and water (NOTE: add more water if your tomatoes aren’t very juicy). Season with salt to taste.
- Simmer over low heat for 1 to 1 1/2 hours, stirring occasionally.
- Remove from heat.
- Add milk. Either blend with immersion blender, in food processor, or run through food mill.
Serve with grilled cheese, naturally.
Of course, you can veganize this by sauteeing in olive oil and blending with soy or rice milk.
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Kelli Best-Oliver
A former high school teacher, I'm currently a part-time writer/full-time doctoral student at the University of St. Thomas in the Twin Cities, studying leadership in education from a critical pedagogy perspective along with public policy. On the green side, I'm interested in local food and agriculture (Iowa girl, born and raised), sustainability education, DIY projects, and grassroots activism. I'm slowly turning my South City, St Louis home into an urban farmstead. On the hoping-to-be-greener side, I love reading, yoga, soccer, music, backpacking, knitting, pop culture and trivia, my Tuesday Night Dinner Club, traveling, Guitar Hero, dive bars, and sitting on front porches with my husband and a cold beer. I came to Green Options via a post on Sustainablog,working the St Louis angle to get Jeff to let me in. I have a personal blog chronicling (what else?) life in South St. Louis. Follow me on Twitter!
2 Responses to Easy Tomato Shallot Soup Recipe
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[...] Pureed, cooked, stewed, in sauce, stored as a sundried treat or marinade, lycophene rich tomatoes are [...]
Well, darn it, Kelli, I said in my post that I didn’t think I’d ever both trying to make my own tomato soup, but now you post this and I’ve got quite a few tomatoes to use up and all the rest of the ingredients on hand.
I think I’ve got to try making this now.