Tomato Soup

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Yield: How many good tomatoes do you have?

• Tomatoes: All the old tomatoes you own
• Aromatics: Up to 1:3 ratio with the tomatoes by weight. Onions, celery, carrots, shallots, fennel, garlic, leeks, bell peppers, ginger, more garlic, broccoli, parsnips
• Herbs: Sure, why not?
• Dairy: How much can your gut handle?

• Roast tomatoes and aromatics until soft and slightly caramelized. Or lightly sauté the aromatics and then add the tomatoes. Or don’t cook anything before blending, I’m not a cop
• Blend tomatoes, aromatics, and herbs. Blend the hell out of them. Blend them like they offended you. Strain into a pot.
• Heat tomato mixture and bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer for five to ten minutes. Season to taste.
• Mount with cream/milk/butter based on your lactose tolerance.

I know this is glib, but tomatoes are a wonder food. If you start with good tomatoes and blend them thoroughly, you end up with good tomato soup. Even the cooking is optional.

Let's see... We did all the tomatoes we had which was almost one large cookie sheet full when cut in half. To that we added 2 shallots cut in half long ways then into pieces, maybe 8 garlic cloves, and a handful of carrots all on the same sheet. Sprinkle generously with kosher salt, and add generous drizzle of good olive oil. Then into oven for approx 2 hours at 200F.

Take everything off the cookie sheet and into a large pot or saucepan it goes on medium heat. 3 or 4 cups of chicken broth and let it start to simmer. Once it's soft enough to blend, hit it with a cup or cup and a half of heavy cream and go to town with the immersion blender. Any liquid would work here but you need something with a little depth and then something with some creamy to it. I bet a vegetable stock and oat milk would work fine. And then we added a few tablespoons of Worcestershire to taste. Finished with a little more heavy cream, fresh cracked black pepper (a must IMO), and a sprinkle of Parmesan cheese.

Mostly that soup is the wild West and I don't think you can mess it up.