Hearty Tomato Soup

I mentioned a few weeks ago how I will occasionally get sounds of delight from my two guys when they like a meal (and I don't mean girly squeals, these are manly, gutteral, animalistic sounds -- even from my 7-year-old). Soup is pretty much always a guaranteed grunt fest for them. Yes, soup. So I have quite a few go-to, easy peasy soup recipes that I use A LOT in the winter. One of their favorites is tomato bisque (that I would always just make from the can) so when I saw this recipe in my good ol' Betty Crocker cookbook, I knew I had to try it. I'm a huge fan of  "doctored up" recipes and they are my go-to for soups and cakes (hey, when you're spending upwards of 10 hours on baking and decorating a cake, every little bit helps!) and this one did not disappoint. Add a grilled cheese and it's perfect for this dreary day here in Chicagoland!
~Leah

Hearty Tomato Soup 1

Recipe Type: Soup

Author: Leah (adapted from Betty Crocker)

Prep time: 10 mins

Cook time: 15 mins

Total time: 25 mins

Ingredients

• 3 Tbsp. butter


• 1 large onion, finely chopped


• 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped


• 1/2 tsp. paprika


• 1 1/2 t. chopped fresh or 1/2 tsp. dried basil


• 1 (8 oz) package cream cheese, softened


• 1 1/4 c. milk


• 2 cans (10 3/4 oz each) condensed tomato soup


• 2 cans (14 1/2 oz each) diced tomatoes

Instructions

1. Melt butter in large saucepan over medium heat. Cook onion and garlic in butter until onion is tender. Remove from heat.


2. Stir in paprika, basil and cream cheese. Gradually stir in milk and soup. Beat with hand beater or whisk until cheese is melted and soup is smooth. (I had to put mine back over low heat to get my cheese to melt. See notes below).


3. Stir in tomatoes and heat over medium heat, stirring frequently, until hot.

Notes

Make sure your cream cheese is room temp...you could even microwave it a bit to get it really soft. The original recipe called for 6 oz. of cream cheese but I just threw the entire bar in. I could NOT get all of the cheese bits to disappear completely, but it didn't give it any weird type of consistency when eating it. Also, I pureed it for my kiddos since they don't like chunks and they loved it.

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