Tomato Basil Soup

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup butter
• 2 heaping Tbsp. minced garlic
• 1/2 cup flour
• 3 cups half and half
• 2 1/2 Tbsp. chicken base*
• 2 (28 oz.) cans diced tomatoes
• 1 cup tomato puree
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 2 1/2 Tbsp. dried basil about 1/2 cup fresh basil leaves and chop
• 1/2 tsp. pepper more if needed TT
• 1/2 tsp. salt more if needed TT
• milk if needed to thin to desired consistency

Instructions

1. Melt butter in saucepan. Once melted add garlic and sauté for a minute or two. Stir in flour and make a roux.
2. Once roux is formed, slowly pour in half and half, stirring as you pour. Stir consistently until it begins to thicken.
3. Stir in chicken base, diced tomatoes, tomato puree, sugar, basil, pepper and salt. Stir until heated through. If needed add milk to soup to thin it out to desired consistency

 *Chicken Base is like a paste version of chicken broth/bullion. It is more concentrated that broth. Here is the kind/brand I use.  You can easily find either this or other brands at your grocery store.

I could not wait to try this recipe. I already have a tomato basil soup recipe, but felt like it was missing the mark a little. Sadly this recipe as is also misses that mark. I will explain. First off the recipe calls for diced tomatoes. I didn't want chunks of tomato in my soup so I threw the tomatoes in my food processor, and made them nice and smooth! They had a different flavor & texture than the tomato puree so I would still you both.

My next issue is the amount of garlic. 2 HEAPING tablespoons of minced garlic. I made this recipe basically as it was to see if I liked it. There were bits of garlic in every bite. Understandably this made my husband kindly ask me not to make this again. I am however determined to get this recipe the way I like it because the foundation is good. Next time I will omit the mince garlic, and add garlic powder instead.

The good things about this recipe are the texture(minus the garlic) and the taste. Nice and creamy without being too tomato-ey?! One thing that can be over done is the seasoning. Basil can very quickly become over bearing. The amount of basil in this recipe was perfect. I coupled this with another favorite recipe of mine. It is tried and true. Even if you don't make the soup. . try this recipe.

Ham and Cheese Roll

*I use Rhodes rolls instead of the frozen bread dough. I used about 10 of the texas-sized rolls. Mmmm.