Creamy Tomato Soup

When my husband and I were newlyweds, I made us grilled cheese sandwiches and campbell's tomato soup for dinner. My husband claimed he had NEVER had that before {gasp!} and I was shocked! We LOVED grilled cheese and soup growing up, and we'd dip our sandwiches in the soup. Everyone does that right?! Well I guess I was wrong! To say my husband loved his dinner is a gross understatement..... he RAVED and RAVED about dinner! And then proceeded to request to have that for dinner every week. (a cheap dinner that you love and you want it once a week?! alright, twist my arm!). :) It became a weekly tradition at our house. We ate grilled cheese and soup every Thursday, which is when we would watch The Office. So Thursday's were pretty well a holiday at our house and something we both looked forward to. Once The Office started getting lame {such a sad day!} we stopped watching it but kept at our soup and sandwich nights. Even when we lived in the basement of his parents house, we still had it every thursday night. It is something that our girls know we will be eating, because we have eaten it every week since they've been born :) We've since upgraded our sandwiches to include turkey as well, which (according to the hubby) has put the night to a whole new level :)

Now, I never messed around much with the tomato soup part of the dinner. We only really used it to dip our sandwiches in, and if I was still hungry, I would crush up some Ritz crackers and eat the soup that way, but to be honest, I didn't really care to just eat the soup by itself. I had to eat it with my sandwich.  We used whole milk to make it creamy and delicious and we thought we were in heaven. That is, until we met this amazing homemade cream of tomato soup. I'm pretty sure the first night we made it I died and went to heaven. No joke. I literally licked my bowl clean. It is THAT good.  I NEVER used to eat the soup all by itself. But with this recipe, I am pretty sure I could eat the whole bowl without ever dipping a sandwich in it. It is just utterly amazing!

Don't be discouraged by the long list of ingredients and steps. It does take 2 pots {but it is well worth it in the end, guaranteed!} and about 45 min, start to finish. BUT if you double (or even triple!) the recipe you will get all your times worth out of it. We double it and then freeze them in individual servings for our month of grilled cheese and soup. Well worth it. I Promise.

Wow, enough talking from me, eh?! Here is the recipe! I had been looking on Pinterest for a good one, found a few, tested a few {which were disgusting compared to Campbells even!} and this one takes the cake, hands down!!

The recipe originally came from HERE (I did slightly adapt it, I thought the original recipe had WAY to much pepper so I adjusted according to my tastes)

Ingredients:

3 cups diced tomatoes (I used 4 fresh tomatoes that I peeled by dropping into a pot of boiling water)

2 Tbsp tomato paste

1 Tbsp sugar

1 tsp salt

½ tsp pepper

2 Tbsp oil

1 cup diced onions

½ cup diced celery

½ tsp basil

½ tsp dillweed

¼ cup butter

2 cups milk

¼ cup flour

2 cups chicken broth

Directions

*In large pot, heat oil over medium high heat, then add in onions, celery, basil and dillweed.  Cook  until onions are soft.

* Combine 3 cups diced tomatoes with the tomato paste, sugar, salt and pepper. Heat to a simmer, then cover and simmer 10 minutes.

* In another pan, melt butter, then stir in the flour and cook 1 min. Then add in the milk and cook, stirring constantly, until thick and bubbly.

* Combine milk mixture and tomato mixture in the large pot.  Add in the 2 cups chicken broth and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat and simmer (uncovered) for 20 min.  Then using an immersion blender (or blending it in your blender), puree it til smooth.

We then pour it into individual servings and let cool and place in freezer. We pull it out the day before we want to eat it and let it defrost in the fridge. We then heat it up over the stove the next day.

**** I usually double this recipe and it makes enough for our family to last a whole month (eating soup once a week)