ND/Frndly

Neurodivergent-friendly cooking blog. I used all my spoons so you don't have to!

creamless creamy tomato soup

Adapted from America’s Test Kitchen.

Ready in 30 minutes

Serves 6-8 people

Ingredients

  • ¼ c extra virgin olive oil
  • 1 medium onion
  • 3 medium garlic cloves
  • Pinch of hot red pepper flakes (OPTIONAL)
  • Dried bay leaf
  • 2 28-oz cans whole tomatoes packed in juice
  • 1 Tablespoon brown sugar
  • 3 large slices of soft, good-quality sandwich bread (or 4 slices of a smaller one)
  • 2 cups broth of choice
  • Salt
  • Black pepper

Directions

Click on each bullet point to expand more detailed instructions.

Cut the onion and bread into pieces smaller than 1.5 square inches. Mince the garlic.
  1. Chop the onion into medium cubes. There is no need to be particularly precious about this, as you will be running it through the blender later, but keep your onion pieces around an inch or inch and a half so that they blend easily.
  2. Mince the garlic or run through a garlic press.
  3. Cut the bread into cubes. The easiest way to do this is to stack the slices and then cut three to four lines in each direction to create a grid of squares. (If the bread is particularly crusty, make sure to remove the crusts before cutting.)
Sautee onion, garlic, red pepper flakes if using, and bay leaf in olive oil for 3-5 minutes.
  1. Drizzle about 2 tablespoons of olive oil into a heavy-bottomed pot and turn the heat to medium. Once the olive oil is warm (it will look shimmery and smell a little bit fruity), add the onion, garlic, and bay leaf.
  2. Cook these aromatics, stirring occasionally, until the onion is softened, about 3-5 minutes.
Add canned tomatoes and mash into pieces 2 in or smaller.

Pour in canned tomatoes plus their juices and mash using one of the below techniques.

  1. Option 1:  If you like the sensory experience of cooking, you may enjoy crushing each individual tomato in your hand as you add it to the pot and then pouring in the juice from the cans. If you choose this option, please be extremely careful with both the sharp edges of the can and the tomatoes that will be exploding juice everywhere. 
  2. Option 2: Add all tomatoes plus juice to pot and then, using a potato masher, mash up tomatoes into pieces that are less than 2 inches. Stir together.
Add bread cubes and sugar. Boil soup. Reduce heat and simmer until bread is soaked and starts to fall apart. 
  1. Add bread cubes and sugar to the soup.
  2. Bring pot to a boil and then reduce heat to medium to simmer for 3-5 minutes, until bread is soaked through and easily falls apart when poked.
Remove the bay leaf. Add half of soup to blender with 1 Tbs olive oil. Blend until smooth. Empty into large bowl and repeat with other half. 
  1. Remove the bay leaf and turn off the stove.
  2. Blend soup using either an immersion blender or full-size blender. If the latter, carefully pour half of the soup into the blender and add 1 Tbs olive oil. Blend until smooth. Pour the soup from the blender into a large bowl, then repeat with the remaining soup from the pot.
  3. While your soup is in the blender and bowl, carefully rinse and wipe out the hot soup pot. Return to stove and pour all of the soup back in.
Add broth and stir until incorporated. Season to taste (it is typically undersalted – we recommend adding up to a teaspoon of salt).
  1. Add broth and stir to incorporate. Bring soup to a boil, then turn heat off and stir once again.
  2. Taste for salt – we typically find that this recipe is undersalted and needs a teaspoon or two of salt for the flavors to be balanced.
OPTIONAL: If you or your family is particularly sensitive to texture, you can strain the soup through a sieve before serving to ensure that it is completely smooth.
  1. Place fine-mesh sieve in the sink with large bowl (can rinse and re-use large bowl from blender step) beneath it. Carefully pour the soup through the sieve into the bowl below.
Serve alongside your favorite sides!
  1. We suggest grilled cheese made with pre-sliced cheese so you don’t have to get another knife dirty 🙂

How To’s

  1. How to make this faster:
    • Skip it and buy pre-made tomato soup at the grocery store – it’ll taste great and feel good in your body if you can’t really convince yourself to cook today.
    • Buy frozen, pre-diced onion rather than cutting your own.
    • Buy refrigerated minced garlic rather than mincing your own.
  2. How to use this best:
    • If batch-prepping, freeze for a future easy meal. We recommend using 8 oz deli containers for single servings, 16 oz deli containers to feed two, or freezing flat in a (TIGHTLY ZIPPED) gallon-sized plastic bag. If going the bag route, you may want to place a tray or sheet pan underneath until frozen solid to both catch drips and make sure the soup actually freezes flat. To thaw the right way, place in refrigerator 24 hours before eating. I know you’re not thinking ahead like that, so place SEALED container in a bowl of warm water straight from the freezer to thaw quickly, changing water whenever it gets cold, and then pour the half-thawed soup into a pot on the stove or bowls to microwave.

love you stay fed!

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