Quick and Delicious Tomato Soup with Grilled Cheese Sandwich Croutons

Featured in Intermediate

Ingredients

Tomato Soup

• 2 teaspoons neutral oil (canola oil, corn oil) 
• ¼  cup chopped onion 
• ¼  cup chopped celery 
• 2 cans diced tomatoes, undrained 
• 1½  cups water 
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons brown sugar 
• 1/2 teaspoon dried basil 
• 1/4 teaspoon dried oregano 
• 1/4 teaspoon coarsely ground pepper

Grilled Cheese Sandwich Croutons

• 2 Slices Bread (preferably day-old)
• Butter
• Cheese slices (the ones you like the most)

Instructions

Tomato Soup

• In a large pot or saucepan, start heating oil over medium-high heat. When the oil is hot enough, add onion and celery and stir for a few minutes until everything is tender.
• Now add the rest of ingredients and bring to a boil. Once it’s bubbling, reduce heat and let it simmer (lid off) for about 10 minutes so that all the flavors come together.
• With an immersion hand blender, puree the soup to the texture you want. If you have a regular blender, let the soup cool down for a few minutes and puree it in batches in the blender and put it back in the saucepan and reheat. Your soup’s ready to enjoy! You can finish it with some freshly minced basil.

Freezing Soup: You can freeze the soup leftovers to enjoy some other time. Just pour the soup (once it has cooled enough) into freezer-safe containers. When you want to have some soup, just let it thaw in the fridge for a few hours (or overnight) and reheat in the saucepan. Make sure you stir it from time to time so that the soup heats evenly.

Grilled Cheese Sandwich Croutons:

• Butter one side of two slices of bread. Day-old bread works best in this recipe, since it won’t soak up right away.
• Put one slice (buttered side down) in a skillet over medium-low warm: be patient, taking it slow is key to get a crispy toast.
• Place a couple of cheese slices on top of the bread. Place the second bread slice on top of the cheese, (buttered side up), and let it brown for a couple of minutes, until it’s as toasted as you like.
• Flip the sandwich and let it cook for 4-5 minutes more.
• Remove from the stove. Cut immediately and add the croutons to the soup