Tomato Parmesan Soup

The husband and I are not tomato eaters. I mean we like spaghetti and pizza sauce but you won't find us eating chunks of tomato in a salad EVER. But one thing that I love is tomato basil soup. Not the from a can kind (gross) but the creamy restaurant quality kind with lots of flavor. My wonderful husband got me the Pioneer Woman's cookbook for Christmas and I couldn't wait to try her recipe for tomato soup. I tweaked the recipe a little and love the way it turned out! The husband liked it too although I knew it wasn't going to be his favorite. Hope you enjoy it too!

What you need

- 3/4 stick butter
- 1 medium onion, diced
- 3 cloves garlic, sliced
- 2 cans diced tomatoes
- 46 oz tomato juice
- 4 T sugar
- 3 cubes chicken bouillon
- 1/2 C sherry
- 1 1/2 C heavy cream
- 1/2 C grated parmesan
- ground pepper
- fresh basil and parsley





Directions

- Melt the butter in a large pot or dutch oven over medium heat

- Add the onion and garlic and cook until translucent and fragrant

- Add the diced tomatoes and stir

- Add the tomato juice and stir well

- Add in the sugar. The original recipe called for 6 T of sugar but I stopped at 4

- Add the chicken bouillon cubes. I broke mine up with my hands first.

- Add LOTS of fresh ground black pepper and stir

- Heat the soup until just before boiling, then turn off the heat

- Add in the sherry. Now, don't be scared of it. It adds a wonderful dimension of flavor and doesn't taste like alcohol at all.

- Add the heavy cream and stir

- Add the grated parmesan. Please please PLEASE don't use the pre-grated stuff for this. Buy a wedge and grate it yourself. It makes a difference I promise! Ok I'm done now.

- Taste the soup and add additional seasoning if needed

- Gently chop your parsley and basil and add to soup. I didn't use too much because my cute little basil and parsley plants aren't giving me much to work with yet. You can always substitue dried, but fresh is better.

- Keep warm until you serve, and top with a bit more parmesan cheese.

- I served ours with a good old fashioned grilled cheese (on gluten free bread of course!) Dipping the grilled cheese in the soup is divine. YUM!

Enjoy!