Tomato Basil Soup

Tomato Basil Soup

This dish was based on the Ina Garten Tomato Basil Soup found on Food Network.

What I love about the original

Intense flavor from loads of fresh basil. If you can avoid using dried, you’ll taste the difference.

Roasted tomatoes — just divine in soup.

Creaminess from butter and olive oil. Before this recipe, I always thought you needed to use cream to get a rich soup. Nope, it’s butter, but isn’t it always butter.

Fresh thyme. I also use this in the chicken stock.

What I modified

I love this recipe the original way, but here are the few changes I make.

Tomatoes and Peppers, ready to be roasted.

Roasted peppers in addition to tomatoes. This modification really depends on what we have on hand. If we have peppers, I toss them in. If not, I stick with, and adore the original that calls for dried red pepper flakes, which add a noticeable kick.

This isn’t a modification, so much as a clarification. I use homemade chicken stock. I think better than bullion is great, however, we roast chicken weekly, so I pretty much always have fresh stock on hand.

All tomatoes instead of half fresh, half canned. There aren’t many options for getting local tomatoes in Hawaii, so Costco is my go-to for tomatoes, which makes it simple choice to use 100% fresh. They don’t keep long, and I have an entire case of them. Perfect excuse for tomato soup.

Top with fresh grated parmesan. Finely grated with a microplane grater.

Tomato Basil Soup + Avo Toast

I served it with Avo Toast. Buon appetito!