I felt “Fall” in the air this past weekend in Michigan. I must admit, I love this season the best of all of the seasons of the year. The brisk mornings and the changing leaves make the season so comfortable for me. I have been looking at many recipes over the past few weeks just getting ready for comfort food season. I found this one in Jamie Deen’s cookbook titled Good Food. It felt perfect for dinner last night, since I still had a whole bowl of tomatoes from the garden ready to be used in a recipe.
I have made homemade tomato soup several times before and have posted recipes on the blog, but not for roasted tomato soup. I must say that the tomatoes had an extra layer of flavor, since they were combined with the roasted onions and garlic. The soup was delicious, making extra for lunches and to freeze for another colder fall evening dinner.
I loved the grilled cheese croutons. They were delicious in the soup and were such a great garnish. My husband had an extra grilled cheese on a plate, since the croutons were just not enough for his meal. The sandwiches could also be cut into strips and served with the soup, for dunking.
to make the soup recipe:
Gather the following ingredients for the recipe–3 pounds of fresh tomatoes, or a mixture of fresh for roasting and boxed, one Vidalia onion, 6 cloves of fresh garlic, 3 tablespoons olive oil, 1 tablespoon honey, Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper, 3 1/2 cups of chicken stock and dill.
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Slice the tomatoes in quarters, and the large onion into chunks. Separate the garlic into cloves. Place all on a heavy sheet pan. Drizzle with olive oil and honey. Mix well together. Roast in the oven for 35 minutes.
Remove from the oven and take out the garlic cloves. Smash 2-3 cloves depending on their size and return to the pan, discarding the rest. Place all in a blender to puree in batches. Mix any browned bits from the baking pan into the chicken stock. Using about 2 cups of stock, add to the soup pan on the stove. Add the tomato mixture from the blender along with other boxed tomatoes as needed for the recipe volume.
Season as needed. Simmer for at least 25 minutes. Add the rest of the stock to incorporate during the cooking time. Stir in the dill during the last minutes of cooking to taste. Or use as a garnish on the soup when serving. I also used fresh basil from the garden as a garnish.
to make the grilled cheese croutons:
Prepare a sheet pan with cooking spray. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Using margarine, spread one side of each slice of bread making a sandwich. For 4 sandwiches, that would be eight slices of bread. Place butter side down, one slice for each sandwich. Add shredded cheddar cheese or other cheese slices. Place the second slice of sandwich bread on top, butter side up. Bake in the oven for a total of 20 minutes. I usually bake 12 minutes on one side and flip the sandwiches.
Cut into slices, strips, or cubes for croutons. Delicious and so perfect for Fall.
angel food garden 