The ultimate easy to make tomato basil soup

This recipe is my, easy to make, version of tomato basil soup. It is full of flavor and done in less than 30 minutes.

I love to serve my family this soup as a lunch dish with two slices of white French bread spread with herb cream cheese. Of course, you can use any kind of bread you like to serve with this delicious tomato and basil soup.

This soup also goes very well as an appetizer with my lovely homemade pasta salad, and you can even make it a three-course meal with my mango and lime mousse dessert. Yummy!

Tomatoes and tomato paste

I use fresh Roma tomatoes and a can of tomato paste as the base for this soup. Fresh tomatoes contain more vitamin C than canned tomatoes.

Why tomato paste… well, for two reasons.

• For an enriched tomato flavor. The tomato paste will lift up the tomato flavor. Taste the soup before and after you add the tomato paste. You will definitely taste the difference.
• For the color. Adding the tomato paste will give a deep red color to your soup.

Knorr beef bouillon cubes

I like to use these cubes because for me it is easy to remember how much to use. For every 16 fl oz (0,5 liter) of liquid you need 1 cube to add to your soup. If you follow this ratio you almost never have to add additional salt. It’s a quick and easy way to add flavor to your soup.

You definitely can use homemade or bought stock or broth instead of the cubes but this recipe uses the cubes. I use beef cubes because I like the beef flavor with tomato but you can also use vegetable stock or broth if you prefer to go vegetarian.

Ingredients:

• 3 lbs (1.3 kg) of Roma tomatoes
• one large yellow or white union
• 4 cloves of garlic
• one whole standard size pack of fresh basil, only use the leaves. Leave 1 or 2 leaves to garnish
• 32 oz (about 1 liter) water
• 4 Knorr beef bouillon cubes
• 1 can of tomato paste
• 2 large spoons of olive oil
• 1 tbsp garlic powder to taste
• 1 tbsp union powder to taste
• Pepper and salt to taste
• 2 to 4 fl oz heavy cream (optional)
• 2 slices of white French bread, or another type of bread of your choice (optional)
• Cream cheese with herbs (optional)

Materials:

• Blender
• Immersion blender
• Large pot

Instructions:

1. Cut the onion in medium or somewhat smaller pieces. Add the olive oil and unions into the large pot on a low to medium heat for 2 minutes. Sir occasionally. Make sure the onions don’t brown or burn.
2. Cut the tomatoes in half and add basil leaves and garlic cloves into the blender with one cup of water. Blend for 3 minutes. Add the tomato mixture into the large pot and sir. Repeat cutting the tomatoes and blend them for 3 minutes until all tomatoes are blended. Keep an eye on your large pot so it doesn’t burn. Keep stirring.
3. Add the rest of the water, beef bouillon cubes, and tomato paste to the large pot and bring it to a boil. Keep stirring the soup. Put the heat to low once the soup came to a boil.
4. Use the immersion blender to blend the soup one more time until the unions are fully incorporated into the soup.
5. Furthermore, taste the soup for flavor. Add the garlic powder, union powder, salt and pepper to your flavor. Remember, add bit by bit. You can always add flavor, you can’t remove flavor.
6. Optional: add heavy cream to the soup to give it a more creamy taste.
7. Garnish with 1 or 2 leftover basil leaves.
8. Enjoy with two slices of French white bread with herb cream cheese of your choice.

Tip: instead of the bread use croutons of your choice and add a couple on top of the soup.