Cream of Roasted Tomato Soup with Sourdough Croutons
If you are a child of the 80s or 90s you likely had Campbells Tomato Soup at least once a week for lunch. If you were lucky it was made with milk instead of water and maybe you had some crackers or perhaps a grilled cheese to go with it. This recipe is the mature older sister to that soup. It uses few ingredients but does require a bit of planning ahead since it has several steps.
My mom used to serve tomato soup with store bought croutons. I loved to eat all the croutons off the top, then add more, so each bite had some crunchy bread in it. You could skip the croutons and go for the grilled cheese option or perhaps just some salty crackers. But nothing beats homemade croutons.
I always save the last bits of bread for croutons. This is a good time of year to be saving your stale bread because it makes the best dressing as well. When we have those dry ends of sourdough loaf that no one wants to eat, I just cube them and store them in a freezer bag until I want croutons. Saving money and food waste!
This recipe makes a rich roasted tomato soup base that you can store in your fridge or even freeze. When I warm up the soup I use the soup base just like the can of soup, adding the base then a ratio of whole milk and bringing it to a medium simmer before serving. This way you can make just enough for one or a whole lot for a crowd.
Ingredients:
6-8 lbs of fresh tomatoes depending on how much soup base you want to make
2 heads of garlic
1/2-3/4 cup olive oil divided
whole milk
1/2 loaf of stale sourdough bread sliced in 1/2 inch cubes
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp dried oregano
salt and pepper
Recipe:
Preheat the oven to 375 F. Slice the tomatoes making sure to remove the stems. I usually just slice them in half. Peel the garlic. Divide the tomatoes and garlic cloves evenly between 2 sheet trays, Drizzle over a good amount of olive oil over each tray. About 1/4 cup for each. Then salt and pepper generously. I like a generous pinch of diamond kosher salt for each tray and fresh crackled pepper. Then roast for 60 minutes.
While the tomatoes are roasting, prepare the croutons. Cube the bread, then coat with remaining 1/4 cup of olive oil. The bread will really absorb the oil so be generous so the croutons really toast. Top with salt, pepper, oregano and garlic powder and toss to coat.
When the tomatoes are done roasting, remove them from the oven to cool. Place the croutons on the middle rack and toast for 20 minutes. Flip half way. If they are not browned then leave in for longer, but be careful not to burn them.
Once the roasted tomatoes and garlic are cooled enough for you to handle the sheet trays with your bare hands, scoop the tomatoes and garlic into a blender. I like to do this in 2 batches. Blend on high until it is a smooth consistency. Add a few tbsp of water if the mixture is too thick to blend.
Place a fine mesh sieve over a large bowl or storage container and sieve the tomato puree to remove any seeds or texture. You want it to look like a can of tomato concentrate. I find it helpful to do this a little bit at a time and stir the mixture so it will go through the sieve. You may need to rinse the sieve between batches. At the end you should have around 2 L of tomato puree concentrate.
For making the soup, use a 3:1 ratio of tomato puree to whole milk. so I put 3 cups of puree in a medium sauce pan then added 1 cup of whole milk and heated until simmering. Taste for salt and pepper before serving. Top with the homemade croutons and enjoy!
The soup base will keep in the fridge for a 4-5 days or in air tight container in the freezer for several months. You can also use this tomato puree for pasta sauce base or in place of crushed tomatoes in chili or other tomato based soups. It is slightly labor intensive but is a versatile ingredient.
