SK week 11 | Cream of Tomato Soup

This week has been cold and drizzly. In other words, perfect for soup! I've made a couple different tomato soup recipes before, but I was intrigued by Deb's methods in this one and had to give it a try!

(Here's the Smitten Kitchen post) (Her post is for grilled cheese and tomato soup--we definitely had both, but I only followed her recipe for the soup)

You'll need:
2 28-ounce cans whole tomatoes
1 1/2 tablespoons brown sugar
4 tablespoons butter
4 large shallots, minced (about 1/2 cup) (NOTE: I don't know what kind of crazy huge shallots I came across or what constitutes "large" in Deb's book, but I got 1/2 cup in about a shallot and a half)
1 tablespoon tomato paste
pinch ground allspice
2 tablespoons flour
1 3/4 cups vegetable or chicken broth
1/2 cup heavy cream
salt and cayenne pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Drain the tomatoes over a bowl. Open up each tomato and get the seeds out.

Lay them open on a lined sheet pan and sprinkle with the brown sugar.

Roast for about 30 minutes and set aside to cool while you continue with the soup.

Melt your butter in a pot and let it get foamy. Add the shallots, tomato paste, and allspice.

Reduce heat, cover, and cook 7-10 minutes until shallots are soft.

Sprinkle the flour in and let it cook for about 30 seconds.

Slowly add the broth, gradually blending it into the shallot mixture.

Add the reserved tomato juice. (And make your non-soup-eating kid some chicken nuggets....)

Add in the roasted tomatoes. Cover, increase heat to bring it back to a boil, then turn back down to low for about 10 minutes.

Mmm, tomato soup magic.

Off the heat, take an immersion blender to this tomato goodness.

This was my first time using mine--it was a Christmas gift--and it took a lot longer than I expected!

I didn't get it perfectly smooth, but I actually liked it with a little texture.

Add the cream and stir (she adds 1/4 cup to the whole pot and drizzles on the remaining 1/4 cup to each serving. I added about 1/3 cup to the pot and called it a day. :) Season with salt and cayenne.

While it was simmering for that last 10 minutes, I made our sandwiches and kept them warm in the oven while everything finished up. Perfect!

Final verdict: This will hands-down be my go-to tomato soup from now on. We all loved it (well, except for the chicken nugget eater). I think the tomato roasting adds some really great flavor.

So if you need some comfort soup in your life this weekend, give this one a go! Happy Friday!