Tomato Bisque

I decided to try my hand at a tomato bisque from the 100 Days of Real Food website. Here is the original recipe:

SERVES: 6 – 8

 

INGREDIENTS

• 4 tablespoons butter (we used unsalted)
• 1 onion, diced
• 2 slices bacon, proscuitto, or ham, minced
• 4 cloves garlic
• 5 tablespoons whole-wheat flour
• 5 cups chicken broth/stock
• 1 28-ounce can of whole, peeled tomatoes (with liquid) or about 5 – 6 medium-sized fresh tomatoes that have been boiled for 1 minute and then peeled…either way they need to be roughly chopped before using
• 3 parsley sprigs
• 3 fresh thyme sprigs
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 cup heavy cream (or less if desired)
• 1 teaspoon salt (or more if you are using unsalted homemade broth)
• Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Heat the butter in a large soup pot over medium-high heat. Add the diced onion and cook for about 5 – 6 minutes or until it starts to get soft.
2. Add the bacon (or other meat) and the garlic and stir for another minute or two or until the meat gets crisp.
3. Add the flour and stir vigorously for 2 – 3 minutes.
4. Pour in the broth and tomatoes and bring to a boil while whisking constantly.
5. Throw in the herbs and simmer on low heat for 30 minutes.
6. Remove the herbs and puree the soup either in a blender (in batches) or with a handheld immersion blender (if you like to make soups this is a great tool to have by the way!)
7. Stir in the desired amount of heavy cream and salt & pepper to taste. Serve warm.

I did not have fresh herbs so I used dried thyme and skipped the parsley. I liked having the thyme in the end result. I did use the bay leaf. I did not have any bacon on hand so I skipped that. We are also trying to eat less meat (but that is for another post). I also did not use heavy cream. I can't find any heavy cream that is organic and does not have carrageenan in it (an Irish moss that is known to cause intestinal inflammation-carrageenan). So instead I used almond milk. I also added probably 3-4 teaspoons of salt. The recipes from this website tend to be a little bland for my taste so I pretty much always add more seasoning than what it calls for. I used diced tomatoes instead of whole and cutting them. The final result was delicious! We also used Ezekial 4:9 organic sprouted bread along with raw organic mild cheddar cheese to make grilled cheese. It was great for an easy going Saturday night. Dan and Carson also gobbled it up. I stored the remaining soup in Mason jars and put 1 in the freezer, I ate the other jar tonight :)