Spicy Tomato Soup

Spicy Tomato Soup

This is one of my all-time favorite recipes.

And you don’t have to be an experienced cook. You can make this soup if you are willing and able to 1) cut vegetables into smallish pieces, 2) have a blender that can puree.

So why is this soup so great?

1)      It’s the comforting tomato soup of your childhood - for grown-ups. Spice is nice, and the smoke of the chipotle gives it character and nuance.

2)      This soup can be a complete meal with the addition of rice, couscous or orzo.

3)      It can be used as a sauce on scrambled eggs or polenta.

AND! If you aren’t making this soup for vegetarian Jews, like I was, lose the olive oil for sautéing and cut up 6 strips of bacon. Render the fat by cooking the bacon on medium low heat. Before the bacon has the chance to get crispy, add the carrot and onions.

Ingredients sometimes make a better picture than the finished product. Well ok, not true. But my guests ate all the soup before I could get a photo.

For dinner last night, this soup was my first course, which I served with a miniature grilled cheese sandwich. Other garnish options I have used in the past: Fried Basil Leaf, Fried Chipotle Pepper, Basil Marshmallows, Crème Fraiche, Basil Cream Fraiche , and gazpacho quenelle*.

Hero of this dish: Liquid Smoke

Some of you may have been clever enough to notice that this is not one of the ingredients in the recipe. That is because I am a big ol’ cheater! When this soup is made with both bacon and chipotles it is smoky and spicy. Sometimes too spicy for those of us who are glow-in-the-dark pale and vegetarian. In this case, only put in half a chipotle (no bacon of course) and one tablespoon of liquid hickory smoke. It turns tomato soup into a smoky treat that any southern belle would be proud to partake.

Now for the rest of the meal!

Beef tenderloin with thyme and roasted balsamic mushrooms, sautéed sage carrots, caramelized onions with green beans, sweet and Idaho roasted potatoes and roasted Brussels sprouts.

This beef tenderloin was seasoned with a suet of sausage drippings, fresh thyme, salt and pepper. It was a 5 pound piece that needed 45 minutes to cook at 375 degrees. The mushrooms garnishing the dish were sautéed in olive oil. Once they began to release water, I added balsamic vinegar. After the mushrooms were finished I kept them warm in the same pan as the finished beef tenderloin.

The Brussels sprouts were roasted with just a little olive oil at 375 for 25 minutes.

The potato wedges just needed a little salt, pepper and powdered sage at 375 for 45 minutes. 

The carrots were cut into an elongated oblique shape. I crisped fresh sage in olive oil (butter works great too) before throwing in the carrots. This dish is also amazing with truffle peelings. Use stock to give these beauties a glazed effect.

The most time consuming item to make on this menu is the caramelized onions and green beans. The green beans are boiled in salted water and then cooled in ice water until needed again. The caramelized onions are sliced super thin on a mandolin and sautéed in a non- stick pan on low heat for 45 minutes stirring occasionally to evenly cook the onions. Once the onions are brown, then turn the heat to high, toss in the green beans and mix.

* Leave a note in the comments for any of these recipes if you would like further instructions.