Tomato Soup: All Grown Up

Imagine your old, regular can of Campbell's Tomato Soup. Now add some onion, tomato chunks, a little cream, and a whole lotta sherry! Voila!

This is another one of Pioneer Woman's fabulous recipes. I loved it but my husband was a bit thrown off by the sherry. Whatever, more for me. It's a great way to get rid of some of those excess tomatoes that everyone is throwing at you right now!

Sherried Tomato Soup
Source: Pioneer Woman Cooks
Print this Recipe

Ingredients:

6 tablespoons melted butter
1 medium onion, diced
1 46-ounce bottle or can tomato juice
2 14 ounce cans diced tomatoes (or 3 1/2-4 cups fresh, diced tomatoes)
1 to 3 tablespoons chicken base
3 to 6 tablespoons sugar (used splenda)
Pinch of salt
Black Pepper
1 cup cooking sherry
1 1/2 cups heavy cream (used light cream)
chopped fresh parsley
chopped fresh basil

Directions:

1. Melt butter in a stockpot and saute onions until translucent. Add tomatoes, tomato juice, sugar, salt and pepper. Stir thoroughly. Bring to a boil and turn off heat.

2. Add in sherry and cream and stir. Add parsley and basil to taste. (I added 2 T dried parsley and 1 T. dried basil)

Acorn Squash Bisque

My Coworker came in with tons and tons of acorn squash as a result of a gardening accident. I had made this bisque last year with butternut squash and it was fabulous so I decided to give it a go with the acorn squash. I know something is a hit when my husband tells me I should open a restaurant while eating. Shhhhh....I think he thinks I make these recipes up. We'll let him continue to ponder how amazing I am.

Acorn Squash Bisque
Adapted from Allrecipes.com

Ingredients:
1 T. olive oil
1 T. butter
1/2 cup diced onion
3/4 cup diced carrots
2 acorn squash
3 cups vegetable stock
salt and pepper to taste
ground nutmeg to taste
1/2 cup cream (used light)

Directions:

1. Cut acorn squash in half and remove the seeds. Bake at 350 degrees for 60 min or until soft. Scoop out squash and place aside.

2. Heat the oil and melt the butter in a large pot over medium heat. Cook and stir the onion in the butter and oil under tender.

3. Mix the carrots and squash into the pot. Pour in vegetable stock, and season with salt, pepper, and nutmeg. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer until vegetables are tender.

4. In a blender or food processor, puree the soup mixture until smooth. ( I skipped this part and instead used a potato masher to break up any chunks.) Return to the pot, and stir in the heavy cream. Heat through, but do not boil. Serve warm with a dash of nutmeg.

Baked Potato Soup

I love Houlihan's Baked Potato Soup! I used to travel 45 minutes just to get myself some, so when I found this copycat recipe I knew I had to give it a try. It turned out just as tasty as the original.

Houlihan's Copycat Baked Potato Soup

Source: http://www.calorie-count.com/

Ingredients-

1 cup skim milk
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 tsp tabasco sauce
3/4 tsp dried basil
1 cup instant potato flakes
1/4 cup chicken broth
5 cups water
1/3 cup flour
2 cups yellow onion - diced
1/2 cup margarine
4 large potatoes
salt, to taste
pepper, to taste

Bacon

cheddar cheese

scallions

Directions-

1. Preheat oven to 400. Prick washed potatoes & bake until a fork pierces the center easily. Remove potatoes from oven & allow to fully cool. Remove skin & cut potatoes into 1/2" cubes. Set aside.

2. Melt butter in a large saucepan. Add onions & saute over low heat for 10 mins or until onions are translucent. Don't allow onions to burn.

3. Add flour to onions & cook 4-5 mins, stirring well until flour is absorbed.

4. In a separate container, combine water, chicken broth, potato flakes, and seasonings. Stir or whisk thoroughly to eliminate lumps. Add slowly to onion mixture, stirring constantly so no lumps form.
5. Increase to med. heat & continue cooking until the soup begins to gently simmer. Add milk & cream, stirring until smooth and slightly thickened. Simmer for 15 mins. Do not boil. Soup should just simmer lightly.
6. Add cubed baked potatoes & stir to combine. Remove from heat & serve. Top each serving with grated Cheddar cheese, sliced scallions [green onions], & bacon pieces.

Broccoli Cheddar Soup

I was off work for a snow day and really felt like making some soup. I found this recipe on http://www.allrecipes.com/ and made a few changes based on reviewer's suggestions. I didn't have any cornstarch so I used a cup of heavy cream as one of the cups of milk to thicken it up a bit. It came out delicious!

Broccoli Cheddar Soup
Source: Allrecipes

Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter
1 onion, chopped
2 (14-16 oz) packages frozen chopped broccoli
3 (14.5 ounce) cans chicken broth
1 (2 pound) loaf processed cheese, cubed
2 cups milk
1 tablespoon garlic powder
2/3 cup cornstarch (omitted)
1 cup water (omitted)

Directions:


1. In a stockpot, melt butter over medium heat. Cook onion in butter until softened. Stir in broccoli, and cover with chicken broth. Simmer until broccoli is tender, 10 to 15 minutes.

2. Reduce heat, and stir in cheese cubes until melted. Mix in milk and garlic powder.

3. In a small bowl, stir cornstarch into water until dissolved. Stir into soup; cook, stirring frequently, until thick. I added a pinch of shredded cheddar cheese before serving.

Crockpot French Onion Soup

My husband love, love, loves Applebee's French Onion Soup! So I found a copycat recipe online and combined it with a crockpot recipe I found on Living Insanity's Blog . It turned out very good! I used low sodium beef broth (thats all I had) but then added salt.

Crockpot French Onion Soup

Ingredients:

4 cans beef broth (low sodium)

4 small white onions

1 pack onion soup mix (recommended: Lipton's)

2 t. salt

1 t. pepper

2 t. onion powder

6 slices provolone cheese

3 hamburger buns

parmesan cheese (optional)

1. Combine onions, broth, soup mix, salt, pepper, and onion powder in a slow cooker. Cook on HIGH setting for 4 hours, or LOW setting for 8 hours.

2. To make the croutons, cut off the top part of each top of the hamburger bun so that the bread is the same thickness as the bottom half of each bun. Now you should have 6 round pieces of bread--3 bottoms and 3 tops with the tops cut off.

3. Place the bread directly on the oven racks and bake for 15 to 20 minutes at 325 degrees, or until each pieces is dark brown and crispy. When the soup is done, spoon about 1 cup into an oven safe bowl. Put a crouton on top, and put the provolone cheese on top of the crouton. If you want, sprinkle 1/2 tsp of the shredded parmesan over the provolone.

4. Set oven to high broil and put the bowl into your oven. Broil soup for 5 or 6 minutes, or until cheese is melted and is starting to brown. Before serving add another teaspoon or so of grated parmesan, if desired.