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Health & Fitness

Cold Day Comfort: Hearty Tomato Soup

Looking for a hearty soup to keep you warm on these cold nights? Look no further than this Hearty Tomato Soup. Inexpensive and simple to make, and comforting to all!

Hi everyone! Both Johnny and Nicole are hear to say we are so excited to be working with Patch Los Alamitos-Seal Beach. We hope that you find what we have to post regarding local restaurants and our own recipes to be interesting, insightful, and of course, delicious!

Since the weather is starting to get chilly, we've decided to share with you one of Johnny's signature soups to help warm you up during these cold nights for our first post. Don't forget to check out our main blog at www.confessionsoftwocollegefoodies.wordpress.com. And with out further ado, here is Johnny with his Hearty Tomato Soup.

Ciao all! When the weather starts to get cold, I, like everyone else, get a major craving for soup. My favorite: tomato soup! I know there are a lot of tomato soup fans out there, and if you're one of them you are going to love this recipe. This is my Hearty Tomato Soup that I make almost every week during the fall and winter. This soup is luxurious and rich with a kick of spice. This is one of my all time favorite dishes to make in general because there is something almost therapeutic about making a nice pot of soup when you want to stay inside and keep warm. This soup is particularly great because it is simple; you can throw all the ingredients together in 10 minutes, let it cook for another 30, and you're done. And it's frugal. This soup is very inexpensive to make, and you can feed up to 4 people off of just 1 batch. You can even double it to cook for more people, or to keep in the fridge for yourself all week long.

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I like to serve this soup in a nice big bowl along side a green salad and with some good crunchy bread or a grilled cheese sandwich. I'm telling you, this is the ultimate comfort food. I encourage you to abandon that canned soup you see sitting in the isle. You can create a satisfying, nutritious, and most importantly, delicious soup with little effort and a lot of fun with this recipe. It's winter time, so warm your body and soul with my Hearty Tomato Soup!

Hearty Tomato Soup:

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Serves 4

Ingredients:

3 tablespoons unsalted butter

1 large onion, chopped

2 large carrots, peeled and chopped

2 tablespoons crushed garlic

1 15 oz. can cannellini beans, drained and rinsed

1 14.5 oz. can crushed tomatoes

4 cups low sodium chicken stock

1-2 teaspoons fresh rosemary, chopped

1 teaspoon red pepper flakes

1 bay leaf

1 teaspoon of salt

1 teaspoon of black pepper

Toppings:

Sour Cream

Grated Parmesan Cheese

Extra Virgin Olive Oil

In a large pot, melt the butter over medium-high heat. Add the onions, carrots, and garlic, sprinkle with half the salt and pepper and stir together. Saute, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are tender and the onions translucent - about 5 minutes.

Add the cannellini beans, tomatoes, chicken stock, rosemary, red pepper flakes, bay leaf, and remaining salt and pepper. Stir to combine. Bring to a boil. Cover and reduce heat to medium-low. Allow to cook for 30 minutes.

After 30 minutes, fish out and discard the bay leaf. Using an immersion blender, puree the soup until smooth. If you don't have an immersion blender, transfer in batches to a blender or food processor. Just be careful - make sure to remove the center piece from the blender/processor and cover with a kitchen towl so that heat doesn't build up and hold down the top as you puree.

Transfer the soup into bowls. Top each with a dollop of sour cream, drizzle a bit of extra virgin olive oil over, and sprinkle with parmesan cheese. Serve and enjoy!

I hope you found this soup to be inspirational for your fall and winter home menu, now get in that kitchen and start cooking! Bon Apetito!

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