Tomato basil bisque

Most Sundays I make a fresh pot of soup to keep on hand for lunch and dinner during the week. My tomato bisque soup is simple to make, using canned tomatoes to keep the prep work to a minimum.

This is not the tomato soup you grew up with. I love the extra flavor in the canned fire roasted tomatoes, whose blackened bits add color to the soup. This is full of fresh basil and herbs and has a bright, refreshing flavor.

I’m not sure whether I like this recipe better pareve or with added cream. I typically lean toward dairy, but this is so flavorful and hearty in its vegan form that it’s hard to choose.

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This bisque is especially yummy served with seasoned flatbread, garlic toast or fresh bread with butter, and my family loves to have this alongside grilled cheese.

Ingredients
Serves 6, generously

4 tablespoons olive oil
Half a large yellow onion, diced, about 1 ¾ cups
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 28-ounce can of fire roasted tomatoes
1 29-ounce can of tomato sauce
Water, see instructions
3 teaspoons sugar
1 bay leaf
¼ cup loosely packed fresh whole basil leaves
½ teaspoon fresh thyme or a pinch of dry
1 teaspoon sea salt
¾ teaspoon of Aleppo pepper or paprika
Optional:
1 tablespoon heavy cream per bowl of soup, served at the table

The most time-consuming step is sautéing the onions in olive oil, which takes about 15 minutes, but it’s important for the flavor that the onions cook slowly and evenly.

Place a larger-sized soup pot over medium-low heat to warm for a couple of minutes before adding the olive oil to the pot. Allow the oil to warm for 2 minutes, then add the diced onions. Stir the onions into the oil; stir every 2-3 minutes until the onions soften. Watch the heat on the onions and turn it up or down as needed to avoid the onions burning on the edges.

Add the garlic and stir constantly for about 1 minute or until fragrant.

Pour the entire can of fire roasted tomatoes into the onions and oil, mix well and raise the heat to medium. Set the empty can aside for later.

Add the bay leaf, fresh basil leaves, thyme, sea salt and pepper. You can use black pepper if you prefer, but I love the light smokiness of red peppers. Stir in the herbs and simmer for 5 minutes.

Add the can of tomato sauce to the pot.

Fill each of the tomato cans ¾ full with water. This will get all of the tomato bits out of the can, which will contribute to the broth. Pour the water into the soup, raise the heat to medium-high and bring to a soft boil.

Add 3 teaspoons of sugar. (It’s folklore but I swear by it: A little sugar in any tomato-based recipe will reduce indigestion.)

Reduce the heat to medium-low and cook uncovered for 25-30 minutes.

This comes together easily so it may look done about 15 minutes into this step, but it’s important to allow it to cook fully so there is depth of flavor. Vegan and vegetarian food can be made from very simple ingredients but they need time and care to bring out the best flavors.

Remove the bay leaf from the pot.

Using an immersion blender, or a large blender that can handle hot liquids, puree out the small chunks of tomato and onion in the broth. Even after blending this won’t be perfectly smooth; it has a great texture with some occasional vegetable bits.

If you’d like to make this dairy, add 1 tablespoon of heavy cream per bowl at the table. The heavy cream softens the acidity a bit without watering down the broth. The cream will melt into the soup as you stir it.

Garnish with fresh basil leaves if you like.

Enjoy and bless your hands! PJC

Jessica Grann is a home chef living in Pittsburgh.