Tomato Basil Soup

I love, love tomato basil soup. I can’t even remember where I first had it, but I had to figure out how to make it! I made it several times last year- I also love having a basil plant in my front yard! It is a huge money saver. I spent about $3 on the plant, and have had an endless supply all summer. It costs about $3 to buy one bunch at the grocery store, and when it’s gone, it’s gone!

Enough chatting, let’s make some soup!

Go to your front yard, and pick some basil. 🙂
{I especially love growing basil because it’s a hot-weather-loving plant. It’s hot in Houston, have you heard?}

Throw a bunch of tomatoes into your blender.
Be sad because you don’t have a “real live” food processor.

Add a whole bunch of the basil you just picked.

Get your cream out of the fridge, and thank God for inventing cream!
{If I’d had two of these, I’d have used both of them!}

Pour the cream into the blender.
Add salt and pepper, and a few cloves of garlic if you like that sort of thing.
You can also see on the basil where I added balsamic vinegar. Not necessary, but yummy!

Then blend away! And pretend there are pictures of blending here. 🙂

Heat up some butter in a soup pot.

Pour in the mixture you blended really, really well. {You probably don’t want tiny bits of basil in there!}
Add chicken broth.

 Warm up until it’s as hot as you like. {be sure not to boil it; cream doesn’t like to boil!}

 Then dish out into bowls, and serve with grilled cheese on sourdough. 🙂 It’s a very delish lunch or dinner, indeed!

Creamy Tomato Basil Soup:

• one large bunch basil
• 7-8 tomatoes, cored
• 1/2 to 1 pint cream
• 2 Tbs. balsamic vinegar, if desired.
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/4 tsp. black pepper
• 1-2 garlic cloves, if desired
• 3-4 Tbs. butter
• 2 cans chicken broth