Jade Keller

Wait, don’t go! Are you still here? I promise this is worth it! I’m not a fan of tomato soup, and my husband likes it even less. I’ll at least eat cioppino and bouillabaisse. He’ll only eat the mussels out of the bouillabaisse. But this tomato soup is fantastic! I think the trick is in the creamy bit and the basil bit. Are you also frightened of the homemade breadsticks bit? Don’t be. I don’t make my own bread from scratch either, but this is totally doable.

And soooo worth it on a cold night, when you just want something warm in your belly. Or on fancy nights when you want to impress your guests with a first course of soup.

I got both the creamy tomato basil soup recipe and the breadsticks recipe from one of my favorite recipe websites, Our Best Bites. They also have an amazing corn chowder. You should check it out.

I would start with the bread sticks. Their instructions are pretty easy to follow, but the bread needs time to rise, so it’s good to give yourself plenty of time for this. The only thing that I came across that I would do differently next time is that in their recipe they have you butter and season the bread sticks with garlic and salt, etc. after they’re baked. I’m not sure why they have us do this. When I did it this way, it seemed the seasonings all fell off too easily. Since the baking time is not that long, I would try buttering and seasoning them before putting them in the oven to help the seasonings stick better to the dough. I use garlic powder, kosher or sea salt, parmesean, oregano and a tiny bit of rosemary.

See? I covered the sh*t out of these babies. But here you can see the seasoning all fell off:
But they are soft, hot and delicious.

(I tried the cinnamon and sugar option, but I wasn’t totally convinced. I think for it to work, you would need a bit of icing like the kind you use on cinnamon rolls. YUM. Santa Barbara peeps: Woodstock’s cinnamon pizza anyone??)

For the soup, the recipe calls for 2 cans of diced tomatoes. I used 1 can of fire-roasted tomatoes, and then used the equivalent amount of fresh, chopped tomatoes I got from the Farmer’s Market. These tomatoes are so sweet and flavorful, I think they add a bit of extra yumminess. I followed up the recipe with a healthy dose of cayenne because we like our food with a little kick, and topped it with real, fresh grated Parmesan and basil leaves. (Hint: I used a vegetable peeler to get those nice, thick slices of Parmesan.) SO GOOD.

The process is a little time consuming, but the results are dynamite! Especially if you use fresh ingredients for the soup.

Survey says?
♥♥♥♥ Wow this is amazing for a special meal! And by special I mean: dinner party with friends, romantic dinner with hubby, or any time you just need some warm lovely goodness in your belly. In fact, I’ve made this meal twice in the last three weeks – kind of saying something given the time involved.

Happy Hallow’s Eve everyone!

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Rating System:

♥♥♥♥♥ Omigod this is awesome, I could eat it every night!
♥♥♥♥ Wow this is amazing for a special meal!
♥♥♥ Great choice for a dinner party!
♥♥ Hey, that was pretty good. We should have it again sometime.
♥ Eh. S’all right….
♠ Ugh, no! That was so bad I just had to share.

After trying this baby out, it quickly became a go-to meal.