re: Post your favorite soup recipe

Posted by Otis2:

A fine one to try from the RB:


Tomato and Bread Soup

Given that the primary ingredient in this soup is tomato, the quality of tomatoes you use is vital to the taste of the soup. Use a good quality canned tomato such as a San Marzano or Muir Glen. If using fresh tomatoes, use very ripe, in-season tomatoes.
2 cups diced yellow onion
2 Tbs olive oil
5 cloves?garlic, minced
2 28-ounce cans whole peeled tomatoes (or about 4 pounds of fresh, ripe tomatoes, that are blanched, peeled, and chopped*)
3 bay leaves
2 cups of chicken stock
2 more Tbsp olive oil
1 1/2 cups of cubed rustic bread, 1 1/2-inch cubes (about 2 to 3 thick slices of Italian loaf), day old is best
1 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp salt, less or more to taste
Freshly grated Parmesan cheese and chopped fresh basil or parsley for garnish

Procedure


1 To prepare fresh tomatoes for this recipe, cut out the stem end, score the bottoms with a sharp knife. Put into boiling water and boil for 1 minute. Place in ice water to quickly cool. Peel back the tomato peels and discard. Chop the tomatoes, saving as much of the juice as you can. Add the chopped tomatoes and the juice in place of the canned tomatoes in step 2.
2 Heat 2 Tbsp olive oil on medium heat in a 5 to 6-quart thick-bottomed pot. Add the diced onions and cook slowly until softened and beginning to color, about 10-12 minutes. Add minced garlic and cook a minute more.
3 Add tomatoes to the pot with the onions, crushing them by hand as you put them in the pot. Discard any hard stem ends or stray tomato skins. Add chicken stock, bay leaves, and dried oregano. Heat to a simmer and reduce heat to maintain a low simmer. Cook for 20 minutes. As you are cooking the tomato soup base, prepare the bread croutons in the next step.
4 Heat 2 Tbsp olive oil in a sauté pan on medium heat. Once the oil is hot, add the cubed bread to the pan. Toss to coat with the oil and spread the cubes out in a single layer. Let sit in pan without moving until one side is golden browned, then use tongs to turn over to another side. Once at least two sides have browned, remove from heat.
5 Once the tomatoes have cooked for 20 minutes, add the lightly browned croutons to the soup. Cook for 5 minutes. Turn off the heat and cover the pan. Let sit for 10-15 minutes.
6 Remove the bay leaves. Use an immersion blender to roughly purée the soup (about half of the soup, leave some chunky bits).
7 Garnish with freshly grated Parmesan and chopped fresh basil or parsley.
Source: Simply Recipes via OTIS2

ETA: I made this soup. Its very good. I used a quart of chicken stock. It needed more liquid, particularly after adding the bread. I used extra oregano and bay because I thought the bread might dilute the flavor a bit. This recipe doesn't need to be exact. I rather enjoyed the brothy texure before adding the bread. I might use the bread as croutons on top of the soup next time with the freshly grated parmesan.