To me, this weather is atrocious.

I’m not a fan of the cold, and I’m not a fan of rainy days. Needless to say, I’ve been spending a lot of time in my apartment. The roads aren’t great, so that means not only am I in my apartment, but I’m left unable to get out of cooking my own meals due to dwindling amounts of Jimmy Johns giftcards and an unwillingness to shell out for more expensive delivered food.

When you think rainy day, comfort food tomato soup is usually one of the first things on anyone’s mind and I am no different. I also happened to have about eight tomatoes left over from my previous two Bountiful Baskets, so instead of doing homework I went down the Pinterest rabbithole to find the perfect tomato soup recipe. Here’s what I decided on:

Fresh Tomato Soup
Author: www.raisinggenerationnourished.com
Ingredients
• ¼ cup friendly fat to cook in (butter, coconut oil, lard)
• 2 medium onions, sliced
• 2 large carrots, coarsely chopped
• 3-4 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped
• 1 quart chicken bone broth
• 2 TB organic tomato paste
• 2 TB basil (Could use fresh if you have it! Probably about ¼ cup or so)
• 5 large tomatoes (or 6-7 small/medium), seeded and juices scooped out (OR if it is winter, you could use two 32oz cans of tomatoes, drained)
• Sea salt/pepper to taste
• 2 tsp raw honey
Instructions
Sauté the onions and carrots in the friendly fat for about 10-15 minutes. Add a pinch of salt while they cook to bring the juices out and let them sweeten up and cook.
Add the garlic and tomato paste, and cook a minute.
Add the tomatoes, basil, and stock, and bring to a boil.
Reduce to a simmer about 25 minutes.
Take the soup off the heat, and add the raw honey to balance out the acid of the tomatoes.
Puree with an immersion blender or regular blender.
I loved it. Yes, it was a little extra work with the veggies, but my god it came out delicious. Delicious enough that I forgot to take a photo of my own batch. If you’re like me and the closest thing to a blender is one of the little single-serve smoothie ones, the last step will require some extra time as there’s only so much you can put in that at one time without (also like me) spraying your cabinets with hot tomato soup because of a blender accident. Overall, this is definitely something I will be making again. The best part was the flexibility of this recipe. The leftovers froze very well, and defrosted in a soup pot just as well. I threw left-over orzo in to make it a bit more filling, and rice would work just as well.
If you try the recipe, or if you have one you think is even better, drop a comment below!