creamy tomato basil soup and jalapeño cornbread muffins

Once or twice a month, we don’t seem to have any leftovers for me to take to lunch at work the next day. As inconvenient as this may seem, I secretly look forward to it because of Panera’s Creamy Tomato Soup. I never ate tomato soup growing up, but that’s probably because I never realized there was anything other than Campbell’s canned tomato soup. Thank goodness life now has more options.

My mom and I were recently impressed with the Tomato Basil Soup at Flying Biscuit, and as a result, my mom made her own version of it last week. I took her recipe, omitted and added some ingredients to fit my pantry and, of course, doubled it to created a homemade version of Creamy Tomato Basil Soup. At first, I was worried it might be too creamy, if anyone can consider that a problem. But the acidity of the fresh grape tomatoes really balanced out the flavor. It’s delicious if you crumble in some Jalapeño Cornbread muffins.

Creamy Tomato Basil Soup

Ingredients

• 1 large onion, diced
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tsp butter
• 2 cans no salt added diced tomatoes
• 1 can Rotel tomatoes
• 1 can tomato sauce
• 2 cans chicken broth
• 1 pint half and half cream
• 1/4 cup Trader Joe’s organic ketchup
• 15 basil leaves, chopped
• dash of salt
• 1 pint grape tomatoes, halved

1. Sauté onion and garlic in butter until onions become transparent.

2. In dutch oven, bring sautéd onion mixture and remaining ingredients, except grape tomatoes, to a boil.

3. Keep at rolling boil for 15 minutes, then add in grape tomatoes and reduce to simmer for 15 minutes.

4. Blend to desired consistency using immersion blender/hand blender.

5. Serve with grated parmesan or Trader Joe’s raw milk cheddar cheese, my personal fav.

Maybe next time I’ll try to make this soup using coconut milk instead of cream.

Gluten-Free Jalapeño Cornbread Muffins

Ingredients

• 2 cups cornmeal
• 1/2 cup half and half
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 cup water
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 2 eggs
• 1 can corn, drained
• 1 jalapeño, minced (add more if you like it spicy)
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp honey

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees and place muffin tin in oven while it’s warming.

2. Place all ingredients in medium mixing bowl and blend.

3. Remove muffin tin from the oven and grease. Then fill muffin cups to the brim and bake for roughly 15 minutes.