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Creamy Tomato Basil Soup + A Giveaway

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Disclosure: I received samples from Swanson® for review purposes, as well as soup dinnerware/serveware for this post. All opinions are completely my own, based on my experience. Swanson also provided the prize for this giveaway.

Creamy Tomato Basil Soup

Just a couple of days ago, my husband and I started looking into redoing some aspects of our kitchen. Well, it’s been on the backburner for quite some time, but we seriously looked for the first time this past week.

While I love our current house, I’ve always drooled over gorgeous granite countertops in other homes. I highly doubt we’ll have granite in our kitchen before the holiday season, but hey, it will be soon enough!

Speaking of the holiday season, our radio station started playing Christmas music 24/7. Holy moly….I’m so ready to fork out the decorations and wrap presents! I know I’m in the minority, my husband included..he immediately dismissed me asking him to pull down Christmas stuff when we were putting up Halloween decorations last week. 😛

With the holiday season growing near, we’re finally feeling weather in the 40s (and sometimes, even 30s) here in south Louisiana. Since then, I’ve been craving a lot more soup than usual. After I had some dental work done last month, all that really sounded good was tomato soup (I’m pretty sure I had it 3 times that week), and I wanted to make a big pot of it ever since! I just can’t shake the craving!

The folks at Swanson reached out to me, and asked me if I’d like to try out their new products. I’m a big fan of Swanson broths, so of course, I couldn’t say no! For the new products, I was sent their new cream starters, as well as the Louisiana Cajun and Tuscan Chicken flavor infused broths.

Since I was craving tomato soup, I thought that the Tuscan Chicken broth would be perfect for this recipe. When I opened the broth, I immediately noticed how delicious it smelled. I heated up a small bit of this broth to try it on its own, and it’s just SO flavorful. It would totally work in a simple chicken soup, but it also worked beautifully in this tomato soup.

This soup doesn’t take very long to make, and while it’s delicious right out of the pot, it’s even better the next day, once the flavors meld. While I had the soup on its own this time around, I know it would be perfect with a nice, toasty grilled cheese sandwich. 🙂 It’s just perfect for these cooler months.

Creamy Tomato Basil Soup
Source: heavily adapted from Chow

Ingredients:

  • 1 tbsp. olive oil
  • 1 tbsp. unsalted butter
  • 1 medium yellow onion, roughly chopped
  • 1/2 tsp. salt
  • 1/4 tsp. freshly ground pepper
  • 2-28 oz. cans of San Marzano whole peeled tomatoes (still in the juices)
  • 6 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 cup Swanson Tuscan Chicken broth
  • 1 tsp. granulated sugar
  • 1/3 cup heavy cream

Directions:

  1. Heat the oil and butter in a dutch oven over medium heat. When the butter starts foaming, add in the yellow onion and the 1/2 tsp. salt and 1/4 tsp. ground pepper. Cook the onions, stirring regularly, until the onion is softening and is just starting to brown (about 10-15 minutes).
  2. Add the tomatoes and juices to the pot, and gently stir to crush the tomatoes. Stir in the garlic. Add in the chicken broth, and bring the soup to a gentle simmer. Add in the granulated sugar. Keep simmering the soup until the tomatoes start to fall apart, in about 10 minutes.
  3. Remove the soup from the heat, and allow the soup to slightly cool. Using an immersion blender, carefully puree the soup, until it’s just chunky (or if you’d rather it smoother, blend it longer). Place the pot back on the stove over low heat, and stir in the heavy cream. Enjoy!

The generous folks at Swanson want to offer one lucky reader of The Nifty Foodie a prize package containing their latest products, as well as a soup tureen, soup bowls & cute chevron napkins (pictured below)!

Swanson Soup Accessories (1)
Image provided by Swanson

Fun, right? I received the exact same thing, and I’m in love with the bowls already…they’re so perfect for soup!

Enter the giveaway using the Rafflecopter widget below (continental US readers only):

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Note: This giveaway is provided by Swanson, and is open to readers in the continental US only. Entries will be accepted until November 17th, 2014 at 11:59pm (central standard time). Winner will be emailed (make sure you leave an email address in the form), and will have 48 hours to respond or another winner will be chosen.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  5. I’d have to go full-on potato soup. My mother made it for me when I was a kid and it’s still me go-to comfort food.

    An aside – Yesterday when I was visiting my 88 year old grandparents my grandfather was excitedly sharing how Swanson broth was only 50 cents a can at Wal-Mart yesterday and he bought enough to last a year!

    Hey! Maybe he will make potato soup!?

    Reply

  7. Tomato basil sounds brilliant! Or maybe chicken enchilada soup! I love so many different soups it’s hard to choose a favorite!

    Reply

  9. I definitely want to try this recipe! I’ll probably make some potato and veggie soups also. I would like to give the Louisiana Cajun broth a try the next time I make red bean gumbo! yum!

    Reply

  12. Try havarti for your grilled cheese! Oh man if it wasn’t so late I’d run to the store for these ingredients and make it right now.

    Reply

  19. Like the rest of the nation, we are in the middle of a cold snap. This calls for a nice hearty beef stew to warm us up.

    Reply

  26. I would make my favorite soup: Tuscan Vegetable Soup. It’s so healthy and easy to make, plus I have leftovers for days.

    Reply

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