A New Recipe - Tomato Bisque Soup

Yesterday, I tried a new recipe and I thought I'd pass it along. One of my favorite things to have is Tomato Bisque Soup. I had never tried to make it but love having the restaurant kind. So, in the often used phrase of one of my favorite tv shows from the BBC (the show is Top Gear by the way - and I know nothing about cars - just love the presenters): "How hard can it be?" I searched online for recipes and then went shopping. I sort of made it up as I went along.

Here's what I used:
1 can of petite diced tomatoes (28 ounce can - I think it was Hunts)
1 can of vegetarian vegetable broth (14.5 ounce can)
2 TBS of tomato paste
1/2 medium onion finely diced
1 TBS sugar
Salt and Pepper to taste. I like a lot of black pepper!
A dash of Oregano
1/2 to 3/4 cup cream (you could use half and half or just milk if you'd rather)

Here's what I did:
Saute the onion in a couple of teaspoons of olive oil. Add the big can of diced tomatoes, the vegetable broth (you could use chicken broth as most of the recipes I read used it), the tomato paste, sugar, salt and pepper, and oregano. Let this simmer for 15 minutes or so. Be sure to taste so that you can adjust the seasonings. Then add the cream and let it come to a boil again. It's just about ready to eat then. Lower the heat and simmer until you are ready to serve it. Serve with some crusty bread for dipping.
The recipes I read said to puree the tomatoes, but we liked the texture of the tomatoes and onions in soup. I can't tell you if the leftovers heat up well as there was none left! I think this could serve 4 people if your bowls are medium size, but if it's the main course it will serve 2 nicely.

And so as not to make this a dull post, here's a cute photo of Beaker in front of the Christmas tree shortly before he and Kim left to go back to Pittsburgh.

Mr. Big Eyes