Joe's Choice Wednesday: TOMATO SOUP

NaBloPoMo: Day 15

I don't want to scare you. Are you sitting? Swallow your coffee, soda, wine, beer, or what-have-you. OK? Is your oral cavity evacuated? I am trying to save your computer and monitor screen. No need to thank me. Really. It is all in a day-in-the-life of labor for me as a mother, pancreas, wife, nurse, friend, make-up expert, 1/2 marathon trainer, fashionista...

AND...

"DOMESTIC GODDESS"...

I bet that one surprised you. Yep, I can scrub a toothpaste encrusted sink drain, sweep shoe tread clumped mud chunks, and dust spittle coated cracker crumbs with the best of them and I like to cook "healthy" food made from locally grown veggies. We belong to a CSA named Bread and Roses. Bridget, Joe, and I drive out to the farm weekly to pick-up our produce from June through October. It is reasonably priced and I get to expose Bridget and Joe to the growing process and harvesting procedures, while introducing a variety of vegetables to their diet. The past couple of weeks we have accumulated over five pounds of tomatoes from our CSA visits.

So...

As if Joe isn't enough work with the "temporary" over-time pancreas job that he involuntarily hired me for, he also loves some labor-intensive foods. His absolute favorite homemade soup is tomato. He loves it from scratch with real tomatoes. He begs for it all summer. It starts when the little nubbins of green fruit start to emerge from the yellow flower on the plant and it continues on, and on, and on, and on until the fruit is finally ripe.

Without further delay our Fresh Tomato Soup Recipe post.

This is a great recipe for this time of year. It gives you one more thing to do with the abundance of tomatoes yielded from a good growing season. AND. Yes, I realize this post is a little tame after the penis-pancreas connection and the alien abduction. I guess I want you guys to know deep down I am a "normal" person trapped in a prophane adjective and adverb slingin' comedienne's body. Smiles.

INGREDIENTS:
4 cups fresh tomatoes
1 sliced onion
4 whole cloves
2 cups chicken broth
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons white sugar, or to taste

DIRECTIONS:

Blanche whole tomatoes in boiling water for 15 seconds. Let them cool to the point of handling them safely. Then peel the skin off. Halve the tomatoes to de-seed them. Then dice the tomato flesh.

Blanching

Peeling

Peeled and De-seeded

In a stockpot, over medium heat, combine the tomatoes, onion, cloves and chicken broth. Bring to a boil, and gently boil for about 20 minutes to blend all of the flavors. Remove from heat and blenderize the mixture.

Boiling

Joe "manning" the blender

In the now empty stockpot, melt the butter over medium heat. Stir in the flour to make a roux, cooking until the roux is a medium brown. Gradually whisk in a bit of the tomato mixture, so that no lumps form, then stir in the rest. Season with sugar and salt, and adjust to taste.

NUTRITIONAL INFORMATION: Garden Fresh Tomato Soup
Servings Per Recipe: 6
Amount Per Serving
Calories: 81
Total Fat: 4.3g
Cholesterol: 12mg
Sodium: 803mg
Total Carbs: 9.4g
Dietary Fiber: 1.8g
Protein: 1.9g

A day-in-the-life of making wholesome food for my family and my high maintenance type 1 kid.