Foody Friday - Crockpot Tomato Basil Parmesan Soup

I found this soup Tomato Basil Parmesan Soup

 recipe on Pinterest back during the summer and only recently felt like trying it out. I'm so glad I did. On a cool winter day it was the perfect meal. 

I also really love it when I find a photo of a recipe and after I make the said recipe, my food looks like the original photo. It gives me faith in my abilities as a cook! 

Of course being that it was soup DR refused to try it. Where as I could live on soup all winter long he won't touch it. Of course my kids saw the green sprinkled herbs in the soup and immediately decided it was disgusting and they would surely die if consuming such a horrendous dish...all without tasting it mind you. 

Since I was the only one in the house smart enough to enjoy the soup I decided to try freezing some pint jars with the leftovers. I've never done this before and only read on another blog about freezing soup in jars. So far so good, I mean nothing has exploded in my freezer yet or anything. I haven't thawed it out yet to try it but I'm confident it will be great. 

Tomato Basil Parmesan Soup
2 (14 oz) cans diced tomatoes, with juice
1 cup finely diced celery
1 cup finely diced carrots
1 cup finely diced onions
1 tsp dried oregano or 1 T fresh oregano
1 T dried basil or 1/4 cup fresh basil
4 cups chicken broth
½ bay leaf (didn't have any)
½ cup flour
1 cup Parmesan cheese
½ cup butter

1 1/2 cups of half and half, warmed 

(I used cold milk...worked fine but only used about a cup.) 

1 tsp salt
¼ tsp black pepper

1. Add tomatoes, celery, carrots, chicken broth, onions, oregano, basil, and bay leaf to a large slow cooker.

2. Cover and cook on LOW for 5-7 hours, until flavors are blended and vegetables are soft.

3. About 30 minutes before serving prepare a roux. Melt butter over low heat in a skillet and add flour. Stir constantly with a whisk for 5-7 minutes. Slowly stir in 1 cup hot soup. Add another 3 cups and stir until smooth. Add all back into the slow cooker. Stir and add the Parmesan cheese, warmed half and half, salt and pepper. Add additional basil and oregano if needed (the slow cooker does a number on spices and they get bland over time, so don't be afraid to always season to taste at the end). 

4. Cover and cook on LOW for another 30 minutes or so until ready to serve.

THE. Tomato. Soup. The only recipe you'll ever need.

That's how I feel after I make my Gr. Grandma Brown's tomato soup. 
I just. don't. want. to. share.

My Great Grandma Brown's Tomato Soup. 
Ah! 
It's my ultimate comfort food. 

It's the only tomato soup I grew up eating. The stuff from the grocery store just tastes vile! This is sooo much better but the last few years it's been tough to get enough tomato juice to can enough to last a whole year. I've tried substituting store bought juice for the juice I get from my own tomatoes but it just isn't the same. 

I've blogged about making Running Soup a few times in the past, about once a year if I get a chance to make any. I've made it in big batches and in small batches. 

If I have a chance I'll always make a BIG BIG batch! 

Now THAT is a lot of soup! 

I ended up with 14 quarts today! Not too shabby considering I've scrimped and saved tomato juice all summer long. 

Tomato Soup and Grilled Cheese Sandwiches for dinner tonight!! Nothing better on a cold windy day like we have in SW Kansas today. 

Now for the dishes. 

I don't even mind the pile either because it just means that I have my tomato soup! 

Great Grandma's Tomato Soup

7-9 qts. of tomato juice

2 bunches of celery

6 onions

3 green peppers

10 or so large carrots (or a couple bags of baby carrots)

1 t black pepper

2 sticks of butter (not margarine)

1 1/2 c. sugar

1 1/2 c. flour

1/4 c. salt

Chop and puree all veggies and add to tomato juice. Boil for 30 minutes. Pull out a few cups of juice and allow to cool. Blend the remaining ingredients into the cool juice with a blender then return to hot soup. Cook 15 more minutes.

While soup is place canning jars and lids upside down in a few inches of boiling water to sterilize. Fill jars, one at a time, with hot soup. Wipe rims and fasten lid and ring. Sit on counter to allow it to self seal. Leave jars sit for 24 hours before moving. 

Note: The open kettle method of canning isn't FDA approved but my family has been doing it this way for at least four generations and none of us have died yet from eating this soup! This is the way I learned to can this soup, it's always worked for me and I'm not changing now. 

Foody Friday - Running Soup (the small batch)

This is my VERY favorite soup to make!! Mostly because this was the only tomato soup I ever ate growing up and because my mom and grandma would can huge batches of it every summer. Wonderful memories!! When I finally was able to grow my own tomatoes, about 5 years ago, I canned TONS of this soup!! The boys were only 2 or 3 years old at the time and the only way I could get them to eat it was tell them eating this soup would make them run faster. HA HA!! Now they are in love with it too! 

Due to a bad tomato crop and moving to Kansas it has been WAY TOO LONG since I've made this soup! I tried to make it once using canned tomato juice from the store but it just didn't taste right. Tomato juice straight from your garden tomatoes is the only way to make this soup! (In my humble opinion anyway!)This week I finally had enough tomatoes from our garden to make soup. 

The problem is I've always made this soup in huge batches to can....but I only had 1 1/2 quarts of juice from my small bunch of tomatoes. So I did the math, tweaked things a bit and made up a small batch....aaahhhh, music to my mouth it was!! 

Great Grandma Brown's Tomato Soup

AKA - Running Soup

1 1/2 qt. tomato juice 

(from store or garden, that's up to you)

1/2 green pepper

1 small onion

1/2 c. chopped celery

1/2 c. chopped carrots

2 T butter (not margarine)

1/4 c. sugar, scant

1/4 c. flour

1 1/2 t. salt

1/4 t. pepper

Chop and puree all vegetables in blender; add to juice and boil for 30 minutes.

Pull out a cup of juice and allow to cool. Blend in remaining ingredients to cooled juice, then add to to hot soup. Taste and adjust salt/pepper/sugar as needed. Cook 15 more minutes and serve warm with toasted cheese sandwiches! YUM!! 

Foody Friday - Great Grandma's Tomato Soup

* Don't forget to enter my book giveaway!

For today's post I have decided to share a family recipe with you. My Great Grandmother's Tomato Soup recipe....*sniff*....excuse me while I go get a tissue. This is very emotional for me.

No, it's not that I'm emotional about my Gr. Grandmother...I barely remember her. I'm crying over this jar of soup. See this jar? It is my last jar of tomato soup.

I love this soup. It's thick and hearty and brings up precious memories of my childhood. Yip and Yap love this soup. They call it running soup. When they were 3 years old, they only ate it after I told them it would make them run faster. A little white lie to get my kids to eat healthy; I don't think God would mind.

See the date? It's almost two years old. I've been saving it for a special occasion...you know, for when the Queen comes to visit or something! 

 

We had a garden during the summer of 2008 and we had tomatoes!! Boy, did we have tomatoes. I juiced and sliced and canned tomatoes. I put up over 50 quarts of this tomato soup. Life was good!

But last year our tomatoes hardly did a thing. They were planted late because of the wet spring and the summer wasn't hot enough. By September, I had a garden full of green tomatoes. *Sniff* I didn't get any tomato soup made last year! Now, we are moving to Kansas and I won't have tomatoes this summer either. It has been a heartbreaking thought; no tomato soup.

However, I'm going to turn my depression to joy and share my recipe with you.

For all you gardeners, I hope you can use this recipe this year!  

Great Grandma's Tomato Soup

7-9 qts. of tomato juice

2 bunches of celery

6 onions

3 green peppers

10 or so large carrots (or a couple bags of baby carrots)

1 t black pepper

2 sticks of butter (not margarine)

1 1/2 c. sugar

1 1/2 c. flour

1/4 c. salt

Chop and puree all veggies and add to tomato juice. Boil for 30 minutes. Pull out a few cups of juice and allow to cool. Blend the remaining ingredients into the cool juice with a blender then return to hot soup. Cook 15 more minutes.

While soup is place canning jars and lids upside down in a few inches of boiling water to sterilize. Fill jars, one at a time, with hot soup. Wipe rims and fasten lid and ring. Sit on counter to allow it to self seal. Leave jars sit for 24 hours before moving. 

Note: I'm not sure if this method of canning is FDA approved but my family has been doing it this way for at least four generations and none of us have died yet from eating this soup!