I’m calling this old-world tomato soup because of the way the French originally thickened things like bisque.  Bisque was originally (and with many classically trained chefs) thickened with rice instead of roux.  So we’re going to thicken our tomato soup with brown rice instead of roux or cornstarch.  Now, you can use white rice if you like, but white rice has been stripped of most of it’s nutrients so brown rice is the healthier choice and it adds a slight nuttiness that makes the soup rather lovely.  And while I really like tomato soup thickened with roux, there’s something about the texture the rice gives it that is really alluring.  I just love it.  And knowing that I’m not getting any of the bad stuff I get with white flour, that makes it all the better.

This soup is very versatile.  You can do like I did and just put in tomatoes and rice, or you can flavor it with anything you like.  Add onion, garlic (raw or roasted), basil, curry, or whatever you like.  Make it your own.  Hell, I’ve fried up some nice Italian sausage and cooked it in with the soup and pureed it up inside and it just makes a fabulous meaty undertone to the whole thing.  It’s great.

A note on stock… Now most diehard chefs will tell you that you have to use chicken stock for this kind of thing, but as home cooks we can’t always afford to be food snobs in that regard.  We like to be snobs about eating well, eating cheaply, and having good healthy super yummy recipes, but we don’t always have access to stock every time we want to enrich a soup or sauce.  So here I use chicken base instead.  I’ve always got it on hand, and I don’t have to go out of my way to make it, freeze it, thaw it, etc.  It’s just there waiting for me.  So as long as you use a good quality base there’s no reason it can’t replace stock for stuff like this.  There are still places you really want stock, but even then you can replace it with a good base if you have no choice.  There are really times when I will say you really can’t replace the stock because it’ll alter the flavor too much, but even then, if you don’t mind that kinda thing then go ahead and use base if you don’t care.

Ingredients:

5 pounds fresh raw tomatoes
4 c. brown rice, cooked.  So cook a little under 2 cups and that’ll get you what you need.
2 T chicken base
2 T sugar, brown or white
2 bay leaves
1 t. thyme, fresh or dried. Fresh is better, and if you use fresh then just throw in 2-3 sprigs and you’ll be fine.
1.5 t. white pepper
3 t. salt

1 c. heavy cream (optional)
1 Onion (optional)
5 cloves garlic (optional)
2 T fresh basil (optional)

Method:

1. Cut tomatoes in half along the middle and squeeze the seeds out.  The seeds are where the acidity comes from so you want to remove them.  You don’t have to waste all your time getting every single seed out, but put in a good faith effort to get most of them.
2. Cut each half into quarters.
3. Put all tomatoes in a pot with the rice.
4. Cover with water by about 1 inch.
5. Add chicken base, and salt, thyme, bay and anything else you want to go in.
6. Bring to a boil.  So you can turn the heat way up.
7. Once it’s boiling, turn it down and simmer for about 5minutes.  Tomatoes cook really fast and you don’t have any flour to cook down so once the tomatoes are done you can just puree and got for it.  You can really add the white pepper any time you like.
8. Take out the bay and any thyme sprigs you put in there.  If using dried thyme just leave it in there.  It’s the branches you’re worried about.  So if you used fresh thyme and you only put in the leaves you also don’t have to worry about it.
9. Puree it up with a stick blender, food processor, or blender.  It’s all good.
10. Pass it through a very fine strainer because you want this to be a super smooth soup.
11. Now that it’s smooth you can adjust the seasonings.  If it’s a little too acidic, then add some sugar.  Probably about 2 T.  You’ll know because it’ll make the glands at the back of your jaw tingle.
12. Now is the time to add the cream too if you want it.  Officially you could add the cream anytime you like, even during the cooking, but I like adding it on the end because it keeps some of the freshness.  But it’s all good.  And strictly speaking of course, you don’t have to have cream, but it does make it really nice and it can help break up some acidity.

Notes:

1. Don’t add too much sugar.  It’s only there to help with acidity, but you don’t want a sweet soup.
2. You can garnish this with anything you like… fresh basil, many types of cheese, sausage, pasta, white beans, etc.  The sky’s the limit really.
3. When thickening, you want it to be thick, but not so thick it can’t be poured or that it gets gloopy when it starts to get room temperature.  It’s soup, not jello.  So don’t make it too thick.
4. If you were to peel the tomatoes you don’t even really need to pass it.  You can make it more of a chunky style rustic soup and that can also be lovely.
5. This freezes really well.
6. One of our favorite meals is to take a baked potato and season it with butter, salt, pepper, sour cream, etc.  Just put whatever you like on a baked potato.  Then put a lot of ground beef on it, or chopped up leftover meatloaf, or sausage, or roast, etc… then smother the whole thing with tomato soup and cheese.  Honestly… too good for words.

So there you go.  Old-world tomato soup.  I’ll put together another kind of tomato soup sometime and show you how to do it another way, but for now, you won’t go wrong with this one.