Creamy Roasted Garlic Tomato Soup

"Nailed it" exclaimed Hubster as he finished his soup.  I am not one for canned tomato soup so I always make it myself.  Yesterday was a typical chilly Minnesota fall day and I was in the mood for grilled cheese and homemade tomato soup.  I had most of the ingredients on hand so I threw it together off the top of my head and it turned out delicious!

**This recipe can easily become vegetarian.  Take out the bacon and just add an extra tablespoon of olive oil before sauteing vegetables.  And use vegetable stock instead of chicken stock.  This is my basic recipe but go vegetarian when cooking for some certain friends!**

Creamy Roasted Garlic Tomato Soup

Ingredients:
1 head garlic
olive oil
3-5 slices bacon
1 medium white onion
1 c. chopped carrots
14-16 oz tomato sauce
28 oz whole peeled tomatoes
2 c. chicken stock 
1 tbsp. dried basil
1 tbsp. dried Italian seasoning
1/4-1/2 c. heavy cream

Directions:
1.  Preheat oven to 400 F.  Peel off loose garlic peels and chop off top third of garlic head.  Place in a square of aluminum foil and drizzle lightly with olive oil.  Wrap foil around garlic and roast in oven for 30 minutes or until soft.  Allow to cool after roasting and squeeze out the garlicky goodness into a bowl when cool enough to handle.

2. Chop bacon into 1 inch pieces.  In your pot, drizzle 1 tbsp olive oil and cook bacon until crispy on medium heat.  Pull out bacon and save for grilled cheese.  Say what??  Yah, that's right.  I put little bits of crispy bacon goodness on my grilled cheese.  YUM!

3.  Add onions and carrots to pot with bacon drippings.  Add salt and saute until soft, 3-5 minutes.  Add in roasted garlic and saute for 30 seconds.  Now, the bottom of your pot will be brown.  Don't worry!  That, my friends, is called fond.  There is a lot of wonderful flavor in there.  You WANT it there!

4.  Add tomato sauce, whole peeled tomatoes and the sauce it came in, chicken stock, and seasonings.  DO NOT ADD THE CREAM! Bring the soup to a boil and simmer until slightly reduced, about 30 minutes.  Make sure to stir a few times during the simmering and scrape that wonderful fond off the bottom of the pan.  After reduced, taste for flavor and add salt and pepper as you see fit.  I use unsalted or low-sodium products as much as possible so I can control the amount of salt going into our bodies.  (This time around, I used my own canned tomato sauce and whole tomatoes so there was no salt in those.)

5.  Turn off heat and add in heavy cream.  Or not.  This is what makes it creamy.  I thought it was pretty fabulous without the cream and considered not adding it.  But I love a creamy soup.  And Hubster bought it for this particular dinner.  So I added it.  

6.  Serve and enjoy!  Of course we served this grilled cheese.  I add the bacon pieces from the beginning of the recipe to my grilled cheese!

*This makes great leftovers.  One of my favorites, actually!  When I worked, I would make the grilled cheese the night before and wrap it in a paper towel before putting in my sandwich box.  The paper towel helped to absorb any moisture while stored or cooking in microwave. 

-Lynsee