Tomato Soup with Grilled Cheese Croutons

Tomato Soup with grilled cheese croutons

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Kraft Foods and Sam’s Club.
The weather has cooled down significantly over the last week. We even had rain on Monday, which is almost the equivalent to liquid gold for California. The cooler days and even colder nights have inspired me to bring out my favorite soup recipes to make warm comfort meals. To be honest we didn’t grow up eating a lot of soup during my childhood. It wasn’t until college where I found my favorite recipes like lentil soup, chicken tortilla soup, and tomato bisque. When I discovered the art of using a slow cooker to make soup I was in heaven. I mean really, does it get any better than putting your ingredients in a slow cooker that does all the work and makes your home smell wonderful throughout the day? While my tomato soup recipe isn’t a slow cooker meal, it’s definitely easy to make. This creamy tomato soup with grilled cheese croutons is perfect for lunch or dinner on a chilly day.

One of my kids’ favorite foods is a grilled cheese sandwich. It’s a classic comfort food that I’ve always enjoyed and now my kids ask for when they’re hungry in between meals. Recently I introduced them to grilled cheese sandwiches with tomato soup and they loved it. A fun little twist to this classic combo is to make grilled cheese croutons. My kids really enjoyed the bite size pieces in their tomato soup.

5 from 1 vote

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Tomato Soup with Grilled Cheese Croutons

Creamy tomato soup recipe with grilled cheese croutons

Ingredients

• 1 14-ounce can diced tomatoes
• ¾ cup extra virgin olive oil
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 stalk celery diced
• 1 carrot diced
• 1 yellow onion diced
• 3 cloves garlic minced
• ¼ teaspoon crushed pepper flakes
• 1 cup chicken broth
• 1 bay leaf
• 2 tablespoons butter
• ¼-1/2 cup heavy cream optional
• chopped parsley or fresh basil for garnish
• For the croutons:
• 4 slices sourdough bread
• 4 slices cheese
• butter

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
2. Strain tomatoes, reserving the juices, and spread onto a baking sheet. Season with salt and pepper to taste then drizzle ¼ cup olive oil. Roast until caramelized, about 15 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, heat olive oil over medium-low heat. Add the celery, carrot, onion and garlic, cook until softened (about 10 minutes). Add the roasted tomatoes, tomato juices, red pepper flakes, chicken broth, bay leaf and butter. Simmer until vegetables are tender (about 15-20 minutes). Add basil or parsley and cream. The heavy cream is optional an you can start with 1/4cup and more based on your preference. Puree using a hand held immersion blender until smooth.
4. For the grilled cheese croutons:
5. butter your butter and grill. Place two slices of cheese in between your bread. Heat until cheese is melted.
6. Cut into bite size pieces.

Recipe Notes

Recipe adapted from Food Network

We picked up this giant box of KRAFT Singles at Sam’s Club and it’s perfect for our grilled cheese lovin’ family. My kids love it when we head to Sam’s Club. My daughter likes to look at the toys while my little guy thinks it’s his own personal playground. Like my daughter says, they have everything. You can find anything from toys, to clothes, to food at great prices. Since our closest Sam’s Club is an hour away we like to stock up on our essentials and since many of the items come in bulk they usually last until our next trip. This big box of KRAFT Single should get us through daily lunches and grilled cheese sandwiches on the weekends for a while.

Thank you KRAFT and Sam’s Club for sponsoring this post. As always, all opinions are my own.