Hearty Tomato Bisque with a Dollop of Basil Yogurt

Here's something to warm up not only your stomach but also your heart!

Tomato bisque with a dollop of basil yogurt -

Ingredients?

• 5 ripe Roma tomatoes
• 1 globe tomato (the big round kind)
• 2 cups of canned tomatoes with juice (whole and peeled Roma tomatoes)
• 3 cups of low sodium chicken stock
• 1 onion
• 2 garlic cloves
• 2 tablespoons of flour
• 2 tablespoons of olive oil
• 1 tablespoon of unsalted butter
• 1 teaspoon of sea salt
• 1/2 teaspoon of freshly ground black pepper

•  1/2 cup of freshly chopped basil
• 5.3 oz/150 grams of plain yogurt
• Some extra virgin olive oil

• Some croutons (I used store bought Italian herbs flavored croutons)

How?

Don't worry about finding a hand held blender for this recipe. A regular juice blender will do the job just fine.

Peel and chop the onion into big cubes. Peel and chop the garlic cloves. Remove the stems and chop the fresh tomatoes into medium sized cubes.

Fresh Roma tomatoes are slightly sweeter than the regular big and round shaped tomatoes. To balance the flavor, I've also used one of those round shaped tomato to increase the acidity for the bisque.

Drizzle about 2 tablespoons of olive oil to a big soup pot. Add in the onion along with some salt and pepper. The freshly ground black pepper will add a nice heat and warmth to the soup.

Give it a quick stir and cook till the onion turns translucent. Add in the butter and chopped garlic. Cook for about 1 minute.

Add in chopped tomatoes, canned tomatoes along with some juice, and chicken soup. To give you a better idea, I actually counted that there were about 8 peeled Roma tomatoes in my 2 cups of canned variety. Don't worry about chopping the canned tomatoes, you can also use a spatula to break them apart during the stewing process. Otherwise everything will get blended till smooth in the end anyways.

Bring to a boil then lower the heat to keep the soup simmer for about 20 more minutes.

Blend the soup if you have a hand held blender. Otherwise, if using a regular juice blender, turn off the heat and wait till the soup cools down.

Carefully scoop the soup and all the yummy goodies inside to a blender, just a few ladles at a time. Blend till desired texture and pour to a big container. Repeat the steps till everything has been blended. Make sure not to overfill the blender because the residual heat will create some gas, which might result in somewhat dangerous tomato explosion in the kitchen. Just a little bit at a time and you'll be safe and sound.

Pour the blended soup/bisque back to the pot. Reheat before serving.

For the basil yogurt that goes with this recipe, simply blend the basil and yogurt in a food processor while drizzle some extra virgin olive oil at the same time. Blend till desired thickness. The thicker version will gradually melt into the soup. The thin and oily version "floats" better on top of the soup, looks prettier.

As for the crouton, there was no leftover bread in the house so I just used store bought croutons. The size is definitely too big for my bisque, but they do taste good with that extra Italian herb infused in the croutons. 

If you're making croutons, just take a day old bread and cut into small cubes. Lay them on the baking sheet and drizzle with some olive oil. Bake with high heat in the oven and they'll be ready when the color turns slightly golden brown on the edges.

Make sure to only add the croutons right before serving so it'll stay nice and crunchy.