Lessons Learned In Soup Making

Lessons learned in soup making. 

Now that it is officially fall, although I just turned DOWN the air conditioner, I’ve began making soup again. 

Last year I made some Tomato Basil soup that was to die for. Literally, I think it was the best soup I had ever made.  Unfortunately,I failed to make note of where I found the recipe. 

I was sure it was on Pinterest, but when I began looking this year nothing looked familiar.  I then googled it hoping that it would just pop up, but unfortunately that was not the case. 

My first lesson was if you find a recipe you like, have a way to keep up with it. With the ease of pinning these days I have accumulated hundreds of recipes, most of which I have not tried.  I’m obviously a recipe hoarder!

I narrowed it down to one recipe that looked somewhat familiar, but to be honest I knew the one I had used before did not call for roasted garlic. I reluctantly cut my Roma tomatoes in half, peeled my garlic, and sprinkled them with olive oil and salt and pepper.

The recipe called for 425 degrees for forty-five minutes, so I set the timer, and went on my way to grill onions, and snap the stems off my basil. 

When the tomatoes and garlic came out of the oven I knew something was wrong. As much as I wanted to say they were roasted, they actually were burnt. Not to be side-tracked I continued adding all the remaining ingredients hoping for the best. 

With the final addition of red pepper flakes I let the soup simmer for about twenty minutes, and then used my immersion blender to blend it to the right consistency. 

Now at this point I had learned that black garlic is not good, and roasted doesn’t mean burnt. I also foolishly added the red pepper flakes against my better judgement,  knowing that my tolerance for heat is minimal. 

I quickly grilled two grilled cheese sandwiches, and poured the soup into bowls. 

One sip was all it took to know for sure that this was not the same recipe I had used before. The best Chuck and I could describe it was a very spicy spaghetti sauce. Talk about a let down. 

Even the color seemed darker than I had remembered. Chuck was a trooper, and finished it because he actually likes spicy food, but I had to push it away. 

Today I was making a trip to Sprouts so I decided to try again. By this point I was determined not to give up my quest to procure the infamous Tomato Basil soup recipe, and to better recreate what I had initially made last year. 

This time I placed my tomatoes on a silicone mat rather than parchment paper, and turned the heat down to 400 degrees. (By the way, does anyone know why my silicone mat always sets off my smoke alarm?) I set the timer for twenty minutes, and although they did end up cooking for an additional twenty minutes, I checked them every ten minutes to make sure they did not burn. 

I minced my garlic, and sautéed it with my onions, and I left out the red pepper flakes completely. 

I’ve tasted the new batch, and it definitely is improved, but something is missing. I really could kick myself for not saving the initial recipe. This has made me realize that sometimes having too much of something is not a good thing. 

My plethora of recipes needs to be pared down to a manageable few of tried and true favorites. From now on I’m embracing a more minimalistic approach when it comes to my recipe collection. How about you?