I used to be instantly drawn to the traditional flavors in Pinch of Yum’s Easy Selfmade Tomato Soup. Onion, carrot, and thyme are the flavour base for the soup, nevertheless it’s the addition of smoky, salty bacon that made this recipe stand out from different recipes with comparable components. I’m a giant fan of bacon as a spine of soup components, so I used to be additional curious how it will work right here.

Get the recipe: Pinch of Yum’s Easy Selfmade Tomato Soup

You’ll begin by cooking 4 slices of bacon, add chopped onion and carrot, and cook dinner till tender. You’ll caramelize some tomato paste within the pot, then sprinkle over some flour. Crushed canned entire tomatoes are then stirred into the aromatics. You’ll add a quart of broth, thyme, and a bay leaf. Simmer for a half an hour, then purée and stir in heavy cream, in case you like. 

This soup was fairly simple to make. Probably the most finicky a part of the recipe was crushing the tomatoes by hand in a bowl earlier than including them to the pot. You’ll be able to undoubtedly skip this step. Simply add them on to the pot and crush them together with your spoon as they cook dinner and soften. The recipe doesn’t point out whether or not to make use of an upright or immersion blender to purée the soup. I attempted my immersion blender first and it undoubtedly couldn’t deal with breaking down the bacon. The recipe additionally doesn’t remind you to take away the bay leaf earlier than puréeing, which I forgot to do! I didn’t essentially discover it once I was consuming, nevertheless it’s most likely finest to take it out. 

This soup was excellent, however the bacon taste overwhelmed. The truth is, my 10-year-old mentioned, “This tastes identical to ham.” She wasn’t precisely appropriate, however not far off — the smoky pork taste dominates. And even though this soup had the very best ratio of inventory to tomatoes, this was additionally the heaviest soup. The pork fats and added protein made this a way more rib-sticking soup than I might have anticipated once I consider tomato soup. It undoubtedly doesn’t want the elective cream stirred in on the finish.

After I heated up leftovers the subsequent day, the scent of the bacon hit me and made me consider break up pea soup. I couldn’t get that thought out of my head as I used to be consuming it. It was undoubtedly tasty — simply not fairly what I used to be anticipating. 

In any other case, I did like the opposite flavors and seasonings. The carrots and herbs pushed it in a soup course fairly than leaning extra in the direction of a tomato sauce for pasta.