Super Easy Homemade Tomato Soup With Grilled Cheese Sandwiches

Since tomato soup isn't in our food culture, the super cooks in my family like my mom and aunties never bothered with tomato soup, so it's not really a staple of our growing-up experience. Whatever tomato soup I did try though — most coming out of a can, and sad — put me off it, and turned it into my least favourite soup of all the soups that existed. 

Which is saying something because I am a total soup person; my mom's chicken soup is my ultimate comfort food. (Also, let's not forget I chose to eat tom yum soup as my one-decade marriage anniversary treat recently.)

But then adulting helped opened up a whole new world of gastronomy, where I discovered I simply adored minestrone soup. You know, the soup that has all the vegetables swimming in it? Like I'd pay good money for a good bowl of minestrone, that kind of adoration.
So it makes sense to give tomato soup another go, right?

Only instead of hunting for a good tomato soup to buy, I decided to be a daredevil and search for a good tomato recipe to make my own. (Well, also, Covid, so I can't go out hunting.) As usual, any recipe I Google catches my attention if:

1. I recognize every ingredient on the ingredients list
2. It uses a number of ingredients that can be counted using my two hands
3. The recipe doesn't need a cooking tool I don't already own

I found one recipe that fit all requirements and guess what? It uses only FIVE ingredients, all of which are readily available in my fridge and pantry. Freakin' five, to make a homemade soup with a rating of 5 stars on Google: onion, tomatoes, broth, butter, and salt. That's it.
Plus, I only need one pot and a blender to make it. I was intrigued.

I went about to make it cautiously and, you guys, this recipe is a winner — I'm thinking I won't need to ever to look for another tomato soup recipe! (Well unless I feel daredevil-ish again in the future, never say never.) 

Click here for the tomato soup of my daydreams' recipe.

Note for the recipe: Although the recipe allows for fresh tomatoes, they strongly recommend using canned peeled or crushed tomatoes. But since I always have fresh ones in the fridge, I figured I better mastered the fresh version! It would be OK to use water but I love the extra taste boxed broths provide. My adjustment for the recipe linked above: 8 medium-sized fresh tomatoes (instead of canned tomatoes) + two cups of vegetable broths, and everything else stays the same. The result? Yummy homemade soup perfect for 2 generous servings.

Soups are generally seen as basic, comfort food but honestly though, when the soup is made from scratch, by your very hands, and it comes out tasting, like, actually GOOD? And I mean all-capitalized GOOD? Somehow it then automatically becomes this elegant, fancy-as-heck dish that I'm proud to serve on the dining table.

As much as I love this recipe, I'm not keen on consuming it on its own without having something to offset all the acidity of the tomatoes, and what's a better partner to tomato soup than grilled cheese sandwiches?

Just like tomato soup, grilled cheese sandwiches were not our local childhood staple either. I actually started being very into grilled cheese sandwiches only after watching the movie Chef, in which the sandwich, even though appearing for like a minute, became one of the stars, pretty much! I am obsessed with The Chef Show on Netflix, a sort of spinoff show helmed by the movie's director and star Jon Favreau, so imagine my happiness when Chef Roy Choi and Jon Favreau decided to teach the movie's fans how to make their version of grilled cheese sandwich.

Watch The Chef Show Episode 3 of Vol. 1 to learn make it, or click here for a written recipe of it.

Note on my grilled cheese sandwiches: Annoyingly the minimum setting of my kitchen is not as low as I'd like it to be so I always borderline burn my bread, but they always come out crunchy and delicious! I usually add two slices of natural cheese like Cheddar, Havarti, or Emmental — not picky on which but a reminder: the best-tasting grilled cheese sandwiches is when you use good natural cheese. (None of those processed ones, please!)

With Shah working from home often now, I rely on this perfect couple as the perfect yummy "fancy" lunch dish on so many days. You're not going to regret putting the effort in when you're taking a bite after dunking your cheesy sandwich into your homemade soup, so if you haven't already, give these two recipes a go!