I absolutely love ordering Tomato Bisque when out at restaurants and was pleasantly surprised at how tasty the outcome can be at home too. We are at the very tail end of tomato season here in N.C. (thanks to the warm fall weather we’ve been having) so we
did use fresh tomatoes, but this recipe can easily be made with canned tomatoes as well. I should also mention that my kids (who are not even tomato fans other than spaghetti and pizza sauce) loved this dish! They even asked for seconds. So enjoy and don’t forget to freeze the leftovers.
Tomato Bisque
Ingredients
- 4 tablespoons butter (we used unsalted)
- 1 onion, diced
- 2 slices bacon, proscuitto, or ham, minced
- 4 cloves garlic
- 5 tablespoons whole-wheat flour
- 5 cups chicken broth/stock
- 1 28-ounce can of whole, peeled tomatoes (with liquid) or about 5 – 6 medium-sized fresh tomatoes that have been boiled for 1 minute and then peeled…either way they need to be roughly chopped before using
- 3 parsley sprigs
- 3 fresh thyme sprigs
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 cup heavy cream (or less if desired)
- 1 teaspoon salt (or more if you are using unsalted homemade broth)
- Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Directions
- Heat the butter in a large soup pot over medium-high heat. Add the diced onion and cook for about 5 – 6 minutes or until it starts to get soft.
- Add the bacon (or other meat) and the garlic and stir for another minute or two or until the meat gets crisp.
- Add the flour and stir vigorously for 2 – 3 minutes.
- Pour in the broth and tomatoes and bring to a boil while whisking constantly.
- Throw in the herbs and simmer on low heat for 30 minutes.
- Remove the herbs and puree the soup either in a blender (in batches) or with a handheld immersion blender (if you like to make soups this is a great tool to have by the way!)
- Stir in the desired amount of heavy cream and salt & pepper to taste. Serve warm.
Yield: 6 – 8 servings
This sounds yummy!
BTW, what is your view on using canned veggies? I recently becamed concerned with BPA in cans, but have hard time adjusting to not using them!
BPA or not Michael Pollan (whose book inspired us to do all of this) says that “freezing (unlike canning) does not significantly diminish the nutritional value of produce” so we usually try to buy frozen veggies over canned if possible.
I keep listening on the news speak about getting free online grant applications so I’ve been
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Thank you for your aid!
[...] shrimp for him yet!) Tuesday: BLT omelet with blue cheese, toast, and salad Wednesday: Tomato bisque, garlic bread, salad (just Evan and me…Jason eats at church) Thursday: Crockpot whole [...]
Yum, can’t wait to try this… the one good thing about canning is the veggies are canned at the peak of freshness – can’t say anything about the BPA issue though – need to research that but I do know I have never found frozen tomatoes – so it will either be fresh or canned whichever I can find so I can make this delectable soup! thanks for sharing your recipe – much better for me when I don’t have to come up with a recipe myself – just tweak it for my tastes!
[...] A printable version of this recipe is here. [...]
I strongly urge anyone and everyone to get rid of canned goods all together. I haven’t bought or used a can in around 2 years. It feels great! I use fresh and frozen produce instead.
I have learned many ways to cook everything from scratch. I make my own cream of chicken and mushroom soup that some recipes call for. I plan on making this recipe. I will blanch tomatoes and cut them
Sorry. Continue. I will blanch fresh tomatoes and cut them for the recipe above. I just noticed it says you could do that as an option.
Can you leave out the meat? I’m a vegetarian…never had a tomato bisque with ham/bacon in it actually, but curious if it would affect the outcome much. Anyone else omit it? Thnx.
The flavor will be slightly different, but the soup will still work without it!
This recipe is just fine without the bacon and butter and really only needs just a splash or two of heavy cream. I use fresh organic roma tomatoes and cook them first in olive oil and water, then add fresh garlic and italian seasonings and chicken broth (no need to take skins off the tomatoes) and then use the hand held emulsion blender and it’s a delicous healthy soup.
I throw in white beans and put it in my daugther’s thermos for lunch at school. Or you could put pasta in it.