Tomato and Garlic Soup (and spending update)

It was a rainy Sunday and the thought of a big pot of soup simmering in the crockpot for a few hours was comforting.  A smattering of ingredients later resulted in 8 heaping servings of soup!  You can simmer this on the stove if you don’t have a crockpot, I just didn’t want to deal with hovering in the kitchen.

Tomato and Garlic Soup

Ingredients:

• 2 large onions, chopped finely
• 6 garlic cloves, chopped finely
• 2 28-ounce cans diced or crushed tomatoes
• 4-6 cups vegetable broth or water
• salt and pepper and crushed red pepper flakes to taste
• 1 cup roughly chopped basil
• old bread (optional)
• can of beans, rinsed well (optional)

To Do:

1. Heat up about a tablespoon of olive oil in a large pot.  Saute the onions in a until they are a nice golden color and add the garlic.  Alternatively, stick onions and garlic in a crockpot and let them cook until golden (ours was set on high for 4 hours).  Feel free to add some vegetable broth if the onions appear to be sticking to your pot/crockpot.
2. Add in the tomatoes and 4 cups of the broth/water and stir everything together.  Bring to a boil and let simmer, covered for about an hour.  Feel free to add more liquid if you think it’s too chunky.  If your using a crockpot, dump everything in there and let it cook.
3. Add salt, pepper and crushed red pepper to taste.  Add beans if you want some protein.
4. Puree soup a bit if you want a smoother consistency – we used a stick blender for just a minute.
5. Put stale bread in the bottom of a large bowl.  Ladle hot soup over bread.  Add lots and lots of chopped basil.  Consume!

Realizing that we had quite a bit of money ($11) left over from the previous week, I decided it was OK to get some stuff at the Pioneer for the soup.

• 2 28 ounce cans of diced tomatoes: $3
• 1 head of garlic: $0.35
• bunch of basil: $1.50
• bag of onions: $1.00
• tomato paste: $0.50

TOTAL: $6.35 (still under!)