Easy fresh tomato 'n basil soup!

Tomato and Basil Soup...

Okay, so there are a billion and one variations on how to make this. You can get the stuff in a CAN by (insert soup manufacturer here) or you can spend a little more time making it yourself and leave out the MSG and all the preservatives and fake tomatoes and bullshit that's thrown into the canned crap. Even the canned "organic" soup doesn't cut it, sorry...

Fresh is best.

(Repeat as mantra, do it.)

Now, when I made this, like most things, I didn't measure. This is kind of based on a guess of what I used, and my guesses are generally (I'd say 99.99999% of the time) accurate.
I think measuring is for suckers :p No, actually, it's just about having a keen eye. Try it, you can do it!


You shall need:

4 medium tomatoes
3 medium onions (reds or yellows are the best here)
1 16 oz. can of chopped plum tomatoes
3 cloves of garlic
1 tablespoon dried basil
1/2 lemon
balsamic vinegar
extra-virgin olive oil
freshly ground black pepper
sea salt
2 cups broth (veggie or beef or chicken or whatever broth)
grated Parmesan cheese
fresh basil

Take 4 medium tomatoes (I suspect Roma would be best but I just had typical 'on-the-vine' tomatoes), 2 small red onions, and 2 humongous cloves of garlic (not entire bulbs! cloves!).

Smash up the garlic and roughly chop it

Peel and slice the onions into rings, and leave the tomatoes untouched.
Next, throw them all together in a roasting pan, put some olive oil on top, some sea salt and freshly ground black pepper, and a few splashes of good balsamic vinegar and mix it all together.
(Alternatively, you could throw all these ingredients into a large zip-lock bag, or other plastic bag without holes in it and shake it around a bit).
Roast on a high heat (say, 400F - 425F) in the oven for 15-20 minutes, stirring ever so often, and until the tomatoes start peeling a bit and the onions and garlic smell good, not burnt.

Chop up another onion, smash and dice another clove of garlic, and heat a bit of olive oil over medium heat in a pot. A soup pot preferably, because this is where your final product will end up. When the oil's hot, add the garlic and onion and about a tablespoon of dried basil.
Saute for a while until the onion's translucent and lower the heat a bit.
Take the onions and garlic you roasted earlier and chop them up into itty bitty pieces.
Add those and the roasted tomatoes to the pan. Smash them up with a fork or spoon or masher til it's all pulpy and messy. if there's any bit chunks take them out and chop them up.
Add about 1/2 a lemon's worth of lemon juice (meaning, take 1/2 a lemon and squeeze the juice out of it).

Add around 2 cups veggie or chicken or beef stock (if you didn't make your own and you're using canned, use the freshest and one without any additives!) and a can (16 oz.) of chopped plum tomatoes.

Stir it all together and bring to a boil and then let it simmer with the lid on for about 20 minutes.

Then put in a bowl and put in a lot of torn up fresh basil leaves and put grated Parmesan cheese on top and then eat!

Also great served with good crusty bread.