An abundance of canned tomatoes from a recent coupon shopping trip left me thinking up a multitude of ways to use this versatile ingredient.  Y’all know I’m a frugal gal, some might even call me cheap (and I’d take it as a compliment!).  Often times, shopping what’s on sale leaves you with an interesting combination of ingredients on hand.  A little creativity and you can get dinner on the table:

Creamy Tomato Soup Recipe

 

Here is a (very short) snippet of my grocery shopping list from this week.  I scored 8 huge cans of tomatoes for 43¢ a piece, 12¢ sour cream, 67¢ shredded mozzarella and paid 69¢ for 7 delicious ciabatta rolls. (If you have a Publix nearby and want to grab these deals yourself check out SouthernSavers for the Publix Weekly Ad w/ coupon matchups for more details.. you have until 4/23!)

 

SouthernSavers Publix Weekly Ad

A kitchen full of assorted random ingredients just leads to me get creative and after a few suggestions from Twitter and Facebook friends, I decided to make a chunky tomato bisque, (thanks @mariafrey!) Except that I made it chunk-less (you’ll see what I mean)…

 

Making this soup allowed me to reconnect with two of my kitchen utensils that don’t get a lot of action: My big ol’ stockpot, and  the stick blender that I used to puree this chunky soup silky smooth!

 

Stockpot with Onions and PeppersCuisinart Stick Blender

I followed the recipe pretty closely, making small adjustments based on what I had and seasoning to my taste. Its a big batch so you can feed 6-8 easily depending on whether its an entree or starter.

If you add up the extra produce, I made this whole pot of soup for less than 4 bucks! And you know tomato soup gets even better the next day so we’ll be chomping on this with half a sandwich for lunch tonmorrow!

Creamy Tomato Bisque
  • 1/4 c. butter
  • 1 large onion, diced
  • 1 large Bell Pepper (any color), diced
  • 1 28 oz can Tomato Puree
  • 1 28 oz can Whole Plum Tomatoes, diced
  • 1 tbsp. of tomato paste 3 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1/4 c. fresh basil
  • 1 tsp dried basil
  • 2 tsp. salt
  • 3 tsp. sugar
  • 1.5 c. Sour Cream

Saute the onion and pepper over medium high heat for 10 minutes, until translucent.  Add in the cans of tomato, paste and garlic.

Simmer on med-low for 1 hour.  Remove from heat, add in the seasonings and sour cream.

Use the immersion (stick) blender to puree the soup if you like a smooth texture, or skip this if you want a chunky bisque. Sprinkle with Mozzarella and fresh basil & serve with crusty bread!

I have a couple more recipe suggestions to try including a super simple tomato sauce (thanks Kristy!) and a tomato eggplant sausage penne that my sis likes to make. I’ve still got 6 cans of tomatoes left so I’ll be adding these to our menus for the next few weeks!