Recipe : Tomato Bisque Soup

This IS my FAVORITE soup!  It takes a little work but it’s worth every second of it!  ENJOY!  The original recipe is from a book called America’s Best.  It was published in 1983 to benefit the US Ski team.  My mom bought it for $13 dollars at the time and it now sells for a whopping $139 on Amazon new!  Wow, nice find mom!  I changed the recipe up a bit.  I love soup!  I think I could eat it everyday.  This one is so good it will warm your soul on a cold winter day! 

Tomato Bisque Soup

1/2 Cup Butter
3 Cups Chopped Celery
2 Cups Chopped Onion
1 1/2 Cup Chopped Carrots
2/3 Cup all purpose flour
8 Cups Chicken Stock (I prefer the boxes, 2 boxes)
4 1lb 12oz cans Fire Roasted Tomatoes
1 TBSP granulated sugar
2 1/1 tsp dried basil
2 tsp dried marjoram
2 bay leaves
4 cups of heavy cream, or half and half, I use whole or skim milk (I am not a big fan of cream in soup too rich for me.  The last time I used whole milk.  The soup was delicious!)
1/2 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp curry powder
1/2 tsp white pepper
salt to taste (I usually add salt until all the flavors come together. Soups usually need a lot of salt but too much can ruin a batch.)

Saute the celery, onion and carrots in the butter until tender.  Add flour and cook for 2 minutes, stirring constantly.  Add chicken stock. Add the tomatoes, sugar, basil, marjoram and bay leaf.  Cover and simmer for 30 minutes.

Discard the bay leaf.  In a food processor or blender, puree the mixture in small batches.  (If you do this while it’s hot it will spray all over your house.  Don’t do too much at a time and wait a few minutes for it to cool.  I wouldn’t skip this step, it makes the soup!)  Return the pureed mixture to the saucepan.  Add milk (or cream), paprika, curry powder, and pepper.  Stir to blend.  Season with salt to taste.  This soup is great hot or cold.  It’s my favorite soup!  Hope you like it!  You could cut this recipe in half, I like to make a bunch of soup and eat it for lunch for the rest of the week.