For some reason pesto made me think of tomatoes and tomatoes made me think of tomato soup. It is such an awesome tummy warming food for fall. I decided to make my own recipe of pesto tomato soup.
What I did not account for was being able to make pesto in Asheboro. The closest grocery store is a Food Lion and they only have dried basil. So my plan was to go to an Asian market and get fresh basil, since these places usually have it for Vietnamese or Thai food.
Royall and I drove up to the biggest Asian market around and after getting over the usual "fish-smell-hitting-you-right-in-the-face" Asian store disorientation, I realized they did not have fresh basil.
However, we did leave with octopus flavored chips (that was Royall's pick), assorted ramen noodles and dumplings, a box of crackers, and a big bag of rice.
We then decided to go to a regular grocery store. We got lost and took a nice drive around town until we happened upon an organic store. They did not have fresh basil and I refused to pay 6.99 for 5 oz. of pre-made pesto sauce. I settled for a dry pesto mix and some other ingredients and 60 bucks later, we were heading back home.
There's no pine nuts or REAL pesto sauce in this, hence the "sorta" in the title.
I was pretty amazed at how well this turned out though, especially since I made it up all on my own!
Okay, you will need the following:
2 (28 oz) cans of tomatoes
1 small onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1-2 tablespoons olive oil
white bread
chicken broth (about a cup)
salt, pepper
pesto sauce mix (1/2 packet)
splash of milk
2 tablespoons of sugar
1. Chop your onion and garlic and heat on medium in a skillet with olive oil for a few minutes.
2. Add cans of tomatoes and all the liquid and bring to a boil.
3. Add a few chunks of white bread (leave out the crust). I got this idea from when RH made gazpacho.
4. Add pesto seasoning and let boil for 5 minutes.
5. Use a food processor to get it nice and blended. I had to do two batches in order to fit it all.
6. Return to stove and add chicken broth until the soup is as thin as you would like.
7. Stir in salt, pepper, sugar and a touch of milk.
8. Do a taste test to see if you need more salt, etc.
9. Serve with crusty bread or dare I say....GRILLED CHEESE! mmmmhmmm.
Enjoy!
Here's the photo play-by-play:
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| Ingredients |
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| Adding the bread! |
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| My old school can opener. Gets the job done! |
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| That's not mold!- it's the pesto powder. |
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| Letting it all stew together |
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| Before |
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| After |
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| Final product |
I wish I had made grilled cheese to go with this! Oh well, keeping it low-cal.
PS: This would be awesome with a dollop of sour cream.
1 comment:
yuuuuuuuuuummmmmmmmmmm
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