Creamy Tomato Soup with Parmesan Croutons

Ingredients

Soup:

• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 small onion, diced
• 2 tbsp butter
• 2 tbsp flour
• 8 cups chicken broth
• small can of tomatoes (preferably San Marzano)
• 8 oz. tomato paste
• ¼ tsp cayenne pepper
• 1 cup half and half

Croutons:

• 6 small slices of bread
• 1 cup of grated parmesan

Instructions

Soup:

1. In a large pot, sautee the garlic and onion in butter for 30 seconds.
2. Stir in flour.
3. Add chicken broth, tomato paste and can.
4. Stir in cayenne and mix ingredients thoroughly.
5. Bring to a boil and cook for 10 minutes until flavours have blended.
6. With an immersion blender, blend the soup until it has your desired consistency. For this dinner party, we blended it until it was very smooth.
7. Reduce heat and add half and half

Croutons:

1. Preheat oven to 350F
2. Top bread with grated parmesan
3. Cook for about 5 minutes, or until cheese is fully coated on the bread. A good indication is light brown bits around the edges.

Serve soup with croutons.