Cheapo Creamy Tomato Soup (with pictures)

I love the recent Poor As Hell Recipes thread, and I often cook in this style because I'm ...really, really cheap. So here's a recipe you can make for under $2 on a really cold night that will feed two. It's fully customizable, and something everyone can cook.

Here in Nova Scotia, the temperature has dipped to -14 degrees Celcius, or 7 degrees Fareinheit. It's just enough to make me want to warm up with a steaming hot bowl of soup and a scalding cup of tea.

You need:

A can of tomatoes (small or large, you can adjust seasonings to adapt). $.50
Cream. $.10
Salt.
Pepper.


Aaannndd.... That's really all you need. You can customize endlessly from here. Tonight I added:


Carrot from the garden, frozen. $.01
A quarter of an onion, from the garden. $.01
Two strips bacon. $.40

Various seasonings:





I think I inherited that bottle of celery seeds from a grandmother, and I add it to infuse my meals with musty old comfort. Yum.
Fish sauce? Yes. Yes, yes, yes. For me anyways. Why? Because I didn't have any beef stock on hand to balance out the tomatoes, and for some reason, this does the trick.

Fry up the bacon and onions in a saucepan until they look acceptable. It isn't rocket surgery, I like my bacon crispish, and my onions soft and caramelised slightly.



Add the carrots, and sauté until tender. At this point, you can either remove the bacon, onions and carrots from the saucepan and add them back after the tomatoes are puréed, or you can leave them in. I left them in out of sheer laziness.

Splosh the can of tomatoes in the pan, and add a pinch of seasonings that you like, as well as a pinch of sugar or honey if the tomatoes are on the acidic side. I added a small squirt of fish sauce and Worcestershire for "perceived beefiness".

Simmer your blend for a minute or two and then pull out your hand blender. You don't have a hand blender? Here are some suggestions:

Thoroughly sanitize your garberator...give it a run through there.

Chew several spoonfuls of the soup and just...add them back in. It's your soup anyways.

Try mashing it with a masher or a fork. Chunkiness will result.

Otherwise:



Then, when it's blended to your liking, add as much cream as your lactose intolerant European ancestry can handle:



And just in case you forgot, you made a ton of pesto this summer, so find some cubes and toss them in.



Let that simmer for a minute or so. It smells amazing by the way.

Then, if you're feeling first world, boil a kettle and waste that precious water to heat up your soup bowl.

Accessorize how you like.



There you have it. A ten minute, one pot meal, made out of whatever you happen to have; and it isn't Campbells. Have fun making up your own soups all winter.

a reply to: Atsbhct

That looks so good and so easy! The avocado looks pretty good too. Totally having grilled cheese and tomato soup for dinner now!

really nice recipe, Thanks. I have found that adding a pinch of cinnamon will cut down the acidic taste as well if you don't want to or can't add the sugar.

a reply to: Jennyfrenzy
Grilled cheese would have been perfect.

a reply to: Daavin

Cinnamon is an amazing idea, especially for diabetics.

a reply to: Atsbhct

Since I live on the road a lot, I don't currently have a hand mixer in my inventory.

Think a can of crushed tomatoes would work as well?

I love tomato soup, especially with a grilled cheese sammich.

a reply to: Atsbhct

Too bad you don't have one of those inside hanging upside down tomato plants to pick from and I prefer salmon over bacon and wouldn't be caught dead with an avocado.

a reply to: Atsbhct

Very nice!! Easy too!!
I just can't stand tomato soups because the processed taste. This looks to become part of my regular dinner line-up.

Here this time of year we have a few weeks of "endless soup". I may start out with a hearty beef stew, that morphs into a beefy bean concoction, then more "adds" and it's chicken veggie soup and for it's last gasp it transforms into a mushroom pork deal. By the end of February it's taste-bud time for a burger or some fish! Hahahahahahahaha
Don't rule out this morphing into a chili, or minestrone as well....just depends how the budget is feeling.

Sides I use for this are cornbread with real corn kernels from ears I blanched and froze this september.
Cheesy herbed biscuits
garlic bread
green salads

I toss everything in.....pasta, beans, zucchini, diced tomato's, cabbage, spinach, onion, carrot, turnips, white sweet potatoes, mushrooms,green beans,chopped frozen asparagus, kale, marjoram, bay leaf, garlic, dab of liquid smoke....if it's laying around, in it goes. Depending on it's current incarnation beef stock, chicken stock, vegetable stock....ect....My theory is I don't chop up things too fine, so if you don't like it, pick it out.

We call it "Recliner Cooking".


I also "cheat" by dumping in bagged frozen veggies, adding some packaged gravy mixes as needed for a thicker stock.
The base starter soup is made with Adolph's One Hour Stew Mix....it's a free for all after that!!! If you like a seasoning toss it in there & let it simmer. There is no wrong way to to this.

a reply to: Atsbhct

Now you did it you made me hungry.Off to the kitchen for
a small bowl of cereal.
Looks really good and I love making homemade soups.

a reply to: Atsbhct

Dang girl !

That looks and sounds delish... and easy peasy double squeezy too !

I especially love the idea of tossing in some pesto for a nice little extra 'zing'.

This will give me a chance to use my hand blender that I bought 2 years ago and have yet to use. I bought the bloody thing for the purpose of when I'm canning large batches of tomato sauce and/or potato soup, instead of doing it old school with a potato masher by hand. But I haven't made either for a couple of years because I still have several jars in the pantry.

Now I have no excuse not to pull out my shiny new gadget...


Oh and by the way... share your pesto recipe !

Nom nom nom.

Up here in Alaska, it'd be cheaper to just buy a can of soup for $1.49

A carrot alone will cost .99 cents, the can of tomato another $1, the other ingredients (if you don't have any of them) -- a small pint of cream will run you $4 or more.

A package of bacon on sale last week was $6. Not sure how many strips that is...

Sadly, it's just cheaper to eat pre-packaged food here, unless you're cooking a BIG batch of something for an entire family.

a reply to: MystikMushroom

Yes the prices up north are crazy ridiculous.

My cousin and her husband live just outside of Whitehorse.

They're paying $7 for a litre of milk up there and $5 for a loaf of bread. I guess that explains why hunting, fishing, and gardening are such commonplace in the northern bush country.

But because her husband is a pilot for Air Canada, she can fly anywhere across the country for free. So she jumps on a plane every few months, flies down to Red Deer and loads up on groceries and flies it all back home.

Crazy !

a reply to: ChuckNasty

Crushed tomatoes would work exactly the same.

a reply to: MystikMushroom

Have you ever attempted a short season garden? Or a cheap greenhouse?

YUUUU-UGHHHHHUM-EEEEEEEE!!!!

The pics are worth a thousand words Ats!!!!! I wonder what (in addition to the bacon) some ground turkey would be like in this little tomatoe miracle??? Along with some garlic cheese bread... Oh boyeeeeee... I'm breaking in my new bullet mixer tonight! !

Oh man! This is such a great recipe. Not only what you get, but more importantly, what you don't get, like 3,000 mg. of sodium, and all the other chemicals and preservatives I can't pronounce or remember.

A grilled cheese sandwich or cheese toast and a bowl of tomato soup. Great comfort food for the cold and weary. : )

And it has bacon. Mmmmm.

a reply to: Atsbhct

Nice job, looks very delicious. I love homemade soup.

originally posted by: MystikMushroom
Up here in Alaska, it'd be cheaper to just buy a can of soup for $1.49

originally posted by: CranialSponge
a reply to: MystikMushroom

Yes the prices up north are crazy ridiculous.

Have you ever contemplated cannibalism?

a reply to: ReadLeader

We avoid garlic in our household due to some stomach issues, but once in a while, when I'm alllll alooone, I make these:

Previously, I kept this recipe a secret, but who cares, they'd go great with this soup. Even though they aren't a "cheap" recipe.

1 cup flour
1/2 TBSP each :baking powder; sugar; garlic powder (or onion powder if you can't)
1/4 TSP salt
1/4 cup butter, melted.( I've also subbed in bacon fat and margarine)
1/2 cup milk. The richer the better, but it all works.
About a 1/2 cup shredded cheese. I use sharp cheddar, but feel free to experiment with any meltable cheese that doesn't have too much moisture.

Optional topping.
1/8 cup melted butter
1/8 tsp salt
I tsp parsley, fresh or dried.

Whisk dry ingredients together. Add milk and melted butter and stir just until all flour is moistened. Don't overmix. Fold in cheese gently, you could also mix in chopped jalapeños, fresh or pickled; or chopped crispy bacon.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees while the biscuit dough rests. You can also not rest it and preheat the oven when you begin mixing, but they will be more tender with a short rest.

Drop the biscuits on a baking tray. This recipe always makes six biscuits for me when I scoop them with a 1/4 cup ice cream scoop.

Bake the biscuits for 10-12 minutes on the centre rack until they are nice and golden brown.

At this point, you can mix the optional topping together and brush it on the top of the hot biscuits. If you like a crispy top to your biscuit, don't bother, they're all ready plenty buttery.

We had these for breakfast a few days ago with a sprinkle of cheese on top.

We may have the same immersion blender.

When i make tomato soup i tend to come out with a spicy marinara flavor. I like basil oil quite a bit, and it makes for a nice garnish on top of the soup.

Some crusts of sourdough with ricotta smeared over it makes for a nice side, as an alternative to grilled cheese