Roasted Garlic Tomato Soup & Brie Grilled Cheese

I have to admit, I was never a fan of tomato soup growing up. Maybe because I always associated it with the bitter bland Campbell's tomato soup. But once I found this recipe (inspired by Half Baked Harvest) that I liked, it became one of my favorite quick comfort meals. The combinations of the sweet and salty grilled cheese with the garlicky tomato soup drizzled with pesto that makes you question the reason for eating anything else.

As a note for the cooking process, an immersion blender, blender, or food processor is necessary to get this to a nice blended consistency.

When it comes to the grilled cheese situation we wanted to a be a little naughty. For the bread we found a garlic-clove sourdough loaf but you can easily use whatever type of bread you have on hand. For the cheese we used brie and provolone, the pull apart potential of these 2 are unheard of. To take this to the next level I added dried thyme, fresh basil, and Mike's Hot Honey to the cheese before putting the slices back together.

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Get Started!

Prep Time: 10 Mins

Cook Time: 35 mins

Servings: 6-8 Servings

Ingredients

Tomato Soup

• 2 (28 oz) cans San Marzano whole peeled tomatoes

• 1 1/2 cups whole milk

• 1 medium yellow onion

• 6 garlic cloves (roasted)

• 1 tsp garlic powder

• 2 tbsp dried thyme

• 2 tbsp fresh basil

• 3 tbsp of butter

• Pesto for drizzling on top of soup

Grilled Cheese

• Sourdough Bread

• 4 oz brie cheese

• 2-4 slices provolone per sandwich

• 1 tsp dried thyme

• 1 tbsp fresh basil

• 2 tbsp butter (spread on outside of bread)

• Honey for drizzling on grilled cheese

Directions

1. Turn over to 425

2. In a dutch oven (or large pot with lid), add tomatoes, chopped onion and garlic cloves, thyme, garlic powder, butter, and pinch of salt and pepper and let this cook for ~20 mins or until tender and fragrant.

3. After your roasted vegetables have cooked, take the dutch oven out of the oven and put on the stove top with medium low heat. BE CAREFUL the pot will be hot.

4. Take your immersion blender to the pot and let it blend until thoroughly mixed.

5. Once you are at your desired consistency slowly mix in your milk. Remember that you can always add more milk but you can't take any out, so adding this slowly is important.

6. While your soup simmers on the stove top, we can start making our grilled cheese.Use 1/2 tbsp to coat the outside of each slice of bread. For the non-buttered sides add your brie, provolone, thyme, basil, and honey. Put the slices together to build the sandwich.

7. Add 1 tbsp of butter to large pan and add 1 grilled cheese to the pan at a time and cover with a lid. To make sure these get super melty in the middle let them cook for about 3 minutes on each side. You'll will be able to tell it's ready to flip once it's nice and golden.

8. Add your soup to a bowl and drizzle with pesto and cracked pepper. Pull apart that cheesy goodness and dunk it in that pool of goodness.