Note: This recipe is doubled, and makes a LOT.  You may want to half it for a smaller quantity.  I store the leftover soup in wide mouth jars, cover them, and send them home with my college students (or give them to neighbors)

I wish I could say this is the real recipe from Paradise Bakery & Cafe... but I’m sure it isn’t!   (It’s pretty close though)   Paradise Bakery & Cafe is a wonderful franchise around here that specializes in soups, sandwiches, wraps, salads, and (of course) their wonderful COOKIES.  

Ingredients:

l large onion, diced

6 cloves garlic, minced

    (or use 1/4 tsp dried minced for each clove)

olive oil

2 - 28 to 32 oz cans tomatoes

    (I used “ready-cut” to keep it simple)

32 oz bottle fire roasted (or sun-dried) tomatoes

    (Costco has them reasonably priced in larger quantities)

2 - 8 oz cans tomato sauce

2 - 6 oz cans tomato paste

8 cups water

    (I added 8 - 10 chicken bouillon cubes for more flavor)

2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

2 cups milk or cream (more if you like a thinner soup)

Directions:

In a large soup kettle saute onion in olive oil until almost translucent. Add garlic and continue to saute a few minutes more. Add tomatoes, sauce and paste - along with water. Bring to a boil, cover and reduce heat to simmer for 30 minutes. Puree in blender until desired consistency.

Note:  I’m just keeping it real here...  Notice (at right) what happens if you think you don’t really need to hold the blender lid down with a cloth...  Liquid is HOT (trust me, I know!)  My kitchen took a few hours to recover from this mishap!  (that’s what I get for trying to photograph a blender in action by myself - not smart!)

(If you like chunkier soups, hold back on one of the batches in the blender - leaving it chunkier) Add milk or cream and seasonings and continue to simmer for another 5 or 10 minutes.

At Paradise Cafe, they drizzle the bowl of soup with thinned sour cream, then top with tortilla strips.  Keep a squeeze bottle in your refrigerator to top bowls of soup with little mess.

We also like this soup with Creamy Tomatillo & Cilantro Dressing.  Watch for this recipe in the next post. 

Breadsticks are wonderful with this soup - as it is thick enough to be able to use the soup as a dip.  (I make extra breadsticks while I’m at it - and freeze them on a cookie sheet.  When frozen, I store them in zip-locs in the freezer.  Tonight I pulled them out, put them in a warm oven for about 1/2 hour while I finished the soup, and baked them right before dinner.  Good finish!)

                                                    My soup...

                                                 And THEIRS... 

            As they say - imitation is the sincerest form of flattery!