Fresh Heirloom Tomato Soup

If you've never had heirloom tomatoes you are really missing out! They are those beautiful bright colorful tomatoes you find in your grocery store in August. They make a delicious tomato soup and are amazing in salads. When heirlooms are out of season any other tomato can be used.
I have always loved Campbell's tomato soup and when I moved toward a healthy lifestyle it was very important for me to eat as clean and fresh as possible. Which of course meant I needed to try my hand at fresh tomato soup. After trying many different combinations of herbs, this is the the final version that got penned in my recipe book. If you're only cooking for 1 and don't plan on having soup a few days in a row, this freezes very well.

Serves 4
You'll need.

7 Cups of diced heirloom tomatoes
1 Tbsp minced shallots
1 Tbsp minced garlic
2 Sprigs of fresh rosemary
2 Spring of fresh thyme
2 Fresh sage leaves
*Note ~ A great way to preserve fresh herbs is, mince, mix with olive oil and freeze in ice cube trays. Perfect single serve sizes. I do the same with garlic and shallots, but in jars and I keep it in the fridge.
3 Cups of Chicken or Vegetable Broth
1 Tsp Sea Salt
1 Tbsp Olive Oil

In a large pot heat the olive oil sauté on medium high heat (on my range its set to 6, if your range doesn't have numbers, its 1/2 inch past medium.) the shallots and garlic in olive oil until fragrant and slightly browned. Add diced tomatoes, chicken broth and herbs.

Bring to a boil, then cover and simmer for 20 minutes.

Remove herbs and discard. Ladle broth into your blender and blend on high until smooth (about a minute or so) or use a hand blender to blend till smooth. I do not recommend using a hand blender in a nonstick pot, you could scratch your nonstick coat (I know from experience).

For a nice smooth seedless soup, you'll want to pour this through a mesh colander back into your pot. I find its much faster to gently bounce the colander vs. shaking it, moving the soup around with spoon as the colander will get clogged and move slower into the pot.

Season soup with salt to your taste, I think 1 tsp is perfect and if the soup is a little too acidic for you add a little sugar. I haven't found I've needed sugar with the heirlooms.

Serve hot with a fresh slice of sourdough or maybe a yummy grilled cheese!