Green Chile Tomato Soup

It's been a while since I've had a puppy, and I had forgotten how much work it takes to raise one. Last time I had one, I was 14 years old and on summer break. Now it's 11 years later and the memories are coming back to me. It's hard enough to find enough time to cook. It's close to impossible to make anything when Tipsy is sick, which she has been for the past two weeks or so. Instead of making complicated things, I've been favoring food that is easy to make, and takes very little babysitting, such as soup.

She likes to sleep on the recliner when she's feeling sick. What a princess.

While watching Tipsy, I began looking for interesting recipes that used green chile, as I still have a ton of it left. When I saw a recipe for green chile tomato soup, I knew I had to make it. I love soup, and since the weather was cold, it made even more sense to make a huge pot of it. 

Recipe adapted from The Kitchen Paper:

2 28-oz cans diced and crushed tomatoes (I use San Marzano tomatoes)

3/4 cup green chile

1 cup water

2-3 cups chicken stock

2 tablespoons tomato paste

4 cloves crushed garlic (Yes, it's a lot but I love garlic, haha)

1/2 cup sour cream

1/2 cup heavy cream

1/2 teaspoon dried thyme

1/2 teaspoon dried basil

1/2 teaspoon dried oregano

1/2 teaspoon hot paprika

1 onion, diced

2 tablespoons butter

2 tablespoons olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

In a large pot, add the diced onion, olive oil, and butter, and cook on medium-high until the onions start to soften and turn translucent (takes about 5 minutes). 

Onions with olive oil and butter

Next, add the garlic and spices, and cook for an additional minute or two. Make sure the spices are evenly distributed in the onions.

Adding the garlic and spices

Then add the tomato paste and green chile, and continue to cook on medium-high until the tomato paste has been incorporated.

Mixing in the tomato paste and green chile

Once everything has cooked down, add the canned tomatoes, water, and chicken broth. Turn the heat down to medium-low and simmer for 45 minutes - 1 hour. After simmering, use either a stick blender or a traditional blender and blend the soup until smooth. I personally prefer to leave a few chunks of tomatoes and green chile floating in there, but smooth is also nice. Finally, add the sour cream and heavy cream, bring back up to a boil, and salt and pepper to taste.

my favorite kind of canned tomatoes

Onions, green chile, tomato paste, and spices all cooked down

bringing the soup back to a boil after being blended and adding the sour cream and heavy cream

I think this soup is absolutely wonderful. I made it spicier than it should be, but that's how I like things. One bonus about the extra spiciness, it helped to warm me up quickly, which is always a good thing. To go with the soup, I made a simple piece of garlic toast by slicing some Italian loaf bread, toasting it, then rubbing the toast with a piece of cut garlic, drizzling a bit of olive oil on top, then topping it with a bit of sea salt. 

Soup + toast = delicious dinner