Tangy Tomato Soup with Griddle Bread

For some reason, today was one of those days where I just desperately wanted some comfort food. This morning, I talked Ross into making some Swedish Pancakes, with fresh strawberry mush (what do you call it when you slice up some fruit, cook it with some sugar and a little water and lemon juice, and then spread it on stuff? It's not quite jam, but it's SO good!). And then after our very productive trip to Blick today, I needed noodles. Slurpy, saucy, long noodles. Know what I mean?

And now, here it is dinner time, and all I could think of to make was tomato soup. It just sounded so good. When I was a kid, we always had the Campbell's Cream of Tomato soup with grilled cheese. Now, I'm a broke-ass grownup, so I've learned to improvise, and actually made something that's even tastier! This tomato soup was thick, tangy, and tomato-ey. The bread was a deliciously crispy, chewy, slightly salty and so satisfying. Grown up comfort food, for sure.  And then I thought, well, Lynds, you've got a blog now, about life at your house and the stuff you get up to, right? So post your recipe! I even took a shot at some cute food photography...I'm no Pioneer Woman yet, but this ish is tasty, so go make it!

Tangy Tomato Soup with Griddle Bread

Soup Ingredients (serves 1)

1 can diced tomatoes (whichever flavor you've got...this would be good with Italian spices or chiles)
1/2 carrot
1/2 small onion
1 clove garlic
1 tbsp butter
1 tbsp tomato paste
1 tsp flour
1 cup vegetable broth (or a cube of bouillon in 1 cup water)
1/4 cup plain yogurt
Salt and pepper to taste
Your favorite hot sauce

Griddle Bread Ingredients (serves 1)

Bread

Lots of butter (the salted kind)

To make the soup:

1. Dice up the carrots, onions and garlic really small and throw them into a soup pot with 1 tbsp butter

2. Saute on medium heat for about 5 mins, until everything looks soft

3. Sprinkle the flour over the veggies, and saute for another minute or two

4. Pour in the broth and stir real fast, then add the tomatoes and the tomato paste

5. At this point, either grab your immersion blender (I have this one), or pour everything into your regular blender, and blend away. It's important to do it now, because your seasonings will be off if you do it later - all the tomatoes getting emulsified changes the flavor, in a good way.

6. Add salt (I use about 1 tsp, but I'm not huge on salty things), several dashes of pepper, a squeeze of lemon juice if you think it needs it, 5 dashes of hot sauce and the yogurt.

7. Mix it all up, let it cook til bubbly, then serve it with an extra dollop of yogurt.

To make the bread:

1. Butter a fat slice of bread, heavily
2. Microwave that sucker for about 10 seconds, just to get the butter a little melty
3. Place it butter-side down on a griddle or pan at medium high heat
4. When the first side gets all toasty and brown and crispy, flip it
5. Dunk the bread in the soup and be happy