Tomato Bacon Soup

What is a better partner to a grilled cheese on a chilly Sunday afternoon than tomato soup? I decided to mix up my basic tomato soup recipe and add some smoky bacon flavor, a risk that ended up paying high dividends if I do say so myself. Oh, and it was really easy so it also satisfied the lazy-Sunday-I-don't-really-feel-like-cooking mentality. I whipped up another rendition of the Irish soda bread for the grilled cheese sandwiches: Dill! (sub 1 T dried dill for the rosemary)

Tomato Bacon Soup

1 T olive oil

1 small onion, finely chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 tsp Kosher salt

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp onion powder

1 tsp dried basil

3 slices bacon, chopped

2 (15 oz) cans tomato sauce

1 (14.5 oz) can diced tomatoes, undrained

2 cups chicken broth

In a large pot or dutch oven, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the onion and garlic and saute until tender, about 4-5 minutes. Add the salt, garlic and onion powder, and basil and stir to combine. Add the bacon (if you're using already cooked bacon, this will only take a few minutes to bring out he bacon flavor, but if you are using uncooked bacon, it will take longer to crisp the bacon before proceeding) and cook until fragrant. 

Add the tomato sauce, diced tomatoes and chicken broth, stir well and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer about 15 minutes. Working in batches, ladle the soup into a blender and process until smooth (conversely you can leave it chunky if you like chunky tomato soup). 

Pour straight from the blender into bowl and garnish with sour cream and dried basil. A few crispy bits of bacon up on top would be excellent as well.