Tomato Potato Soup

Sorry for my bloggy absence! After the great sickness of 2010, the little boys and I headed down to Florida to visit my parents, drive to NC for my uncle's retirement service, and so I could go into my office a couple of days. Sickness then vacation= no cooking!

I finally got back to it last night, and here is what we had... no pictures because I was too lazy to go find my camera. :-)

We have lots of potatoes that need to be eaten, so many of our meals this week and next will feature potatoes. I also had an opened giant can of diced tomatoes from Sams Club, so this was definitely a use what you have kind of meal.

Tomato Potato Soup

1 T butter

1 T flour

1 onion, chopped

2 T minced garlic

4 C potatoes (I had half already mashed, half raw diced)

1 C celery, diced

2 carrots, shredded or chopped

2 C zucchini, shredded or chopped

1 T Italian seasoning

2 C milk

2 C diced tomatoes (or I think 1 14 oz can would work)

1 C chicken broth

1/2 c tomato puree

salt to taste

Melt butter in a large pan, add in flour and cook for 3 minutes. Add in veggies, garlic, and Italian seasoning, and saute until slightly tender. Add all other ingredients, bring to boil, then reduce heat and simmer on low 20-30 minutes. I then blended the soup so it would be smooth, but you could certainly leave it chunky!

I served the soup with homemade croutons, made from a loaf of bread I stuck in the freezer before we left town so it wouldn't go bad. They topped the soup off perfectly! The potatoes made it creamy, almost like it had cream in it, without a potato-y taste. I just ate some for lunch, and it was even better the second time!