creamy tomato soup

When I was younger and my dad would come home from work, I never understood why he snapped so easily at us. I never understood how he could not see his children all day, come home, and be crabby. Heaven forbid, we WERE the world’s most perfect children – he should have celebrated our existence every chance he got. Instead, he came home from a long day of teaching, tired and impatient.

I understand now.

I understand that my dad was patient all. day. long. with students. Students who were bright, students who needed more help than others, students who decided today was the day they would be very obnoxious just to see if he would break down and lose himself in a fit of rage. Oh no, you see – you can’t do that in the classroom. No matter what occurs, you must stay calm. You must act, not react when a situation arises.

So now when I get home after a long day of work, the last thing I want to do is be patient. The last thing I want to do is to do one. more. thing. You see – I have been patient all. day. long. with. students. Students who are bright, students who need more help than others, students who decided today was the day they would be very obnoxious just to see if I would break down and lose myself in a fit of rage.  Lucky for them, I’m calm as a cucumber.

In that classroom, that is. At home? It’s not my strongest attribute. In fact, last night I exclaimed to the Husband very loudly that the last thing I wanted to be doing at that exact moment was to be cooking his dinner.

I’m working on getting super powers to magically reverse the words that come out of my mouth.

You can only imagine the gleeful sounds that came out of my mouth when the Husband agreed to make me dinner tonight for the very first time as a married couple.

He totally didn’t make that.

I did. Just as luck would have it, he would wake up with whatever sickness plagued me for the last two weeks. Of course I feel horrible. Of course I feel like it’s my fault. Of course I tried to make it up to him by making him a rockin’ tomato soup because it’s his favorite.

Creamy Tomato Soup (serves 3-4)

• 1-2 tbsp. olive oil
• 1/2 onion, diced
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 28 oz. can whole tomatoes
• 3 cups vegetable broth
• 1/2 cup almond milk
• salt, pepper, basil, and garlic to taste

Directions: Start by mincing your garlic and dicing your onion. Sauté over medium high heat with 1-2 tbsp. of olive oil in a large Dutch oven. Stir frequently as you do not want the garlic or onion to burn. Continue to cook until translucent (~5 minutes).

Once onion and garlic is tender, pour the entire contents of the canned tomatoes into the Dutch oven. Stir. Then, pour your vegetable broth into the tomatoes and stir. Cook on medium heat for 5-10 minutes.

Transfer your soup to a blender (or you can use an immersion blender – it didn’t work that well for me though!) and puree until smooth (5-10 seconds). Transfer back to the Dutch oven and continue to simmer for 15-20 more minutes. Spice to taste and stir in your almond (or soy… or any milk, actually!) before serving.

I served mine atop a handful of spinach. It gave a great texture to the soup!

Of course I didn’t actually want to cook dinner today. However, I took one for the team. I held my tongue because, actually, I was inspired to cook this soup and was excited to eat it.

Too bad the Husband slept through dinner.

And I’m okay with this – because through this experience, I have learned that when I’m not patient, it comes back and kicks me right in the behind.

Question: What’s your favorite soup?

Tagged as: patience, recipe, teaching, tomato soup