Smoked tomato soup with grab grilled cheese is the perfect pairing and cold weather recipe. Comfort food at its best.
Smoked Tomato Soup with Crab Grilled Cheese
Rated 5.0 stars by 1 users
Food:
Vegetables
Cuisine
Canadian
Serves:
2 to 4 people
Prep Time:
15 min
Cook Time:
40 min
As the weather turns from hot to cold, we’re all looking for that comfort food that warms our souls, and tomato soup and grilled cheese is a match made in comfort food heaven. This recipe for smoked tomato soup and crab grilled cheese will tick all your cold-weather-comfort-food-recipe boxes. Of course, if you don’t have a smoker, you can roast your tomatoes, onions and garlic in the oven. If you don’t have a blender that can accommodate hot liquids, you can use a hand immersion blender to blend all your ingredients together. Ideally, you have access to a Vitamix to make your smoked tomato soup. For the grilled cheese, if you don’t like crab, you can make a regular grilled cheese, or you can add in sliced tomatoes, bacon, caramelized onions, or any other of your favourite grilled cheese toppings. Of course you can also make the soup by itself, or the crab grilled cheese by itself, but the two go so well together, it's worth making them at the same time.
Enjoy!
By:Chef Matt Basile
Ingredients
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15 vine tomatoes
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1 pint baby heirloom tomatoes
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1 Spanish onion
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2 heads garlic
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4 to 5 tbsps olive oil
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6 sprigs fresh thyme
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1 lemon
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1½ tsp salt
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3 slices sourdough bread
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5oz- to 6oz shucked crab claw meat
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½ cup fontina cheese, grated
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¾ cup butter, melted
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2 tbsp finely chopped fresh basil
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Fresh parmesan cheese
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Pepper
Instructions
Set smoker to 450F.
Cut your vine tomatoes in half and place in a large cast iron pan with the baby heirloom tomatoes. Drizzle with 2 tbsps olive oil, season with salt and fresh time.
Peel and cut your Spanish onion into quarters and place on the plancha with some oil to grill. Cut off the tops of the two heads of garlic and place in a separate cast iron pan. Place the grilled onion in with the garlic, drizzle with 2 to 3 tbsp olive oil. Cut the lemon in half and add to the pan. Place both cast irons in the smoker for 30 minutes.
Meanwhile, shuck your crab claws and place the meat in a bowl. Set aside. Grate your Fontina cheese. Finely chop the fresh basil, drizzle with olive oil and continue to chop, then set aside.
Slice three pieces of sourdough bread. Melt your butter and drizzle on the plancha. Add the crab meat to the butter. Place your sliced sourdough on the plancha and drizzle with the melted butter, flip, to let both sides lightly toast. Add the shredded Fontina cheese to each slice of bread and allow to start to melt. Place the crab meat on two of the pieces of bread. Allow to keep cooking, the cheese to melt and the bread to toast and turn golden brown.
Remove the tomatoes and onions from the smoker. Add the smoked tomatoes to your blender - make sure your blender can safely blend hot liquids. Add the grilled onions, squeeze the juice from the grilled lemon and squeeze out the garlic from both heads of garlic into your blender. Blend. Drizzle in about 1-2 tbsp of the melted butter and continue to blend until smooth. Season with salt if needed.
To build your grilled cheese, make one sandwich with one cheese-only piece of bread and one with cheese and crab. Add the second piece of bread with cheese and crab to the top or bottom of the first sandwich to make a double-decker grilled cheese. Remove from the grill and cut in half on a bias.
Place your grilled cheese on a plate and ladle soup into a bowl. Season the soup with fresh ground pepper, grated parm and a spoon of the chopped basil oil. Give your grilled cheese a dip and dig in!