Zupas Tomato Basil Soup Recipe & Tutorial

Zupas Tomato Basil Soup!

If you have some time and are dying to eat Zupas Tomato Basil Soup for a week, here ya go.

I love this soup at Zupas and I found the recipe (I’ve been informed that it is, in fact, not the EXACT recipe, but I think it tastes exactly like it and so I, in fact, don’t care.)

It actually took a lot longer than I expected, but if you want to save money and make way more soup than you would get at Zupas, then go for it! But just know you have been warned that it takes a little bit of time, like as much as it would take to make home made rolls. Both are amazing though, so maybe it is worth the time :) And if there are only two of you, you have also been warned that I had this soup probably six times before it was gone, haha.

But it was good and worth it and I would love to eat it six times, 

so here it is!

 Ingredients:

4 lb tomatoes, halved lengthwise (apparently plum tomatoes make the flavor even better, but I use normal tomatoes and it works perfect)

6-8 garlic cloves, left unpeeled

3 tbsp. olive oil

½ tsp salt

¼ tsp black pepper

1 medium onion, finely chopped

2 tsp fresh oregano, minced (only ½ tsp if using dried)

2 Tbsp. fresh basil, minced (only 1 tsp if using dried)

2 tsp sugar

2 Tbsp unsalted butter

3 cups chicken stock or low-sodium broth

¾ cup heavy cream

Directions:

Put oven rack in middle position and preheat to 350.

Cut all stems off tomatoes, and cut in half lengthwise.

Arrange tomatoes, cut sides up, in one layer on a large shallow baking pan and add garlic to the pan.

Drizzle tomatoes with oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Roast in oven for 1 hour, then cool in pan on rack.

 While that is cooling, cook onion, oregano, basil, and sugar in butter in a 6-8 qt pot over moderately low, stirring frequently, until onion is softened (about 5 min).

Peel garlic (should squeeze right out)

Add tomatoes, garlic, and stock and simmer covered for 20 min.

Puree soup in batches in a blender (be careful with the hot soup!)

then force through a sieve and into a clean pot or bowl. I put all the unblended soup into a bowl, and then put the blended and strained soup into the same pot

Please forgive my lovely kitchen... :)

Stir in cream, and salt & pepper to taste (you need hardly any, if at all)

Simmer 2 min.

Also, Zupas adds in orzo pasta, so I made some of that too for the full effect!

I found it at Winco in the bulk section, but you don’t need to add this if you don’t want to!

 We had these with grilled cheese sandwiches, and it was AMAZING. So yummy!!! Let me know if you try it!

PS If you're interested in more restaurant recipes, you may wanna check out this book with tons of recipes from good restaurants like California Pizza Kitchen, Olive Garden, Applebees, etc!