Comfort Food for Valentine's Day

Soup is a favorite in our house, and my little man in particular loves homemade tomato soup with grilled cheese, so I decided to remake my original tomato soup recipe, making a few slight changes to it, and adding special heart-shaped grilled cheese sandwiches. 

TOMATO BASIL SOUP with GRILLED CHEESE HEARTS.

Ingredients:

• 10 tomatoes (diced)
• 1 yellow onion (diced)
• 2 tsp garlic (crushed)
• 6-8 large basil leaves (chiffonade)
• 1/2 cup red wine
• 1 1/2 cup vegetable broth
• 1 cup heavy whipping cream
• 2 tbs agave nectar
• 1 tsp thyme
• 2 tbs olive oil
• pinch of salt
• freshly cracked pepper

Place the oil, onion and garlic in a large pot and saute until the onion is soft.  Add the tomatoes.  Turn down the heat to med-low and simmer for about 8 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Next, add the vegetable broth, red wine, thyme, basil, salt and pepper.  Bring to the boil.  Turn down the heat and simmer for another 5 minutes.

Using an immersion blender, blend the soup until combined.  Alternatively, if you don't have an immersion blender, place half of the soup in a blender, blend until combined, pour back into a pot, and do the same with the second half of the soup.

Add the heavy whipping cream and agave nectar and blend again (or whisk).   Turn the heat down low to keep the soup warm while you make the grilled cheese.

Use a large cookie cutter to cut the bread, and cheese slices separately before grilling, or placing in a panini press.

Servings:  This was the perfect amount for our family of 5, with leftover soup for lunch for me.