Tomato Fennel Soup

Doubled the recipe and it made enough for two adults, two kids, and one serving left over. I used a can of peeled plum tomatoes I had on hand and mashed them in the pot.

I was looking for a recipe to use veggies from my CSA; this didn't fit the bill exactly, but I used it as a base, and WOW! I will post the recipe I remade from it separately, but thank you for this basic recipe; to those who try it "as is" I suggest topping it off with grated Parmesan cheese and serving with garlic toast. We finished it off completely. Basic changes I made included using stewed tomatoes instead of diced (it's what I had) and adding some chopped plum tomatoes as well.

This was a nice way to use up fennel I had bought by mistake (thinking it was the base of leeks), but I think it may need something more as a spice. I doubled the recipe to be rid of the fennel, and had no olive oil on hand (so used vegetable oil and would use less of it next time). I also could not puree to smooth the soup, given that my blender leaked a little, and so I was hurrying it along and had some small chunks of veggies in it, but that turned out fine anyway. We served it with a bread loaf alongside grilled ham and cheese sandwiches for dinner tonight. My 13-year-old said it didn't look very red, but she liked the taste of it. I agreed about the color, but was not willing to add food coloring just for the sake of that. We will make this again, so thanks for sharing the recipe!