Just opening a can of tomato soup can nourish you but the addition of a few simple ingredients turns this into a gourmet experience. If you add a salad and some fresh bread, this is a wonderful meal even to serve guests. It serves four to six people.
Instructions
1. Open the can of tomato soup and transfer all of the contents into a saucepan. Fill the empty soup can with milk. Pour this into the saucepan as well and stir to mix the milk with the condensed tomato soup. Then add the whole can of diced tomatoes including the liquid. Add 1/2 tsp. of garlic powder and 1/2 tsp. of chile powder.
2. Heat the mixture stirring constantly so that it gets hot but does not begin to boil. Boiling may cause the milk to separate and curdle which will not ruin the taste of the soup but it will make it look ugly. This may take about 10 or 15 minutes over fairly low heat.
3. Stir in two cups of shredded cheddar cheese saving a few tablespoons of the cheese for a garnish. Continue to stir this constantly until the cheese melts. The soup will thicken with the addition of the cheese unless you allow it to boil. Then the cheese will separate and the be more watery than it should be.
4. Ladle the hot soup into generous serving bowls. Spoon one tbsp. of sour cream into the center of the bowl so that it becomes a floating island. Sprinkle the sour cream islands with dried basil. Garnish the top of the bowl with a tbsp. of fried onion bits and some of the reserved cheddar cheese. Everyone will ask for more of this gourmet tomato soup that came out of a regular can less than a half hour ago.
Tags: soup will, cheddar cheese, into saucepan, sour cream, this into, tomato soup