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Tomato Soup and Grilled Cheese

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Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 30 minutes
Total Time: 40 minutes
Calories: 481kcal
Servings: 4 People
Metric - Imperial

Ingredients

Tomato Soup

  • 30 ml Olive Oil
  • 1 Brown (Yellow) Onion Chopped
  • 4 Garlic Cloves Minced
  • 40 g Tomato Paste
  • 800 g Whole Peeled Tomatoes
  • 500 ml Chicken or Vegetable Stock
  • 4 g Sugar
  • 1 g Chilli Flakes Optional
  • 2 g Smoked Paprika
  • 125 ml Thickened Cream
  • Seasoning to Taste
  • Basil Leaves to Garnish

Grilled Cheese Toasties

  • Thick Sourdough
  • 80 g Sharp Cheddar or Mozzarella Cheese Grated
  • 50 g Gruyère Cheese Grated
  • Unsalted Butter
  • Mayonnaise

Method

  • Heat the olive oil in a saucepan over medium heat. Add onion with a pinch of salt and cook for 6–8 minutes until soft and golden.
  • Add garlic and cook for 1 minute. Stir in tomato paste and cook for 2 minutes until it darkens in colour and develops richness.
  • Add canned tomatoes with their juice, stock, sugar, chilli flakes, and smoked paprika. Simmer uncovered for 20 minutes to reduce and intensify flavour.
  • Transfer the soup carefully into a blender. Blend on high until completely smooth and silky. Return the pot to the stove, stir in the cream, and season with salt and pepper. Keep warm.
  • For the toasties, mix the cheddar and gruyère. Spread butter on one side of each slice of bread and mayonnaise on the other side.
  • Divide the cheese mixture between two sandwiches, ensuring buttered sides face out.
  • Heat a skillet over medium heat. Place the sandwiches in the pan and cook for 2-4 minutes per side until golden and the cheese is fully melted.
  • Rest for 1 minute before slicing. Serve alongside the hot tomato soup, finished with fresh basil.
Chef's Tips
Let the tomato paste properly darken over the full 2 minutes before the canned tomatoes go in — that caramelisation step is where a lot of the depth in this soup comes from, and rushing past it leaves the base tasting flatter and more acidic.
Blend the hot soup in batches if your blender isn't rated for hot liquids, and never fill it more than halfway — hot liquid builds pressure and can blow the lid off if the jug's too full, so venting the lid or holding a folded towel over the top while blending is worth calling out here.
Mayo on the outside of the toasties instead of butter is the actual technique that gets you that deep, even golden crust — it has a higher smoke point than butter, so it browns more reliably without burning before the cheese has melted. It can be done with only butter if you prefer; the mayonnaise is optional.
Storage & Reheating
The soup can be refrigerated for up to 4 days, or frozen for up to 3 months, in an airtight container. The cream can separate slightly once frozen and thawed, so give it a good whisk while reheating gently in a pot over low heat, or in the microwave in short bursts.
The toasties are best made fresh, since the bread won't hold its crisp texture once refrigerated or frozen. If you do need to store extras, keep them in the fridge for a day and reheat in a pan or oven to re-crisp — the microwave will leave them soggy.
Serving 350gCalories 481kcalCarbohydrates 40gProtein 19gFat 26gSaturated Fat 10gPolyunsaturated Fat 2gMonounsaturated Fat 8gCholesterol 33mgSodium 650mgPotassium 691mgFiber 5.3gSugar 11gVitamin A 336IUVitamin C 3.71mgCalcium 324mgIron 1.9mg