Cheesy Tomato Soup with Roasted Garlic & Basil🍅🧄

1. First, we’re going to roast our garlic in the oven. Preheat oven to 400°. Peel off the white outer layer of the garlic but leave the skins of the individual cloves on the garlic. Cut off 1/4 from the top.
2. Drizzle garlic with olive oil & wrap in aluminum foil. Bake on a baking sheet for 40 minutes. You’ll be able to easily lift the garlic cloves out of their pods with a fork, or if you’re into Dr. Pimple Popper, you can squeeze out the garlic.
3. In a large pot, drizzle olive oil and sauté the onions on medium heat for 8 min. Stir in tomato paste and 7 cloves of roasted garlic.
4. Add crushed tomatoes, veggie broth, & fresh basil. Season with salt, pepper, & Italian seasoning.
6. When I make recipes with canned tomatoes, I like to let it simmer for a while to cook out the acidity from the tomatoes. I let this simmer for 45 minutes but if you’re in a rush, you could totally skip this step! It’s all up to you personal taste preferences. Because the tomatoes I got were pretty acidic, I also added 1/2 tsp of baking soda. This helps neutralize the acidity.
8. Add in cheddar cheese, parmesan cheese, and half & half. If you’re dairy free, you can definitely skip this step, but if you’re a cheese lover like me, you’re going to want to add these in!
9. Next, blend the soup. I used an immersion blender but if you don’t have an immersion blender, you could blend this all in a blender. Just be really careful and try not to burn yourself!
10. Pour into bowls and top with grilled cheese croutons and parsley.