Tomato Soup with Canned Tomatoes

I grew up thinking I hated tomato soup, when what I really hated was Campbell's tomato soup.  I have a hard time justifying making tomato soup when tomatoes are in season because they are so lovely I can't bring myself to do much more than slice them and sprinkle salt and pepper over the slices.  Deborah Madison has a recipe for Cream of Tomato Soup in her cookbook Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone.  I made it today for lunch and tweaked it just a bit.  It is delicious.

1 T olive oil
1 T butter
1 small onion, diced
2 celery ribs, diced
1 1/2 t dried basil
pinch of ground cloves (I added more because I loved the flavor)
2 T flour
2 15-ounce cans diced tomatoes in puree (only had tomatoes in juice so I added about 1/2 T of tomato paste to compensate)
pinch of baking soda
2 1/2 c vegetable stock (I used chicken stock)
1 to 1 1/2 c milk
salt and freshly ground pepper

Combine olive oil and butter in soup pot over medium heat.  When butter has melted add onion, celery, basil and cloves and cook until onion is limp, about 5 minutes.  Stir in flour and add tomatoes, tomato paste, baking soda and stock.  Bring to a boil, then partially cover and lower the heat and simmer for 20 minutes.  (She recommends pureeing it at this point but I left it as is) add milk and season with salt and pepper.

I cut up some leftover bread into cubes and toasted it in the oven at 350 degrees until crisp and topped my bowl of soup with some of the croutons.  A lovely lunch for winter.