Homemade Tomato Soup (aka Best Tomato Soup Ever)

This is a recipe that I got from my friends Amanda's blog awhile back and it was absolutely wonderful. I have made it a few times since. A few days back, I decided to make a few little changes and it made an already awesome soup all the much better. This is the original recipe:

Ingredients:

1 can (28 oz.) diced tomato (the kind that is flavored with basil, garlic and oregano)
1 can (28 oz.) crushed tomato
3 1/2 cups low sodium veggie broth
2 Tablespoons diced onion
2 cloves of garlic, diced
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 1/2 Tablespoons granulated (white) sugar
4 Tablespoons butter
1/2 teaspoons dried basil
1/8 tsp. fresh-ground black pepper
Parmesan or Asiago cheese for garnish (optional)

1) Melt butter in large soup pot.

2) Add all other ingredients. Bring mixture to a boil.

3) Reduce heat and let simmer for at least an hour.

4) Sprinkle individual bowls of soup with cheese (optional)

For the most part, I stuck with this with just a few slight changes. First of all, the tomatoes- I never actually used the italian seasoned tomatoes, just added the seasonings in later, but this time to give it something a little different, I used tomatoes with green peppers and onions. I absolutely love green peppers so really you can't go wrong adding this in. (Or so that was my hope!) And cheese. I have an addiction to cheese...it's a problem really. If a recipe calls for cheese, I often find myself doubling it. It only makes it better, right? So I couldn't resist- I added Parmesan and Romano cheese to the soup (while cooking) to make it more of a cheesy tomato soup. As I said before, the original recipe itself was amazing, but these changes gave it a little extra something.

Try this soup today, either version. You will not think of tomato soup the same way again. I promise.