Creamy Tomato Orzo Soup

Two weeks ago, we were on vacation (ahhhh, bliss!) and one day, Mark and I went out to lunch with my mom to Rose32 in Hardwick.  This place is our new obsession, and everything you can get there is amazing.  The breakfasts, lunches, baked goods, breads... you name it.   It may be in the middle of nowhere, but it's worth the trip.  We ordered soups, salads and sandwiches, and loved it all.  I got a caprese panini and their soup of the day, which was tomato soup.  It got us thinking that the perfect dinner that night would be soup and salad.  Mark took care of the salad, and assigned me to make the soup.  He wanted tomato, since mine had been so good at lunch.

There are so many tomato soup recipes out there, and I have made some before that I loved.   But I wanted to try something different tonight, so a quick jaunt around Pinterest turned up this recipe.  It's healthy and quick, which sounded good to me.  It has orzo in it, which I love, and it's creamy but not from cream; it calls for Greek yogurt!  Oh, and it even has a touch of brown sugar in there. That then and there was the deciding factor for me, so this soup became our dinner.

 The soup was really easy and quick to throw together, and we were eating in about a half hour.  It's very good: it has a tang from the yogurt, along with a smooth creaminess from all being blended together. The orzo gives it good texture (I am not a huge fan of soups with nothing in them!  I actually left a lot of stuff unblended because I like my soup to have some heft.).  We all liked it and it was quite good heated up for lunch once we were back to work (boo!  36 days left....)

My soup with the caprese sandwiches Mark made

Recipe:

creamy tomato orzo soup
from Two Peas and Their Pod

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon olive oil

1/2 cup chopped onion
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 bay leaves
3-15 ounce cans diced tomatoes
1-15 ounce can vegetable broth
1 teaspoon brown sugar
1/4 cup chopped fresh basil
Dash of crushed red pepper flakes
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt 
1 cup cooked orzo pasta

Directions:

1) In a large pot, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the onion and garlic and cook until tender, about 5 minutes. Stir in the bay leaves.

2) Add the tomatoes and vegetable broth. Stir in the brown sugar and fresh basil. Season with red pepper flakes, salt, and pepper, to taste. Simmer on low for 15 minutes.

3) Remove the bay leaves from the pot. Use an immersion blender to blend the soup (or blend the soup in a standing blender and return to the pot). Stir in the Greek yogurt until well combined. Stir in the orzo pasta. Serve warm.