Copycat Panera's Tomato-Basil Soup

Made it exactly. Maybe it was the kind of red cherry tomatoes I used? I have pro-grade emulsifier that could not process all the seeds and skins. This gave a very bitter seedy chew. I strained the soup the best I could but the flavor just wasn't good. I added sugar, extra cream, extra salt, melted butter, 2 tsps. of chicken Better than Bouillon and a few dashes of Worcesheter sauce. Tastes pretty good now, but WOW! Not really healthy soup now and was frustratingly messy and challenging trying to salvage expensive products. Also, I had doubled the recipe. Maybe the reason for epic fail? Idk. Good luck.🫡

I made this recipe to the T. Once it was on the stove I medium simmered the soup and then I added the cream. I couldn’t wait to taste it! Well, I did. I found it somewhat sour and unappealing.
In my experience it didn’t really taste like Panera tomato basil soup
Well, since this was supposed to be dinner that I knew my husband wouldn’t care for it at all so I made a decision that probably everyone else will disagree with but I added a 3/4cup of sugar and increased the cream from 1/4 cup to one whole cup.
It’s a whole lot better tasting now.

Superb! It is also so easy because it mostly involves roasting and blending. Very flavorful because it is mostly tomatoes, basil, and shallots. The roasting gives the veggies an amazing flavor and there is a fraction of the sodium you find in canned or boxed soup. And NO sugar. Have you tasted how sweet regular canned soup is these days? The roasting adds enough sweetness. I topped with roasted chickpeas and accompanied with grilled cheese.

This was delicious and so easy on a Sunday night when we were looking for something comforting and quick and veggie forward that my kids would also eat. Rather than pureeing the ingredients in a blender, I used my immersion blender right in the pot to cut down a step and it worked great (though maybe not as silky smooth as if I had have used a blender but I don't mind a little texture in my tomato soup). The fresh basil is key in this recipe. We skipped the croutons and just served with a baguette on the side. Was just trying to get dinner on the table as quickly as possible, as you can see LOL.