If you’re anything like my family, then soup is definitely on the menu this Christmas! Ham is great, but sometimes deviating from the norm is equally satisfying. In fact, one of my favorite Christmas dinners is a huge buffet of soups and sandwich sliders! If you’re sick of the classics, this week’s Creamy Tomato Tortellini Soup is the perfect dish to bring to the table. It’s smooth, creamy, and red! How festive for the season!
This soup is also wonderful because it doesn’t require a million steps before it can be left alone to cook. It can also be prepared in a crockpot or on the stove. I have also prepared the main part of the soup ahead of time, even the day before, and added the tortellini later on when it was closer to serving time. If there’s any trick to holiday cooking, it’s having make-ahead options that can give you more time with your guests and less time in front of the stove.
This recipe is one that I begged, borrowed, and stole from my mother, but she got it from a woman in our hometown, Terri Cullison, after my little brother had it at her house while playing with friends and said it was the best soup he’d ever had. I always want to give credit where credit is due!
Needing a soup idea for the upcoming holiday or just a snowed-in weeknight? Give this easy recipe a try, Average Chefs!
Creamy Tomato Tortellini Soup
Serves 4-5 (can easily be doubled)
Estimated time, start to serve: 15 min. to prep/1-5 hours to cook, depending on method
Ingredients:
Two 10.34-oz. cans of tomato soup
2 Tbsp. tomato paste or ¼ cup of sun-dried tomatoes, chopped
2 cups (one pint) fat-free half and half
2 cups chicken broth
1 tsp. onion powder
1-2 Tbsp. Italian seasoning
½ tsp. salt and ½ tsp. pepper (or to taste)
2 Tbsp. olive oil
2-3 cloves of fresh garlic, minced; approximately 1-1 ½ tsp. pre-minced garlic
1 small bag of cheese-filled tortellini (I used a 19 oz. bag)
Parmesan cheese, for garnish
Instructions:
Crockpot directions:
1. Combine the 2 cans of tomato soup, 2 Tbsp. tomato paste or ¼ cup of sun-dried tomatoes, 2 cups of half and half, 2 cups of chicken broth, 1 tsp. of onion powder, 1-2 Tbsp. Italian seasoning, ½ tsp. salt, and ½ tsp. pepper (all of the ingredients besides the olive oil, garlic, tortellini, and parmesan cheese) in the crockpot. Stir well.
2. In a small pan, combine the 2 Tbsp. olive oil with the 2-3 cloves of minced garlic. Then turn on the heat to medium-low to allow the two to warm up together. Let the garlic lightly simmer in the oil until it just barely starts turning golden brown, a little bit darker in color than the oil. Remove it from the heat immediately. Garlic burns very easily! If you happen to burn it, then just dump it and start over. Pour the garlicky oil into the crockpot and stir again.
3. Cook on low for 4-5 hours or on high for 2-3 hours. About an hour before serving, dump in the bag of frozen tortellini. Stir occasionally until the soup heats back up to serving temperature. To save some time, you could also prepare the tortellini in a separate pot according to its package directions (boil for a couple minutes) and then add it to the soup. Ladle into bowls and top with parmesan cheese.
Stovetop directions:
Sauté garlic in the olive oil over medium heat in a large pot. Again, be super careful not to burn it! Add the 2 cans of tomato soup, 2 Tbsp. tomato paste or ¼ cup of sun-dried tomatoes, 2 cups of half and half, 2 cups of chicken broth, 1 tsp. of onion powder, 1-2 Tbsp. Italian seasoning, ½ tsp. salt, and ½ tsp. pepper (all of the rest of the ingredients besides the tortellini and parmesan cheese). Bring up to a simmer. Add the tortellini and cook according to package directions (usually takes just a couple minutes). Once the tortellini are hot inside and the soup temperature is back up to a simmer, remove from heat or turn heat down to low and ladle into bowls and top with parmesan cheese.
4. Enjoy! I absolutely love serving this soup with some slides of homemade bread from my bread maker. Bread makers, in my opinion, are one of the most underrated appliances in my kitchen! If you struggle to get yeast to cooperate and hate the kneading/waiting process like me, then you absolutely need a bread maker–perfect homemade bread every single time without all of the mess. They’re relatively inexpensive too!
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