What's on the Menu: Tomato Basil Soup

One of my favorite meals is grilled cheese sandwiches paired with tomato soup.  I was raised eating Campbell's Tomato Soup, and never really thought to change it up, but then I had REAL tomato soup at a restaurant not too long ago and was like, HOLY CRAP.  I have been eating canned swill for years, I NEED to find a decent tomato soup recipe in all haste.  So I started pawing through all of my recipe books and index cards and found exactly diddly squat on the tomato soup front.  Found a great recipe for Mulligatawny soup, but that's another entry.  Finally, I happened across an old "Mothering" magazine article from 2007 that had several different soup recipes and lo and behold... Tomato Basil Soup. 

What you need:
2 tbsp. olive oil
1 tbsp. butter
1 small onion, chopped
2-3 cloves minced garlic
1 tsp. salt
2 c. chicken or veggie stock
1  14-1/2 oz. can chopped tomatoes
1 tbsp. honey
1/4 sour cream (although I almost think it should have been more)
1/4 c. fresh chopped basil
ground pepper

Heat oil and butter in a pot over medium heat.  Add onion, garlic and salt.  Saute until translucent.  Add stock, tomatoes, and honey.  Simmer for 15 min.  Let cool a bit.  Put half of the soup into a blender with sour cream and blend until smooth.  Transfer to another pot.  Blend the rest of the soup and add to the first half.  Warm the blended soup.  Serve with fresh basil and ground pepper.  This recipe makes about 4 servings.  Serve with hot bread or a nice grilled cheese sandwich!