Grilled Cheese Sandwich & Tomato Soup

 

The Grilled Cheese Sandwich & Tomato Soup are a timeless classic. This recipe doesn’t try to reinvent the wheel. It’s just a delicious and satisfying classic.

*A note on the photography. I couldn’t incorporate both onto the same plate. I failed you my faithful readers. I hope you can forgive me. I had to do them separately. Enjoy!*

My first experience with grilled cheese was when I was five. My buddy would always come over after a long day of finger painting and counting to ten, and we would ask my Mom to make us a snack.

Now mind you my Mom, who is a great cook, had zero to little experience whipping up American kid snacks. So the fact that she even had toasted cheese up her sleeve was already commendable. Well, at least she had the IDEA of toasted cheese up her sleeve. Grilled cheese in the traditional sense, it was definitely not.

My grilled cheese growing up was 2 slices of white deli American cheese on two pieces of whole wheat bread. To top it all off, rather than putting butter on the other sides and cooking it in a pan, she would put it in the oven and let the cheese melt that way. There was no tomato soup to speak of, I don’t think she really knew that went with the sandwich. Despite all of this, it was delicious. Even after my friend grew up and we grew apart, whenever he would run into me, the first thing he would bring up was how good those sandwiches were.

Grilled cheese is universally delicious and almost impossible to screw up. Once I had it the real American way with some real tomato soup, I was sold on the traditional method. But I never could get on board with the Kraft Singles usually used. If I’m going to eat a processed cheese I want some white deli American cheese. It’s smooth and has a pleasant aftertaste. It’s also the best cheese if you want to make scrambled eggs (the trick is putting the cheese in the eggs at the very beginning of the process so they are interspersed into the eggs by the time they are ready).

Deli American cheese is an underrated cheap cheese. Just putting that out there.

I decided to class my version of grilled cheese up by using some local sharp cheddar and Colby Jack. Then I wanted to do a sophisticated tomato soup. Tomato soup out of a can is boring. I made something closer to a cream of tomato soup (if you have ever been to Nordstrom Cafe and had their tomato basil soup, that’s what I achieved here), the end result is a delicious soup that is a perfect compliment to a grilled cheese sandwich.

Recipe

Tomato Soup

3 – 4 Tomatoes ( I used heirloom tomatoes)

1 Diced Onion

1 Tbsp. Crushed Garlic

1/2 Cup Heavy Cream

3 Cups Chicken Broth

1 Tbsp. Salt

2 Tbsp. Parmesan

Grilled Cheese

Sliced White Bread (mine is from The Breadery in Oella, MD. It’s called Montana White, it’s perfect.)

3 Tbsp. Butter (melt 1 tbsp. of it)

2 Slices Colby Jack

2 Slices  Sharp Cheddar

3 Slices of Crispy Bacon (OPTIONAL)

Score the tomatoes along the tops and boil in some water for about 30 minutes. This will allow the skin to peel off the tomatoes. Once you have the skin peeled off the tomatoes, heat up some butter in a pot, and add your tomatoes, onions, and garlic. Cook these down, until they are a liquid, then add your chicken broth.

Cook the tomato soup for another 45 minutes. Once your soup is cooked, put it in a blender and blend it for 30 seconds. This will make your tomato soup smooth. Pour your soup back into the pot and add your cream. If you want to go healthier, you can add condensed milk or whole milk (just be careful not to overheat the substitutes as much). Heavy cream, because it has so much fat, will not separate under high heat. Whole Milk/condensed milk will. So if you don’t want your soup to be grainy, be careful and keep it on a low heat.

Now you are ready to make your sandwich. First melt one tablespoon of the butter. Brush it onto the sides of the bread that will be touching the skillet. Add the other two tablespoons to your skillet, let them melt and heat up. Have your cheese slices ready. Lay 1 slices of your bread down on the skillet. Add your cheese.

*NOTE, if you are adding bacon, put the bacon in between the cheeses, so cheddar, colby, bacon, colby, cheddar*

As the bread begins to crisp up, move your skillet to the oven and broil it on high for about 30 seconds to a minute (or however long the cheese takes to melt, but not all the way). This will prevent you from burning your bread in order to get a good melt on your cheese.

Now move your skillet back onto the stovetop, add your second piece of bread, and flip your sandwich. Press down and enjoy.

Plate your food and enjoy!