Sunday Soup: Creamy Tomato Soup with Cheesy beer bread

Hi friends!  At my husband's request, today's soup is a tomato-y one.  I still haven't jumped on the "slow cooker" soup recipe wagon, but this is a really easy one.  Like, 15 minutes of total time in the kitchen, easy. And once I realized that I was all out of homemade bread (the original plan involved grilled cheese sandwiches), I decided to throw together a loaf of cheesy beer quick bread. You get two for the price of one today!

Creamy Tomato Soup

3 tbsp olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
2 medium leeks, sliced
4 garlic cloves (or in my case, a palmful of garlic powder. Who runs out of garlic??)
1 28 oz. can crushed tomatoes
1 28 oz. can whole tomatoes
Salt and Pepper
2 tsp. sugar
1 tbsp tomato paste (I found some in a tube, yeah!)
2-3 cups hot vegetable stock (I made my own while the soup cooked, just throw a carrot, a celery rib, and the ends of your onions and leeks in a saucepan and simmer for awhile. Saved like $3!)
2/3 c. half and  half

Heat the oil in a large pot, like a cast iron dutch oven or something. Add the onions and leeks and cook for about 10 minutes on low heat. Stir in the garlic and tomatoes; season with salt and pepper. Add the sugar and tomato paste, stir, then simmer for about 30 min.

Add the stock, bring the whole thing to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer for 10 min. Use a blender, food processor, or immersion blender to puree the mixture. As usual, I like to leave some chunkiness in there, so I don't puree all of it.  Taste and season again.

At this point, you could freeze a couple of portions of this (I'm talking to you, MBA students!).  If you decide to go this direction, be sure to let the soup cool completely before you put it in the freezer.

Stir in the half and half, and serve!  Enjoy with the Cheesy Beer bread, to be posted next.