Green Tomato Soup

It's obviously too late here in Michigan to be waiting for green tomatoes to ripen (!) so I pulled them all off before putting the garden away for the year. I had so many of them that I didn't want to throw them out, and set about finding some different ways to use them. There are lots of recipes online; I picked a few to try and first up is this green tomato soup. I love tomato soup, and this turned out really good...my only problem with it is that my mind couldn't get past the "green" part! It has a thick chunky texture and with every bite I took my brain thought it should be split pea. And it's totally not split pea. Maybe if I would have strained this so it's smoother I wouldn't have confused myself so much - I used mostly green cherry tomatoes so there are lots of skins - once again, it tastes really good though so I'm definitely sharing this recipe and will make it again next year! Oh, and this is even good cold so will make it in the hot days of summer too.

Ingredients:

• 1 T. olive oil
• small onion, chopped
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 2 pounds chopped green tomatoes
• 1 cups chicken broth
• 2 cups water
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• pinch red pepper flakes
• 1 bay leaf

Directions:

Heat the oil in a pot over medium heat, add the onion and garlic and cook until wilted and translucent (watch it, it burns quickly). Add the remaining ingredients, simmer until the tomatoes are tender - about 20 minutes. Discard the bay leaf. In a food processor (or using one of those immersion blender things) puree the soup until as smooth as you want. Or just leave chunky in the broth if you prefer.

Note: I was heavy handed with the red pepper flakes and it was a little spicier than I like - a spoonful of sour cream helped cool down the heat (and made it taste even better!).