Slow Cooker Creamy Tomato Basil Soup

Another football Sunday has come and gone and this is what was simmering in our slow cooker while Colin watched football and I blogged/Googled ways to get labor started.

 Creamy Tomato Basil Soup

3 (15 oz.) cans petite diced tomatoes, un-drained
1 cup finely chopped celery
1 cup minced onion
1 cup finely chopped carrots
3 cups chicken broth
½ cup flour
1 cup Parmesan cheese
½ cup butter
2 cups half and half
1 tsp salt
1 tsp dried oregano
¼ cup fresh basil, minced
black pepper to taste

Instructions

• In your slow cooker, combine tomatoes, celery, onion, carrots and broth. Cover and cook on low for 5-7 hours.
• Forty five minutes before the soup is done, melt butter in a deep skillet or large pot. 
• When butter is melted whisk in flour, half and half, and 1 -2 cups of the soup mixture from the slow cooker. Whisk until smooth and well blended.
• Pour the flour/half and half mixture into the slow cooker with the remaining soup.
• Add the Parmesan cheese, salt, pepper, oregano, and basil and stir to combine.
• Cover and cook on low for 30 more minutes. Blend with an immersion blender until smooth OR add soup to blender (about half a pitcher at a time) and blend until smooth.*

*If you, like me, don't have an immersion blender and you go with the regular blender option, BE FOREWARNED: putting hot things in a blender will cause an explosion of soupy gook all over your kitchen if you don't hold the lid on tightly. (Yes, we learned this lesson the hard way many years ago when attempting butternut squash soup for the first time. It was a fun time for all.) I've heard that you can take the plastic center piece off of the blender lid to avoid such an explosion. Something about letting air in... Personally, I don't trust this option enough to attempt it, so I just put a kitchen towel over the lid, hold it down, and say a little prayer.

I served ours with grilled cheese sticks.  

Mmm... cheesey