Tomato Soup with Grilled Cheese Croutons

Ingredients

• 2 x 400g tins chopped tomatoes
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 large onion, finely chopped
• 1 medium carrot, finely diced
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• 600ml hot vegetable stock
• 1 tsp balsamic vinegar
• ½ tsp caster sugar
• 8 slices stale white bread
• 200g mature cheddar, thinly sliced or grated
• 50g unsalted butter, softened
• 50ml double cream (optional drizzle)
• 6 basil leaves, torn
• Salt and black pepper
• Natural yoghurt, to serve

Method

1. Warm the olive oil in a heavy pot over medium heat. Add the onion, carrot and red pepper with a good pinch of salt and sweat gently for 8–10 minutes, until the vegetables are soft, glossy and starting to collapse rather than colour — the salt now pulls the water out and builds the base flavour.
2. Stir in the crushed garlic and cook for 30 seconds, just until fragrant and pale gold. Don't let it colour past that — burnt garlic turns the whole pot bitter and you can't claw it back.
3. Tip in the chopped tomatoes, red lentils and hot vegetable stock — the stock is what breaks the tomatoes down so they taste of summer fruit rather than tin. Stir in the balsamic vinegar and caster sugar, bring to a gentle simmer and cook for 25 minutes, stirring now and then, until the lentils have melted into the soup and the kitchen smells properly tomatoey.
4. While the soup simmers, build the sandwiches. Butter each slice of bread on the outside, layer the cheddar generously over half the slices and close them up. Heat a dry frying pan over medium heat and press the sandwiches in — 3–4 minutes a side, until the bread is deeply golden and the cheese is visibly oozing at the edges. Lower the heat if the bread darkens before the cheese melts; you want molten centres, not toasted shells around cold cheese.
5. Slice the sandwiches into 2cm cubes on a board. You're after crisp golden edges and stringy cheesy middles — the contrast on top of the soup is the whole point.
6. Blend the soup completely smooth with a stick blender, then return it to a gentle simmer for 2 minutes to bring it back together. Taste and season — properly. Tinned tomatoes need more salt than you think, and a few grinds of pepper. Taste again and adjust now, not at the table.
7. If you're using the cream, swirl it in off the heat — the soup should look silky and glossy.
8. Ladle into warmed bowls, scatter the grilled cheese croutons over so they float and soften at the edges, tear the basil leaves over the top and finish with a coarse grind of black pepper.