Casual French Vegetarian Dinner (Tomato Soup with Grilled Cheese Sandwiches)

Rei’s damn job and schoolwork got in the way of us cooking together but they were home for dinner which was a good thing. Hey! Listen, I don’t want to do my school work any more than you do, but someone’s got to do it. Since I am above asking someone else to do my homework, the responsibility falls on me. If you would rather I got someone else to do my homework and I didn’t learn anything (not like I’m learning very much right now anyways but that’s beyond the point), too bad. I have standards, you know.

I’d mentioned making tomato soup with grilled cheese sandwiches for Monday night but decided to make it for Tuesday night when our friend Houston Amy was going to be in town and staying with us. Rei was disappointed but once Rei gets around to finalizing Monday night’s blog post, you’ll appreciate that we did just fine with our orange and yellow meal. I’m actually doing this post before that one (whoa, time travel again?) so fun times.

Amy had seen a post about a reader request for hearty soup and said that sounded great. Rei and I couldn’t get excited about a beef soup or a vegetable soup or chicken noodle soup. I thought about potato leek or butternut squash or carrot soup but we did those so many times a few years ago that I just couldn’t get excited about those either. We wanted to try something new and I wanted something thicker and creamier (not chicken noodle or anything thin like that).

On Monday night, I made a tomato broth-like solution that we cooked the couscous in and thought it would make a great soup. To go with the soup, instead of doing a traditional grilled cheese, I thought tartines would be fine. I was not here for the decision-making process. I wouldn’t have objected, I just wanted y’all to know.

Tartines are warm, open faced sandwiches and when done well, are really really good. Amy asked if it was like avocado toast. I am an avocado toast hater so I responded with some expletive about avocado toast. What’s so bad about avocado toast? (Ok, Zoomer!~Terri)

Amy and I ran to the local market because Rei was at work and couldn’t come with us. We picked up a few things including tomatoes, eggplant, mushrooms, cheese, creme fraiche, a few onions, some garlic, and some canned tomatoes.

When we got home, I cut up the tomatoes and eggplant, added some olive oil and some garlic, and popped them into the oven at 400 degrees to roast them. Yum to the tomatoes, eugh to the eggplant. I have strong opinions on this squash; don’t test me.(Rei, I don’t think eggplant is a squash.~Terri)

Amy is in the wine business (actually she has a startup focused on personalizing wine recommendations based on flavor profiles) so she brought the wine to go with our snacks.

She also brought some cheese from Pennyroyal Farm to go with the sparkling wine and we added a few more goodies to nosh on while we waited for Rei to get home and for dinner to be ready. The sparkling was really good.

Once the veggies were in the oven, and snacks were out, I cut up an onion, some carrots, and grated some garlic into the bowl with the veggies. This is essentially what we did the night before for the tomato liquid. I don’t think I was there for that one either…

I sauteed them in some olive oil to soften the vegetables and added some salt and pepper.

Then I added a large can of diced tomatoes and a large can of pureed tomatoes. To this I added some dry white vermouth and some homemade chicken stock. I brought it to a boil and then lowered the temp to have it simmer for a while (pretty much until I was ready to use the immersion blender to smooth it out).

Once the veggies were roasted I put them into some bowls so I could decide how to layer the tartines when Rei got home. I also sautéed some mushrooms in butter and chopped up some basil before setting aside. We love mushrooms sautéed in butter in this household and it really shows. Get on our level, bro.

I wanted to make sure we had as many plant based items as possible so I grabbed a few handfuls of spinach and tossed it into a bowl with some craisins, walnuts, sunflower seeds, and pumpkin seeds.

For the dressing, I chopped up a shallot and after putting into a bowl, I added some freshly squeezed lemon juice and let them sit together until it was time to eat. I’d done this the night before for the beet and orange salad and thought I’d try it again. Rei finished the dressing so they will have to comment on what ended up being in it. It was good. All I did was add some olive oil and honey; it had been way to acidic before I did anything. It ended up pretty good, though.

Rei made some beautiful sourdough bread which I thinly sliced before putting on a baking sheet. I put some butter on the bread and then started to layer goodies:

— Goat cheese and roasted tomatoes — personal favorite

— Gruyere cheese (we later cut this one up and added as a cheesy crouton to the soup)

— Thyme and rosemary goat cheese with roasted eggplant (*gags*)

— Goat cheese (we later added some fresh spinach leaves and the sautéed mushrooms — super tasty)

— Gruyere cheese

They were beautiful and tasty. After getting this shot, I cut them into a few pieces so we could all try a bit of each. Mom got my share of the eggplant one (but not after I was bullied into tasting a bite to see if I still don’t like eggplant — spoiler alert: I do)

I added some crème fraiche to the soup and sprinkled with some flaky sea salt and cut basil. Delicious and healthy! Lots of antioxidants (I think). Look at how pretty! The beauties! They tasted even better than they look!

With the cheesy crouton though…super yum!

We probably didn’t need the salad but it was good to have some extra leafy greens. Oh, and I threw on a few raspberries and squeezed on some goat cheese before attempting to toss with the vinaigrette.

I will definitely be doing this again assuming Rei continues to make their delicious sourdough bread. While it was a bit tricky cutting into thin slices, it was the perfect base for the tartines. I will definitely continue to make bread (whether y’all eat it or not because its super fun to make) so don’t worry on that front. And yeah, it’s a universal fact that it is hard to cut a loaf of bread (especially sourdough) into thin slices. Maybe we should invest in one of those bread-cutting machines? Or maybe the answer is just to practice more…

I did the dishes while Rei went back to their room to do their damned homework. I was no happier about it than you were, trust me.

Rei? Rei? Isn’t tomorrow a B day? You rarely have much homework for B days at school.

If you mean that tomorrow (when I write this, tomorrow is Thursday) is a B day, you are absolutely correct, which is why I have time to finish up this post . Today (Wednesday) was actually particularly busy, with an exam in chem (no offense to my teacher but I hate that class lol) that I needed to study for, thank you very much.

Anyways, it’s over now and I finally have time to finish this post. I don’t even have that much to add because I basically just showed up and ate the food before dipping again, but here we are.

In conclusion:

• soup: good
• tartines: good
• eggplants: go die in hell, you monsters
• cheese: we Love
• Amy: we love you and you never stay long enough, don’t abandon me here with these losers
• homework: uggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
• until next time: ciao
• have a: grundulawncrist day
• Rei and: Terri
• :D