Skinny Tomato Basil Soup

Ingredients

1 tablespoon butter
1 medium onion
1 cup chopped carrots
1 celery stalk
3 cloves garlic
30 oz fresh plum tomatoes peeled (or you can use canned tomatoes)
32 oz vegetable broth
3 sprigs parsley
10 basil leaves
2 bay leaves
Parmesan cheese for serving optional

Instructions

1. Chop onions, carrots, celery and garlic using a *mini food processor or chopper.
2. Melt butter in a large soup pot over medium heat. Add butter until melted, then add chopped onions, carrots, celery and garlic. Cook stirring often until soft, about 8-10 minutes. Add broth and tomatoes, stirring well.
3. Using a string, tie herbs together and drop into the soup**. This will make it easy to remove later. Add salt and fresh pepper, reduce heat to low and simmer covered for 30 minutes.
4. Remove herbs and discard, blend with a hand blender until smooth. (A regular blender would work, but be sure to let the soup cool before blending and fill only halfway in the blender so it doesn't explode on you).
5. Ladle into bowls and top with freshly grated cheese and fresh basil.

Recipe Notes

**From the beginning I used my food processor to chop all the vegetables. I let them process for a minute to get them as chopped/pureed as possible. I skipped using the hand blender at the end because I didn't mind that my soup wasn't super smooth. It's up to you!
Makes 8 cups. About 115 calories per 2 cup serving.