Quick & Easy Tomato Soup for One

Happy Monday! Did everyone have a good weekend? Mine was incredibly relaxing and lazy: exactly what I needed!

Although I made and photographed recipes for two new posts, I did not feel like editing the photos, so today you get an incredibly simple but delicious recipe for Quick & Easy Tomato Soup for One.

Although it's technically Spring (I say Spring starts March 1st), it's still cold in DC. A few weeks ago I was dealing with sneezing and an overall feeling of weakness which lasted for over a week. While home sick, I decided to make tomato soup for lunch from a few random ingredients I had on hand: I loved how it turned out.

Because the "recipe" was so easy and I did not even photograph it with my real camera, I wasn't going to post about it, but my friend Jason thought it'd be a good idea. So here you go!

Quick & Easy Tomato Soup for One

Ingredients

1-2 teaspoons olive oil
1 carrot, peeled and diced
1/4 onion, diced
1 14.5 ounce can Cut Diced Zesty Chili Style Tomatoes by Del Monte (that's what I had on hand, but you can use any other tomatoes: just make sure to add some spices to the soup then)

1/2 cup water, optionalsalt & pepper to taste

toppings 
shaved Parmesan cheese
home-made croutons*** 

Directions
1. Heat olive oil in a small soup pot. Add carrots and onions and saute 5-10 minutes until the vegetables have softened.
2. Add your tomatoes and simmer for 10 minutes.
3. Using a stick blender puree the soup, adding water if needed and seasoning with salt and pepper.
4. Reheat the soup if you have added water and pour into a bowl.
5. Top the soup with shaved Parmesan and home-made croutons.

***To make home-made croutons, take your good quality bread, cube it, and saute in a bit of olive oil in a cast iron skillet. Done.

Special shout outs to my friends Cindy and Sangeetha who made and brought me their tomato soup!!!

What do you put in YOUR tomato soup?