Tomato & Fennel Soup with Grilled Cheese Crostini

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Skill Level
Preparation Time 10 minutes Total Time 40 minutes
Servings 6 Cost Per Serving $2.55
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Image of tomato and fennel soup with grilled cheese crostini.

Ingredients

Roasted Tomato & Fennel Soup
8 (about 2 lbs)Medium Tomatoes (any variety), halved, or two 14 oz cans of Whole Plum Tomatoes
2tbspOlive Oil
6Cipollini Onions, halved (or 1 Medium Onion, quartered)
1Fennel Bulb, core removed and sliced into small chunks
1Small Garlic Head, halved
2 tspDried Oregano
2 tspFennel Seed
1/2 cupGreek Yogurt
1 L Vegetable Stock
To tasteSalt and Black Pepper
Grilled Cheese Crostini
12Slices of a Crusty Whole Grain French Bread
1/2 cupPecorino Cheese (or your favourite hard cheese), grated
1 cloveGarlic

Directions

  1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
  2. Remove as many seeds as you can from the halved tomatoes.
  3. Place your halved tomatoes, cipollini onions, garlic heads and fennel pieces onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
  4. Drizzle with olive oil and oregano. Sprinkle fennel seeds and about a 1/2 tsp of salt and black pepper on top.
  5. Flip the tomatoes so that they are cut side down. Roast in the oven for about 20 minutes, or until tomatoes are shriveled and lightly brown.
  6. Once removed and cool enough to touch, pull the skins off the tomatoes and onions, and squeeze the cloves of garlic from their skins.
  7. Add all roasted ingredients to a blender with the vegetable stock and Greek yogurt. Blend until smooth.
  8. In a medium sized sauté pan over medium heat, press the slices of bread firmly into the pan. Grill for about 2 minutes.
  9. Remove bread from pan and carefully rub with a clove of garlic Press one side of bread slices firmly into the grated cheese and then put back into the pan, cheese side up, until melted (about another minute). Serve with the soup.

Nutrition

  • ​Why are tomatoes red? The colour comes from a plant chemical called lycopene. There is evidence that foods containing lycopene probably protect against prostate cancer. When you cook tomatoes to make soup or sauce, even more lycopene is available to be absorbed than is in raw tomatoes.
  • Fennel contains a plant nutrient called anethole. In animal studies, anethole has been shown to lower inflammation and to help prevent cancer.
  • Pecorino cheese made from sheep’s milk, contains 3-5 times as much conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) as pecorino cheese made from cow’s milk. CLA is an omega-6 polyunsaturated fatty acid. Research suggests that CLA helps preserve muscle and prevent fat gain. In a study of overweight dieters, when the people stopped dieting and gained back weight, those taking CLA were more likely to gain muscle and not fat.