Easy Tomato Soup Meal for One (or two)
Make an easy dinner (Texas oldtimers call it supper) of tomato soup. Combine it with your favorite toppings and a sandwich as a side. It’s one of the most satisfying and simple meals you can make for your family. Decorate your tablescape in a fun way, add yummy toppings, and, – voilà! – kids will love it.
Four topping ideas to serve with tomato soup:
- grated cheddar, Parmesan, or other cheese
- croutons
- crushed Ritz crackers
- crushed saltine crackers
Making Memories
Involve your kids in preparing the table setting. Ask them to decorate the table – they’ll think the food is amazing! You’ll be creating sweet memories for them as well.
Tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches are among food combinations that cause me to feel warm nostalgic feelings of home and family. But the two foods simply taste delicious together.
I’ve liked tomato soup all of my life. My mother always kept a few cans of soup on hand in the pantry, and tomato soup was always a family favorite.
After my husband and I married, I discovered that tomato soup is his favorite, too – with cheese and crushed crackers on top – the way his mom made it. So for his last birthday, our youngest daughter made two kinds of soup (one that was Tomato Basil), served it with bread (great for dipping). One of the soups was tomato basil, topped with grated cheese. A simple birthday dinner, it tasted wonderfully delectable.
Zesty Tomato Soup Recipe
I like to make Zesty Tomato Soup. If you like spicy, you’ll love this recipe. Serve it with grilled cheese sandwiches, and you have a simple and easy meal for the family.
Notes
Make the soup creamier with more heavy cream or chunkier by less cream.
Ingredients
- 2 cans tomato soup
- 2 cans diced tomatoes and green chilies
- 1 large can of stewed tomatoes
- 1 cup heavy cream
- grated cheddar cheese
- croutons
- green onions, if desired
Instructions
- Add all of the ingredients together except the cream and toppings, and heat almost to boiling.
- Turn the burner to simmer, and stir in the cream.
- Add toppings and serve.
- Note: For creamier soup, put the tomatoes in the blender on grind, grate, or to a texture of creamy that you like.
Do you prefer tomato soup for lunch or dinner? Like it with a sandwich or with crackers? No matter the season, a tomato soup meal is easy, quick, and delicious – and easy for the one-person meal.
Four sandwich ideas to serve with tomato soup:
- grilled cheese
- chicken salad
- bacon, lettuce, and tomato
- ham and cheese
Grilled cheese is at the top of my list, then chicken salad. But I like them all. However, grilled cheese memories go way back to grade school days for me. Fifth and sixth graders were allowed to walk a block to town for lunch on Fridays with their parents’ permission.
The courthouse was in the center of the square, and there were businesses across the streets from the courthouse. Often on those Fridays, I’d go to the drugstore which had a soda fountain. I loved sitting on one of the counter stools to eat my lunch. Sometimes, however, I would sit in one of the booths (I think there were only two). No matter what, though, my order always consisted of a grilled cheese sandwich and a coke. Until this day, I LOVE to eat grilled cheese sandwiches.
Grilled Cheese Sandwich Options
Not feeling swayed toward nostalgic plain grilled cheese? Change things up, and add the following meats to your grilled cheese sandwiches. Serve with the Zesty Tomato Soup recipe (Soup dipping is permissible, incidentally).
- ham (hot ham and cheese – yum!)
- chicken (something different than chicken salad for a change)
- pepperoni (Watch the kids eat this up!)
- meatballs (Meatball subs are good. Why not meatball grilled cheese sandwiches?)
Try these out. I’d love to know if you make any of these for your family and the results.
Air Fryers Make Good Grilled Cheese Sandwiches
If you’re cooking just for yourself (or you and a guest), have you seen the little air fryers? It’s great for making a quick grilled cheese sandwich.
Sam’s Club has a small air fryer just right for the one-person meal. Then if you invite a friend over, making two grilled cheese sandwiches in the air fryer only takes a few more minutes. And they’re so yummy when you double up the cheese.
The air fryer is convenient, and sandwich options are way more than only grilled cheese sandwiches. You can cook chicken, salmon, hamburger, etc. in the fryer and make a sandwich.
Of course, if you prefer to do without an air fryer but love sandwiches, making them the old-fashioned way works just fine, too.
Check out my air fryer grilled cheese sandwich recipe on the blog tomorrow. Simple and yummy!
I like the sound of this tomato soup with southwestern/Latin flavors. My homemade tomato soup always has Italian flavors like basil in it. This would be a nice change of pace.