An American classic comfort meal that I never tried, until now. Plus bonus recipes for tuna patties and stir fried cabbage to make it a more nutritionally complete meal.

Time: 3/5
It helps that most of the ingredients don’t need much prep.

Effort: 3/5
Not that hard, even if I made the tomato soup from scratch.

Cheese dreams are made of these

I had … mixed feelings about the maiden voyage of my new stick blender. Roast pumpkin soup is a delightful meal. But in trying to turn it into a meal prep, I overreached and got myself into more trouble than I expected. No biggie, lesson learned, time to redeem myself with another attempt at cooking with the stick blender.

It happens that my SO loves tomatoes, and she usually satisfies her cravings with my tomato and egg stir fry. She also loves soup, but while usually I have a large selection of Cantonese style soups to make her day, this time I wanted to try my hand at something Western.

I see the grilled cheese and tomato soup combination on American media so often that I can’t help but be curious. Turns out there’s a whole history behind how the effects of industrialisation and societal changes in the Great Depression put these two things together.

A simple meal with a big story behind it, and a central part of the collective culinary spirit of another culture – sounds like a good way to take my taste buds on vacation!

It just needs a few additions to make the meal more macro-friendly. Cheese and bread is mostly fat and carbs, so I made some tuna patties for the protein and cooked some lettuce to have some greens. Always eat your veggies!

Posts since the last recipe that was actually served with rice: 7

Dramatis Personae

Served 2.

For the soup

2 400g cans of tomatoes

Whole, diced, puréed, it doesn’t really matter, use what is the cheapest. I’m using the stick blender to whizz it all up in the end anyway. Although I suppose if you used purée, you could fish out the basil at the end and save yourself the blending.

1 handful of basil

A beautiful herb to go with tomatoes. I have a pot of it growing on my windowsill for just such an occasion. The stems have plenty of flavour too, although they are too woody and fibrous to blend into the soup. Save the prettiest leaves for garnish.

Half an onion

Too much onion ruins a lot of recipes, in my humble opinion. Although I understand why you might be reluctant to leave half an onion in the fridge if you have a past history of forgetting about it and rediscovering it with mold growing all over. Ask me how I know.

One way around that problem is to substitute onions with large shallots. Similar flavour, more manageable quantities, and they last a long time in the pantry if you keep them dry and in the dark.

1 clove of garlic

Finely minced. Just enough to taste it, not enough to overpower everything else. Garlic doesn’t seem to be common in other recipes for tomato soup, but a bistro near my workplace does it this way and I like it. They serve it cold too, which could be worth a try too.

Salt and pepper to taste, and olive oil to garnish 

For the sandwich

4 slices of sandwich bread

Crust on and crust off are both valid decisions. If you do decide to remove the crust, save them for breadcrumbs – or better yet, toast them to make breadsticks, and dip them in soft boiled eggs. 

100g mature cheddar cheese

So much better flavour than American cheese! It melts okay too, and if you want a more dramatic cheese pull you can always mix in a bit of mozerella. That was my intention actually, but I ran out of space on the bread. The threat of overstuffing is ever present, and one must remain vigilant.

Butter

Just enough to thinly coat the outside of each sandwich. There’s plenty of milk fat in the cheese, so it’s only here to help toast the bread. Leaving it on the counter to come up to room temperature makes it easier to spread in a thin layer, but it does run the risk of making a bigger mess.

For the tuna patties

200g Tuna

In oil or in brine, drained. The former tastes better, the latter is more macro friendly. Salmon patties are great too, if you have the budget for it. Boiled and mashed lentils might also work if you want to make this meal vegetarian, but that’s pure conjecture on my part.

1 tablespoon panko breadcrumbs 

Or however much is needed to make the patties come together. I was using an ancient box of panko that has been around my pantry since forever (I rarely fry anything), so your mileage may vary.

1 egg

The hardest part of this recipe to scale up or down, although I suppose you could reserve part of an egg to use later if you wanted.

1 shallot

Finely diced. To be honest, if I made this mean again I might just borrow some of the diced onions from the soup instead of using another ingredient entirely. But old habits die hard, and it does add interesting flavour notes to the party.

Pepper and powdered Ranch seasoning to taste

The ranch and the tuna brine both have salt, so I wouldn’t add any more. But if you don’t have powdered ranch, salt and a bit of MSG (or even a squeeze of Kewpie mayo) would be a great way to season the tuna patties too.

For the vegetables

1 large head of lettuce

Always eat your veggies! Cook them whatever which way, or leave it raw in a salad. I didn’t grow up eating salad (with some notable exceptions), so I was more comfortable with a simple stir fry.

Executive summary

1. Wash and cook the vegetables.
2. Dice the onions and mince the garlic. Slice the cheese. Wash the basil, and separate stems from leaves.
3. Sweat garlic and onions in olive oil, then add tomatoes and basil (saving some leaves for garnish). Cover and simmer.
4. Meanwhile, mix tuna patty ingredients together. Spoon into a lightly oiled nonstick skillet on medium-low heat, and brown on both sides.
5. Assemble cheese sandwiches. Toast them in the nonstick pan on both sides, on low heat.
6. Blend the tomato soup mixture, after removing the basil stems. Taste and adjust for seasoning,
7. Assemble, garnish and serve.

Play by Play

Always wash your veggies! I’m letting them steam with the lid on first, so they will give off a lot of excess water that might water down the seasoning I am going to use …

… which is some XO sauce my aunt made herself. After draining the lettuce, I stir fried the XO sauce in some oil in the side before folding it into the lettuce.

While the vegetable situation is going on, let’s get the knife work out of the way. Onions and a bit of garlic diced, cheese sliced thin.

Separating the leaves from the stem of the basil, and saving some of the good leaves for garnish. I will fish out the stems later, and blend the leaves into the soup.

The lettuce was done and reserved by this point – it doesn’t take long. Wipe down the pan, sweat the aromatics, add the tomato, then the basil. I covered that and let it simmer.

While the soup ingredients simmered, I mixed the tuna patties together in a bowl with a fork. Judging from the photo, I might have reinforced the ranch powder with a shake of garlic powder too!

Spoon the tuna mixture into a nonstick skillet with a bit of oil, and brown lightly on both sides on medium-low heat.

In the meantime, sandwich assembly. I intended to add some mozzarella as well, but there was so much cheddars that I could barely fit them on the bread.

Once the tuna patties were done, I turned the heat all the way down to low and went to work toasting the grilled cheeses on both sides. Slow and steady is the way to gooey insides, and a crusty outside. Why not steam them with the lid on? I didn’t want to wash the lid, simple as. Although I’m sure that’s a fine technique.

The tomato soup is about ready, so I fished out the basil stems and blitzed up the rest (but not before a failed attempt at doing it right inside the wide pan).

Back into the pan to keep warm until serving – here is the chance to taste and adjust for seasoning, too.

The grilled cheeses have had some time to rest, and the carryover cooking is additional insurance to make sure the cheese is melted. Cut into diagonals, because pointy food tastes better.

Bon appetit!

Trying the classic dip-bite. The acidity of the soul cuts the richness of the grilled cheese but part of me feels like the greasiness is part of the soul of the sandwich, you know?

To be honest, I like the grilled cheese and the soup each by themselves ~

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