This creamy tomato bisque recipe uses a combination of store-bought shortcuts like chicken broth and canned tomatoes along with aromatic vegetables to create a deeply flavorful soup that's ready in just over half an hour. Pureeing half of the bisque in a blender helps thicken it, as does adding a splash of heavy cream. If you'd like, garnish the bisque with crunchy garlic or cheese croutons for a finishing touch.
To make the bisque, you'll begin by sautéing a mirepoix — the essential flavor base of diced onion, carrot, and celery — with a couple cloves of garlic in a bit of butter. Once the vegetables begin to brown, you'll add a small amount of flour, which will give the soup some body. It's stirred in before the liquid is added so that it'll evenly coat the vegetables instead of clumping.
Once the tomatoes and stock are in the saucepan, bring the soup to a boil. Allow it to simmer for 15 minutes to cook the vegetables and concentrate the flavors. At this point, the bisque is nearly done! All that's left to do is puree a portion of it, then add the cream and a touch of butter. If you have an immersion blender, you can use that instead of transferring half the soup to a standard blender — just be sure to stop blending when it looks only partially smooth, or remove half from the pan prior to blending.
