Sometimes I expect too much…

A few weeks ago I saw The Pioneer Woman’s recipe for Sherried Tomato Soup and I swear I said out loud, “I. Must. Make. That.” I love tomato soup and this sounded delicious. Not to mention all the comments raving about it. How could I go wrong? So yesterday I realized that I had all of the ingredients and I was going to whip up a batch for dinner. I made a few minor substitutions: I used fire-roasted tomatoes instead of regular tomatoes. I cut way down on the butter. Sorry, PW fans, but you do not need an entire stick of butter to sautee an onion. I cut it down to 2 Tbsp. and added a little olive oil because that’s how I roll when I sautee. A little of each. I also used half-and-half instead of heavy cream. None of these substitutions would really have had any major effect on the flavor.

Otherwise, I follow the directions, adding only a scant Tbsp. of the chicken base, as I heeded her warnings about it being salty. It looked great, it smelled delicious. Imagine my surprise when I took a sip and realized how freaking salty it was! I went back over everything I did, e-mailed a chef friend of mine for advice, and between the two of us we figured out the culprit: the tomato juice. Hello, 36% of my daily sodium intake! Ew! So then I thought about the other tomato soup I often make — my friend Kristin’s recipe for Tomato Florentine Soup. I’ve been making this for at least six years now, and it’s always so good. And that is when I realized the difference: her recipe uses chicken broth and when I make the soup I use either low-sodium broth or my own stock.

Mystery solved, Scooby Doo. So yeah… unfortunately my first PW recipe was a bit of a let-down (blasphemy, I know!), but there are a couple others I plan on trying. I think it’s all a matter of personal taste. I just don’t like heavily salted foods. The soup has potential, though, and I might play around with the recipe a little bit.