I like tomato soup (as long as it isn’t one of those canned versions), and one of my favorite cheeses is blue cheese, so this soup hits a positive on all counts.

I usually make this on a cool Saturday afternoon, and serve for dinner.  Any leftovers are always a Sunday lunch, served with grilled cheese sandwiches.  Yumm!! 

Roasted Tomato and Blue Cheese Soup

3 pounds of roma tomatoes, peeled, and seeded
2 cloves garlic, minced

2 tablespoons vegetable oil 
1 leek, chopped
1 carrot, chopped
1 1/2 quarts chicken stock
4 ounces blue cheese, crumbled
3 tablespoons heavy cream
fresh basil leaves
salt and pepper to taste

Heat the oven to 400F.  Spread out the tomatoes in a lightly oiled baking dish — 13×9 cake pan will work quite well.  Sprinkle with garlic, salt and pepper and roast for 35 minutes.

Meanwhile, heat the oil, and saute the leek and carrot for about 3 minutes, then turn the heat to low and simmer for 10 minutes, until soft.

Stir in the chicken stock, and tomatoes.  Bring to a boil, then lower the heat to medium-low, and simmer for 20 minutes.

Remove from heat and add the blue cheese, cream and basil.  Using a stick blender, puree the soup until smooth. 

Notes:

• If you don’t have a stick blender, use a regular blender and work in small batches until the soup is smooth.
• If you don’t have fresh basil, don’t worry – just use about 1 teaspoon dried, adding it in during the last 5 minutes the soup is simmering.
• If you have leftovers, and need to re-heat the soup, do make sure you don’t boil it – just warm it through, as the milk may break, and curdle on reheat.

I just had a foodgasm..

And then another..

And then another..

And then another..

Until all the chicken rolls were gone.  And now I’m so full I can hardly move.

Sander (DukeLupus) has been making these chicken rolls for a while, and always says how amazing and delicious they are.  So, last night when I went to the market, I picked up the ingredients he uses, as well as a few of my own, and made these chicken rolls.  He was absolutely right.  They are freaking amazing.  Sander’s recipe is a bit different — he spread the mayo on the chicken, and then the cream cheese.  I, however, loved the idea of the cream cheese, but wanted to try it with basil and tomatoes – which, in my opinion, creates a perfect combination.

I hope you like these as much as we did.  Thank you for the idea, and the recipe, Sander. :)

Enjoy!

Stuffed Chicken Rolls with Basil and Roma Tomatoes

1 pound chicken breasts, boneless
4 ounces softened cream cheese
2 tablespoons mayo
1 tablespoon Romano or parmesan cheese
basil, chiffonade
seeded and diced Roma tomatoes
bread crumbs

In a bowl, mix softened cream cheese, mayo, cheese, and basil together.  Set aside.  Seed and dice the tomatoes, and set these aside as well.

If you are using whole, boneless chicken breasts (or cutlets), you can do a couple of different things here.  Slice them very thin to make several thin cutlets, or butterfly the cutlets (as shown here).  I opted for butterflying, and then pounding the cutlets until very, very thin.  To pound them, place the butterfiled cutlet between 2 pieces of plastic wrap, and, using your mallet, pound the chicken outwards, to create a thin cutlet.  The thicker the chicken rolls, the longer they take to cool, therefore, your goal is to have very thin cutlets, without ripping them.

Once the cutlets are ready, lay one out, and spread the cream cheese mixture on the cutlet, leaving 1/2 inch of space around.  Sprinkle with a bit of the tomatoes, and roll up.  If the roll won’t stay closed, you can use a wooden toothpick to keep the roll closed – just remember to remove it before serving.  Don’t overfill the chicken — too much and the filling will ooze out during cooking.  Roll the chicken rolls in the bread crumbs. 

Heat 2-3 tablespoons of oil in a non-stick skillet, and one the oil is hot (but not smoking!!), add the chicken rolls, being careful not to crowd the pan, or they will cook unevenly.

Cook the chicken 2-3 minutes per side, until the chicken is completely done.  If your chicken is a bit thicker, they may take a few more minutes.

If you are making a lot of these, as soon as the chicken breasts are done, place in the oven set to 225F, to keep warm.  Serve as soon as possible.

Notes:

I’m sure there are a lot of variations to these, but a few that I would like to try would be:

• Replacing the tomato with red pepper.  You’d have to lightly saute the pepper before you put it on the rolled chicken, though.
• Adding onion to the red peppers above.
• Using chopped scallion (green onions or spring onions), mixed in with the cream cheese instead of basil.