Tomato Soup with Fennel and Garlic

   I have decided that drinking my soup from a coffee cup is way cooler than slurping from a bowl. Last night I made tomato soup with fennel, lemon, and roasted garlic and it actually tastes amazing. I haven't made many soups in the past and I was hesitant to try my hand at this one, but I am so glad I did.
   This week is the week from hell with a big test on Wednesday, my graduate project due Friday, and a 12 page paper. Needless to say I will not be seeing the inside of a gym this week so I am trying to eat mostly healthy. However, if a mini snickers bar finds its way into my hands I won't panic.

   I found the recipe for this soup in a French slow cooker cookbook my mama bought for me awhile back. A fun fact about fennel is that it smells like licorice when it is being chopped up.

A few of the ingredients: lemons, chicken stock, salt, and pepper.  

I chopped up about a cup and 1/2 of fennel.

   After chopping the fennel I threw it into a hot pan with olive oil and a little sea salt. I sauteed the fennel for twenty minutes stirring every five minutes. While the fennel cooked down I roasted two heads of garlic in the oven with olive oil. I then opened up two cans of organic tomato paste which then went into the pan with the fennel. The concoction simmered for six minutes which deepened the color of the tomato paste to a deep ruby red. The garlic roasted for about 28 minutes at 400 degrees. I then poured 4 cups of chicken stock and 1 cup of water into the pot along with the garlic. . I brought the pan to roiling boil then let the soup simmer for 20 minutes. 

   I am a fan of smooth tomato soup as opposed to chunky. My blender smoothed out the chunks of fennel and garlic quite nicely. 

  

  After the soup had been pureed I added juice from one half of a lemon and a sprinkling of pepper. The acid from the lemon gave this soup so much depth and the spice of the black pepper put it over the top.  

Hope everyone has a fabulous day! I will be sitting at my computer for most of it sipping tomato soup like a boss.