Fiery Tomato Soup with Tortellini

This is a recipe I have wanted to try all winter. After a long day shooting out in the cold with my dad this was the perfect way to warm up. Zoë has been home for dinner more so I wanted to make sure I had a vegetarian friendly dinner ready for her. I was thrilled when I came across this recipe on Pinterest I didn’t have to make any adjustments to make this vegetarian. I did make several changes to the recipe to accommodate the spice lovers in the family. If you aren’t big on spicy foods you can always sub a little black cracked pepper in place of the red pepper flakes. This recipe will be so much easier if you have a hand held blender so you don’t have to ladle the soup back and forth between a blender and slowcooker to get a smooth consistency. I also love to use my kitchenaid food chopper to pulse together my carrots onions and garlic in seconds.

Ingredients:

2 C. Carrots (I used bagged julienned carrots)
1 Yellow Onion (diced)
3 T. Olive Oil
1 T. Butter
4 Cloves Garlic (minced)
4-14.5 oz. Cans Diced Tomatoes with Italian Seasoning
1- 32 oz. Carton of Vegetable Broth
1 1/2 C. Spicy Hot V8 Juice
1 t. Crushed Red Pepper Flakes
2 Bay Leaves
1/2 t. Italian Seasoning
1/2 t. Crushed Basil Leaves
1 t. Salt
1 T. Sugar
20 oz. Cheese Tortellini
1 C. Heavy Cream
Parmesan

Crock pot before using the hand blender

Directions:

Heat olive oil and butter over medium heat in a large skillet.
Add carrots, onion and garlic to pan and cook for about 5 min until tender. ( I chopped mine veggies by pulsing them a few times in my food chopper!)
Combine all ingredients except tortellini, cream and parmesan cheese in a crock-pot and whisk together.
Cover and cook on low heat for 7 hours.
Using your hand held blender puree the contents of the crock-pot until smooth. (if you don’t have a hand held blender you can use a food processor or blender in small batches.)
Stir in tortellini and cook on high for 15 min.
Whisk in cream.
Serve topped with parmesan cheese and enjoy!