Creamy Crock Pot Tomato, Basil, Parmesan Soup

I have never made a pureed soup before and oh boy, my first one did not disappoint! I found this recipe on Pinterest and have been wanting to try it for a few weeks. It turned out so well and made a HUGE batch so we will be freezing the excess for future dinners.

Combined ingredients in crock pot

Roux mixture (for reference - I hadn't seen one before)

Roux mixture combined with crock pot soup

Ingredients:
- 2 (14 oz) cans diced tomatoes, undrained
- 1 cup diced carrots
- 1 cup diced onions
- 1 cup diced celery
- 2 tbsp tomato paste
- 4 cups chicken broth
- 1 tsp dried oregano (or tbsp fresh oregano)
- 1 tbsp dry basil (or 1/4 cup fresh basil)
- 1/2 cup butter
- 1/2 cup flour
- 1 cup Parmesan cheese
- 1 1/2 cups half and half
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp pepper

Directions:
1. Add the diced tomatoes, carrots, onions, celery, tomato paste, chicken broth, oregano and basil to the crock pot. Cover and cook on low for 5-6 hours until flavors are blended and vegetables are soft.

2. Prepare a roux about 30 minutes before the soup (crock pot) is ready. Melt butter over medium low heat in a skillet and add the flour. Whisk together constantly for about 10 minutes or until the roux is a nice golden brown color. (Note: we accidentally ran out of butter so we used about 1/2 cup of vegetable oil as a butter substitute and it worked just as well)

3. Slowly add 1 cup of the soup (from the crock pot) to the roux. This will start to form a thick paste. Slowly add another 3 cups of soup to the roux. Whisk together until smooth. Add the roux mixture back into the crock pot.

4. Stir the Parmesan cheese, half and half, and salt and pepper. Stir well, cover and cook for an additional 30 minutes.

5. Try to let the soup cool a little before adding to the blender. Once semi-cooled, pour the soup into the blender (we had to do this twice because of the blender size).

6. Puree until smooth.

We paired this soup with French Onion Paninis and it was delish!