Quickest Tomato Soup with Garlic Bread Croutons

For the soup, cut the celery, carrot, jalapeno, onion, and tomatoes into large chunks. Place in a blender with garlic cloves, salt, and sugar. Puree until very smooth, then transfer to a soup pot. Turn heat to medium and bring soup to a boil, stirring every few minutes to prevent the soup from sticking. Simmer soup for 20–30 minutes, uncovered, until you’re ready to eat.

Right before serving, taste and add more salt or pepper to your preference. Swirl butter into soup.

For the croutons, melt butter in a large skillet over medium heat. When butter melts, add bread cubes, garlic powder, and salt. Toss the bread cubes in the butter and seasonings and cook for 7 minutes, stirring and tossing around in the skillet, until browned on all sides.

When the soup and the croutons are done, serve with any toppings that you’d like. Or grilled cheese!

Notes:
1. If you don’t like much spice, you can scrape the seeds and ribs out of the jalapeno, or just use half of it, or skip it all together! You can also substitute 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper.
2. Any fresh tomatoes work well here, or three 15-ounce cans of tomatoes in a pinch.
3. For the croutons, stale or leftover bread works really well for crunchy croutons.