This is my favorite cold weather, End of Harvest meal. When you've been canning tomatoes like mad for a month but the indeterminates keep producing in abundance, that's the time for a giant pot of tomato soup. It feels like a celebration of all my hard work in the garden.
Tomato soup is amazing with a crusty bread, but sometimes it's worth putting in the extra effort to make it a touch more fancy. Grandma Grace's cookbook says, "Family dinners should be planned with as much thought and care as company dinners." While I do believe in the spirit behind that statement, life runs at a very different pace now than it did in the 1940's. These rice croquettes feel like a nice intermediary: a touch more elegant, but not overwhelming to make.
Notes
- Time Management: While this isn't a terribly difficult recipe to make, it does have a lot of moving parts. You can make the rice croquettes earlier in the day and heat them up before adding to the soup (I recommend using an air fryer).
- Dish Management: If you're not careful, your kitchen could look like a bomb went off with this recipe. I try to quickly wash dishes to re-use as I move through the recipe. For example, I use the same pot to cook the rice, make the roux for the croquettes, and fry the croquettes. I just quickly wash it in the sink each time I'm finished using it. You can do the same thing with the measuring cup used for the milk and the frying oil.
- Flavor Boost: For an even more complex flavor, substitute some or all of your regular tomatoes with fire-roasted tomatoes.
- Use Those Leftovers: The rice croquettes are great for day-old rice if you happened to have made too much.
- No Cream Needed: I love this recipe because it doesn't require any cream. I never seem to have heavy cream on hand when I need it, so the "lazy man's roux" does a great job of thickening and adding a bit of richness.
- Frying Oil: This recipe calls for 1 cup of frying oil, which is sufficient if you're using something like a 8-9" pot. If you're using a smaller or bigger pan, however, you may need more or less oil. Aim to have the oil come to halfway up the thickness of your croquettes.
- Crockpot Style: You can make the soup in a crockpot to save yourself some time at the stove. You'll still need to cook the onion in butter and add the flour, but then you can transfer everything to the slow cooker. Cook on high for 2-3 hours, then use your immersion blender right in the crockpot.
- Just the Croquettes: If you're looking for the recipe for Rice Croquettes so you can add it to another dish, here you go.
Storage
You will likely have leftovers of soup, which you can store in an airtight container in the fridge for 4-5 days, or freeze for another time. You can store any leftover rice croquettes in an airtight container in the fridge for 2-3 days.
The croquettes will lose their crunch if re-heated in the microwave. I recommend heating them in an air fryer on 400°F for 3-4 mins to keep that crunchiness.
FAQ
Although olive oil is typically the most common oil in the average kitchen, it doesn't do well for frying due to its low smoke point. Some people may say to use canola or vegetable oil, but I don't recommend that due to its poor quality and potential health concerns. Peanut oil is a slightly better alternative, and still very affordable.
Related
Looking for other recipes like this? Try these:
Grace Says:
If using homegrown tomatoes, you can easily peel them by coring them, and then roasting them in the oven at 425°F for 10-15 minutes, until the skins start to split and blacken. The peels will easily slide off after they've cooled enough to handle, and you don't have to spend time transferring between pots of hot and cold water.
📖 Recipe
Tomato Soup with Rice Croquettes
Ingredients
Tomato Soup
- 1 stick unsalted butter, or 4 oz.
- 1 large onion, diced small
- ½ cup flour
- 4 quarts tomatoes, or four 28oz cans. Diced or whole is fine.
- 2 cups chicken broth
- 2 T Worcestershire sauce
- ½ T salt
- ¼ t pepper
- 1 t celery salt, or 2 stalks celery, chopped finely
- ½ T dried basil
- 2 T sugar or honey
Rice Croquettes
- 1 cup dry rice, cooked. You should have about 2 cups of cooked rice.
- 3 T butter
- 4 T flour
- 1 cup milk
- 3 eggs, separated and lightly whisked
- 1 t salt
- 3 T parmesan cheese
- 1 ½ cups bread crumbs
- 1 cup avocado oil, peanut oil, or other frying fat
Instructions
Tomato Soup
- Melt butter in the large pot you intend to use for the soup. Add the onion and cook until tender. Then add the flour and mix all together.
- Add in tomatoes, broth, salt, celery salt, pepper, basil, and Worcestershire sauce. Bring to a boil and then reduce heat to low. Cover and simmer for 30 minutes.
- Add in sugar or honey and stir to combine. Then turn off the heat.
- Using an immersion blender, puree the soup. Do NOT put hot soup into a regular blender. It will build pressure from the steam and can explode. If you need to use a regular blender, wait for the soup to cool almost entirely before blending in batches. Then heat the soup back up on the stove to serving temperature.
Rice Croquettes
- If you haven't yet, cook the rice. Set aside and allow it to cool.
- Make a roux by melting the butter over medium heat, and then adding the flour. Whisk to combine. Then slowly add the milk, a little at a time, whisking everything together in between additions of milk. This will form a thick paste, and eventually a thick sauce.
- Combine the rice, egg yolks, salt, parmesan, and roux. If it's still too warm to handle, you can mix it and then spread thinly into a pan. Refrigerate until cool.
- Shape the mixture into croquettes: they can look like small, 2" wide hockey pucks or 3" long corndog-like cylinders. Then dredge the croquettes first in the egg whites and then in the breadcrumbs.
- Heat your oil sufficiently over medium-high heat, and fry the croquettes until golden brown, 1-2 minutes on each side. Drain them on a paper towel, and then add them to your soup.
Did you make this recipe? Let me know!