Easy Cookingby Uday Shah

Lunch

Upgraded Tomato Soup and Grilled Cheese

There is nothing wrong with canned tomato soup. There is something wrong with eating it exactly as it comes out of the can. Four additions and five minutes turn a ninety cent can into something you would order. The grilled cheese technique is the part most people get wrong.

Upgraded Tomato Soup and Grilled Cheese
Cost a serving$2.10
Time20 minutes
Serves2
Protein22g
Panera soup and sandwich costs about $14. This costs $2.10 a serving. You save about $11.90 every time you make it instead.

What you need

Small pot, Skillet, Spatula

Canned condensed tomato soup Pre-sliced cheese Jarred pesto Heavy cream or half and half

No special tools

No Panini press?Put a second heavy pan on top of the sandwich while it cooks. Same pressure, no extra appliance, nothing else to store.
No Blender?Not needed. Canned soup is already smooth.

Ingredients

Soup

  • 1 can (10.75 oz) condensed tomato soup
  • 1 can of whole milk instead of the water it calls for
  • 1 tablespoon butter
  • 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano or basil
  • 1 tablespoon jarred pesto, optional but do it
  • Pinch of red pepper flakes
  • Black pepper

Grilled cheese

  • 4 slices sandwich bread
  • 3 tablespoons mayonnaise, for the outside
  • 4 slices American, cheddar, or a mix
  • 2 tablespoons grated parmesan, for the outside

How to make it

  1. Empty the soup into a pot. Add milk instead of water. Milk instead of water is the single biggest upgrade and it costs about 20 cents.
  2. Add the butter, garlic powder, oregano, pesto, and pepper flakes. Warm over medium-low, whisking, until steaming. Do not boil it. Boiling dairy makes it grainy.
  3. Now the sandwich. Spread mayonnaise on the outside of each slice of bread, not butter. Mayo has a higher smoke point and browns more evenly, and it does not taste like mayo when it is done. Restaurants do this.
  4. Press the mayo side into the grated parmesan on a plate. This makes a crust that is better than the bread underneath.
  5. Build the sandwich cheese-side-in and put it parmesan side down in a cold skillet. Then turn the heat to medium-low. Starting cold gives the cheese time to melt before the bread burns.
  6. Cook 4 to 5 minutes until deep golden, pressing with a spatula. Flip and cook 3 to 4 minutes more.
  7. Let it sit 1 minute, then cut on the diagonal. Cutting it hot lets all the cheese run out.

Protein

About 22 grams with the cheese and milk. The soup on its own is thin on protein, so the sandwich is doing the work. Using milk instead of water adds 8 grams by itself.

Ways to add more

  • Stir a half can of white beans into the soup and mash them in
  • Use cottage cheese blended into the soup for a much higher protein version
  • Add a layer of plant-based deli slices to the sandwich

Keeping it

The soup keeps 4 days. The sandwich does not keep at all. Make it fresh.

Change it up

  • Add a can of drained white beans and a handful of frozen spinach to make the soup a full dinner
  • Kimchi grilled cheese: a quarter cup of chopped kimchi, squeezed dry, inside the sandwich
  • Tomato soup with rice: stir in a cup of leftover rice to stretch it to three servings
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