Merilou's Home-Grown Tomato Soup

There's a recipe I found online for Nordstrom's Café Roma Tomato Soup.  It calls for canned, whole, peeled Roma tomatoes, heavy cream and some veggies & oil.  I imagined it would be very good tomato soup.  But I was certain I could make it more healthy than it sounded and still have it be good.  I love a challenge!  So, I cut back the oil, used my own home frozen, peeled, diced, Roma tomatoes, and swapped the heavy cream for evaporated milk.  The color wasn't quite red enough for me, so I added a small can of tomato paste.  We loved it!  I'll now call this soup Merilou's Home-Grown Tomato Soup, based on the Nordstrom's Cafe Roma Tomato Soup.

2 Tablespoons olive oil
4 small carrots, sliced
1 1/2 on1  1/2 large onion, sliced
1 1/2 Tablespoons dried basil
4 cups of peeled, diced, Roma Tomatoes (mine did not include salt)
1 cup water and 3 chicken bouillon cubes (or 1 cup chicken broth)
1 small can tomato paste
8 oz can of evaporated milk
salt/pepper to taste

Place olive oil in a 4 quart sauce pan and heat over medium-high heat.  Add carrots, onion and basil and cook 10-15 minutes, or until vegetables are soft.  Add tomatoes and broth and simmer 20 minutes.

Remove from heave and allow to cool slightly.  Puree soup with hand blender, or in food processor in small batches, until smooth; return to saucepan.  Stir in milk and heat, over low heat, just until heated through (do not boil).  Season to taste with salt & pepper.  You'll need less salt if you use bouillon, or it you used regularly salted canned tomatoes.

Yum!