Kungaloosh Cooks: Sci-Fi Diner BLT Soup
Disney’s Hollywood Studios Sci-Fi Dine-In restaurant featured an appetizer known as the BLT Soup. Yep, just like the sandwich, it had bacon, lettuce, and tomato. What a better way to spend a chilly afternoon than cooking soup?
There are two ways to make this soup: the easy way or the most complicated way ever! Of course, I chose the hard way. If you are looking for a shortcut, you can crack open a can of creamy tomato soup and add the toppings. I decided to waste almost an hour and a half sautéing, stirring, and blending to my heart’s content.
Like all good stories, this one starts with the bacon.
For the homemade soup, you will need:
- 4 medium carrot, finely chopped
- 1 large onion, finely chopped
- 1/4 cup butter, cubed
- 6 cups chicken broth, divided
- 1 can (29 ounces) tomato puree
- 5 teaspoons dried basil
- 1-1/2 teaspoons sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon white pepper
- 1 can (12 ounces) fat-free evaporated milk
Melt the butter in a saucepan or Dutch oven. You want to add the carrots and onion. It’s essential to keep it on low heat. You don’t want to cook it too high, or the carrots and onions will burn.
Once the onions and carrots are soft, take them off the heat. Remove them from the heat and let them cool. I added the 5 cups of chicken broth to the pan. I reserved 1 cup for mixing with the carrots and onions.
The carrots, onions, and broth will need to be puréed. I used a regular ol’ blender. You want to make sure that everything blends into a smooth liquid. You can return the blended soup mix BACK into the Dutch oven with the 5 cups of chicken broth.
Now that everything is blended and returned to the broth, you can add the tomato puree. Give it a good stir. Since it is a tomato basil soup, you want to add the spices (basil, sugar, salt, and white pepper). Once you have done that, slowly bring everything to a boil.
Now that the soup is cooking, you may want to start baking, yes baking, the bacon. Pan frying is nice, but if you want crispy bacon, you will need to bake it. I place a few slices of bacon on a small sheet pan and bake it at 275 degrees for about 15 minutes. With the bacon nice and crispy, you want to keep that oven hot and start on the croutons.
I sliced a French baguette into several pieces. You want to drizzle a little olive oil on the bread. I made a mixture of Italian seasoning and Parmesan cheese. Take the blend and sprinkle over the bread. I turned my convection oven on broil and placed the bread in there until the cheese is slightly golden.
Remember to continue to check on your soup. You don’t want to have the soup on a rolling boil, or it could scorch. Once it reaches a boil, turn it down and keep it on a simmer, uncovered, for about 30 minutes. Yes, I know this soup takes forever to make!
You want to reduce the heat to low. We are ready to add the evaporated milk to the soup. It is very important to slooowly add in the milk and stir. This will help to incorporate the milk into the tomato soup mixture. Make sure to heat the soup thoroughly.
That’s it! You can ladle the soup into the bowl. Add the crispy bacon as a garnish, along with some shredded lettuce. Top the soup with your homemade crouton, and you’re ready to enjoy.
While it took a long time for everything to come together, this soup was worth it. It was rich and creamy! I also loved the fact that I was able to control the salt content of this soup as well. Yes, it tasted better than any canned variety of soup. I will definitely make this soup again!
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