Tomato Bisque with Crispy Halloumi Cheese Sticks.
This creamy, silky tomato bisque is served piping hot, sprinkled with parmesan and chives, with crispy, warm halloumi cheese sticks for dipping. It’s a cozy, satisfying bowl of comfort food!
Happy Halloween!
It’s the 31st which means tomato soup and grilled cheese for dinner before lots of treats for dessert. Snickers, PB cups, butterfinger… I think I’d still choose this soup and grilled cheese sticks over anything sweet. That’s how much I love it!
This creamy tomato bisque is served piping hot, sprinkled with parmesan and served with crispy, crunchy sticks of fried halloumi cheese for dipping.
Oh
heck
yes.
Believe me, this is one of those recipes that you will want on repeat for the next six months.
Okay so the tomato soup is not new around here. I’ve been making this tomato soup for ages and do not hesitate to say that it is the absolute BEST. There is even a version of it in The Pretty Dish.
I started making this tomato soup after falling in love with the one from Nordstrom Cafe. It’s still one of my favorite soups of all time, and now that I can make it at home? Well, let’s just say I make it often.
We didn’t grow up eating tomato soup in our house because my mom had a bad experience with it as a kid. Something about Mother Lovett using canned Campbell’s tomato soup as pasta sauce or something. (I KNOW!)
Anyway, we never had it, so when I first started testing this tomato soup recipe, I just about lost it. I made it constantly.
You can find this in my tomato soup with grilled cheese sticks and again in my chipotle tomato soup with smoked cheddar pull-apart bread. It’s SO GOOD.
Also, the leftovers are even better. I can’t stand how much we love it.
Years ago, one of you told me that you had a tradition of doing tomato soup and grilled cheese on Halloween. I’ve hung on to that for YEARS and now it’s my tradition here too. It’s my tradition here on the blog for YOU, but my tradition at home right now is to make a chili bar because we have a lot of people over on Halloween night.
Tonight we’re doing a big chili bar with tater tots, hot dogs, tortilla chips and queso. And alllll the toppings you can wish for!
But anyway, back to tomato soup. I love love love the idea of tomato soup and grilled cheese before trick-or-treating – it’s so cozy, delicious and satisfying. So today, I figured I’d share another way that we love it: with super crunchy halloumi cheese sticks.
Halloumi is incredibly delicious. It can be fried or grilled without melting because of the hearty texture. So, I cut a block of halloumi into sticks and dip them in beaten egg, then in seasoned breadcrumbs. I cook them in olive oil in a skillet until ridiculously crunchy and hot. Um, hello, this is brilliant!
I’m not sure why I haven’t done it before for my “grilled cheese” portion of the meal.
The halloumi sticks get so crunchy and crispy and most importantly: they hold their shape and texture. YES. I love grilled cheese croutons in tomato soup, but they get soggy rather quickly because of the bread. The halloumi sticks do not do that.
Best of both worlds if you ask me!
I like to serve these on the side for dipping. You can also cut them into cubes and fry them that way, then drop them in as soup croutons and enjoy that way. The halloumi makes the soup even MORE satisfying because there is a much higher cheese-to-soup ratio than there is with traditional grilled cheese.
I mean, we’re basically dipping a stick of cheese straight into soup and well, I don’t hate that.
I will forever love this meal.
Tomato Soup with Halloumi Cheese Sticks
Tomato Soup with Crispy Halloumi Cheese Sticks
Ingredients
tomato soup
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 2 shallots, sliced
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 ½ tablespoons tomato paste
- 28 ounces fire-roasted tomatoes
- ⅔ cup cooking sherry
- ⅓ cup chicken stock
- 3 tablespoons brown sugar
- ½ teaspoon dried basil
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon pepper
- ¾ cup heavy cream
- freshly snipped chives for garnish
- parmesan cheese, for sprinkling
Instructions
tomato soup
- Heat the butter in a saucepan over medium-low heat. Add in the shallots and garlic, cooking until soft and slightly golden, stirring occasionally, about 8 to 10 minutes. Stir in the tomato paste and cook for another 5 minutes. Add in the tomatoes, sherry, chicken stock, brown sugar, basil, salt and pepper, then bring the mixture to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and cook for 20 minutes.
- Transfer the soup to a high-powered blender and carefully blend until pureed. Transfer back to the pot over low heat. Right before serving, stir in the heavy cream. Taste and season additionally with salt and pepper if needed – it might, depending on your tomatoes. To serve, drizzle the soup with the extra cream and garnish with chives. Sprinkle with parmesan if you wish. Serve with the halloumi sticks.
halloumi cheese sticks
- I like to keep the halloumi in the fridge right until I’m ready to use it. I take the block and slice it into sticks - they are about ¼ to ½ inch thick.
- Lightly beat the eggs on one plate. Place the breadcrumbs on a second plate.
- Heat the olive oil in a nonstick skillet over medium heat. Take each piece of halloumi and coat it in the egg, then in the breadcrumbs, pressing gently so they adhere. Place the halloumi in the skillet and cook until deeply golden brown on both sides, about 3-4 minutes per side. Repeat with all the halloumi.
- Serve immediately with the tomato soup!
Did you make this recipe?
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I appreciate you so much!
Now that is comfort.
3 Comments on “Tomato Bisque with Crispy Halloumi Cheese Sticks.”
Can’t wait to try this soup!! For those who shop at Aldi and want to make this menu even quicker, they have “halloumi fries” in their fancy cheese section. Just sayin’.
yessss those actually inspired my halloumi sticks! i love those!
I made this soup for dinner this week and it was excellent. The Parmesan cheese on top really makes it shine.