Food

Tomato Soup with Honey and Butter

By Lauren Medeiros On November 3rd, 2026

“When I first opened for lunch at Union, I was thinking through a few solid options, and I kept coming back to this one. I remembered, as a kid, having Campbell’s tomato soup with grilled cheese at my grandmother’s house. So, I leaned in to the nostalgia.” — Teo Paul

Ingredients

Serves 4

Tomato Soup

1 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, roughly chopped
1 garlic clove, roughly chopped
Salt and ground black pepper, to taste
1 tbsp tomato paste
3 cans (each 28 oz.) whole Roma tomatoes (the better the tomatoes, the better the soup)
½ tsp sugar
1 tbsp butter
1 tsp honey

Cheese Toasties

2 cups grated cheddar, Swiss or Gruyère cheese (or all 3)
8 slices of your favorite bread (Teo uses challah)
2 tbsp duck fat or butter, for toasting

Directions

Make Soup

Heat oil in large pot over medium-high heat. Add onion and garlic, and season with salt and pepper. Sauté for a few minutes, but don’t let onion brown — you want it soft, not caramelized. Stir in tomato paste and cook, stirring, for 1 minute.
Pour in tomatoes. Fill 1 of the empty cans with cold water and add to pot. Add sugar to balance acid and pinch each of salt and pepper. Reduce heat and simmer uncovered for 45 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Press soup through fine-mesh strainer with ladle, breaking up tomatoes to release liquid. (The solids left behind make a great base for tomato sauce, so save them if you want.) Whisk butter and honey into strained soup.

Make Toasties and Serve

Preheat oven to 375°F and line baking sheet with parchment paper.
Layer grated cheese between slices of bread to make 4 sandwiches.
In large pan over medium heat, melt 1 tablespoon of duck fat. Press 2 sandwiches into fat to coat 1 side, then flip and press again so both sides get covered. Cook for about 2 minutes per side, keeping an eye on them so they don’t burn, until bread is golden and crisp on both sides. Transfer sandwiches to prepared baking sheet. Repeat with remaining sandwiches, adding more duck fat as needed between the batches.
Place sandwiches in oven for a few minutes to finish, just until cheese is hot and gooey. Serve bowls of soup with toasties on the side.