Tomato Soup with Grilled Cheese Croutons

Add the olive oil to the Instant Pot. Hit “Sauté” and Adjust to “High” or “More” until it reads “Hot.” Add the scallions, onion and carrots and cook (stir and set) for 10 minutes until they begin to soften and get color (they will also be releasing amazing flavors right now so don’t cut this step short). Add the tomato paste, coat the veggies well and stir constantly for 1 minute. Then add the Sherry and cook for another minute, constantly stirring and deglazing (scraping) the bottom of the pot so the tomato paste doesn’t stick Add the broth, canned tomatoes, Worcestershire sauce, dried basil, dried thyme and Old Bay. Stir very well. Secure the lid and cook at high pressure for 5 mins* (see “Jeffrey Sez” section of recipe). Quick release when done While the soup is cooking, let’s make the grilled cheese croutons! Generously butter one side of each slice of bread. Add 1 tbsp of butter to a frying pan and set to medium heat. Once heated, place a slice of the bread (buttered side down) on the pan and layer on 3 slices of cheese (make sure the cheese is on the bread and not hanging off the edges too much). Cover with the cheese with the other slice of bread, buttered side-up. Cook for about 45-60 seconds on each side, flipping midway through until the bread is nice and grilled/toasty but not burnt. The cheese will have melted nicely. Make two of these grilled cheese sandwiches, let cool for about 5-10 minutes and then cut each sandwich into tiny squares. Set aside When the lid comes off the soup, take an immersion blender (or a regular one, but an immersion blender is SO much easier for this so you don’t have to transfer the soup to a blender and then back into the pot) and blend everything in the pot together for about a minute or two until it’s puréed. The soup will thicken up nice and good now Add the heavy cream and seasoned salt and stir well Ladle into bowls and top with some grilled cheese croutons *Because there are so many tomatoes in the pot, this will take a bit of time to come to pressure. If the pot begins to count down before it comes to pressure with the pin still down, you can do one of two things: Just let it finish as it is with the pin still down. The result will be totally 100% fine and cooked (there is no meat in here – only veggies). Remove the lid and then secure it again (as you re-close the lid, the pin will pop up very quickly so you’ll need to press down and maneuver it slightly so it’s in the locked position again). Then hit “Keep Warm/Cancel” and then “Manual” or “Pressure Cook” High Pressure for another 5 minutes. If you want your soup a little thinner, add in another cup of vegetable broth! If you have another way you like to make your grilled cheese instead of the way I do mine, have right at it! But I DO suggest you use a melty cheese that is easy to cut into croutons with minimal gooeyness once it cools. This is going to make A LOT – easily enough to feed 6-8 generous portions. If you wish to make less, just halve the recipe (but use the same amount of vegetable broth).