I loved my elementary school's vegetable beef soup and it always had
chunks of tomatoes in it which were so yummy.
The chili part of the recipe is designed to be quick and dirty, packing a ton of flavor without a long simmer time or
big chunks of tomatoes... I hate that.
I substituted enchilada sauce (we decided we weren't that crazy
about chunks of tomato), and added the sauce and cheese salsa (I used Pace Mexican Four Cheese) to the bean / meat mix to simplify assembly.
If you like a rustic soup with
chunks of tomato add one cup of water like a more liquid soup add 1,5 to 2 cups of water.
So by roughly chopping the stewed tomatoes, rather than using diced, there were larger
chunks of tomato mixed in.
You can use canned diced tomatoes, but I prefer to use whole tomatoes because I like to have bigger
chunks of tomato in the sauce, plus it's fun to break up the tomatoes.
I like
the chunks of tomatoes and to have the color of fresh basil dotted throughout.
You can leave
some chunks of tomato for texture.
Rudy didn't like it as much but I like
chunks of tomatoes.
As you'll see in many of the comments on this recipe, an easy and delicious solution to the onion debacle is to take your blender, food processor, or immersion blender and puree the onion into the sauce (this will also yield a smoother sauce, while the original has
chunks of tomato).
If you want a few pieces of tomato in the sauce, spoon out some of
the chunks of tomato and onion and set them aside while you blend the rest.
A basic tomato sauce is very easy, and
the chunks of tomato are fun to pick up, or a mixture of pasta and almost any of the other items on this list work well too.
Process the mixture until it is mostly smooth and no big
chunks of tomato or onion remain, scraping down the sides as necessary.
My Jack Russell Terrier, Squirt is vomiting and it has
chunks of tomatoes in there.