You may not be thinking about tomatoes yet.

In fact, you are probably not thinking about tomatoes at all.

And even when you do — IF you do — think about tomatoes, I bet you don’t think about them as much as we think about them.

You see, my husband grows tomatoes. Wait. Let me rephrase that. My husband grows HEIRLOOM tomatoes.

If you’re not sure what that means, let me put it to you this way: there are three types of southern tomato eaters. The first type likes them just fine and can appreciate the difference between a grocery store tomato and a home-grown tomato. I’m in that category.

Then there is the second group; those are the people who appreciate the difference so much that they will grimace at a grocery store tomato.

Most of them grow their own tomatoes or diligently seek out a farmer’s market when the season is right. Many of them have a couple of Better Boy plants or even an Early Girl in their backyard gardens each year.

And then there’s the third group. Those are the people who grow heirloom tomatoes. That group includes my husband and small band of dedicated men and women who live and breathe tomato.

They know the lore behind the Mortgage Lifter variety. They respect the difference between a slicer and a paste. They know which types are sweet, which are acidic, and which they will prefer.

What I’m saying is this: in my house, we are always thinking about tomatoes.

We have already hammered in stakes and done the first round of Florida weave to keep this year’s tomato vines upright.

And that’s why I feel an extra pull these days to use up the quarts of tomatoes in our basement.

See, we have jars and jars of crushed tomatoes left from last year’s harvest. Heck, we only just recently processed into salsa the bags of tomatoes that had been languishing in our deep freeze.

So when I stumbled across this recipe, I was excited to try it.

I know April is not really tomato soup weather. But I also know that both my tomato-loving family members and my tomato-ambivalent family members love tomato soup.

However, commercially canned, condensed tomato soup has quite a bit of sugar in it, so the age-old combination of tomato soup and grilled cheese doesn’t really work for our family. Besides, canned tomato soup is made with — according to my husband — “another man’s tomatoes.”

Enter… this recipe. The acidity of the tomatoes is balanced nicely by the sweetness of the cooked carrots and onions. And to top it all off, the whole shebang cooked up in the Instant Pot while I worked on something else.

That’s what I call win-win. July, I’m ready for you.

INSTANT POT CREAMY TOMATO SOUP

(adapted from Mel’s Kitchen Cafe)

Ingredients
2 tablespoons cooking oil
1 cup diced carrots
1 medium onion, diced
1 quart crushed tomatoes (or substitute 3 15-ounce cans diced tomatoes)
2 cups chicken broth (I used Better Than Bouillon)
2 teaspoons dried basil
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1-2 teaspoons balsamic vinegar
2 cups milk (or about 1 1/2 cups milk plus 1/2 cup cream)
1/4 cup flour

Directions
■ Turn on the saute function of multi-cooker (such as Instant Pot). Add oil to the insert. Add carrots and onions. Stir and cook until onions are translucent, about 5 minutes.
■ Add tomatoes, broth, basil, sugar, and salt to the vegetables. Stir well. Add pressure lid to the cooker. Cook on high pressure for 10 minutes. Allow pressure to release naturally for 10 minutes. While pressure releases, measure milk (or milk and cream) and add flour. Stir well. Release remaining pressure from pot and remove lid.
■ Add the milk mixture to the pot and stir thoroughly. Using an immersion blender, puree soup until it is smooth. (If you do not have an immersion blender, you can do this in a regular blender in batches. Be sure to remove the middle portion of the blender lid and cover the resultant hole with a kitchen towel while you blend; this allows steam to escape. If you do not do this, the lid will pop off mid-blend and send hot tomatoes sailing onto your kitchen walls and ceiling. Ask me how I know this.)
■ Taste the soup. Add salt and pepper to taste. If the soup is too acidic, add balsamic vinegar, a teaspoon at a time, to balance the acid. (It doesn’t make sense to neutralize acid with more acid. I know it doesn’t make sense. Just trust me that it works.) Serve hot with grilled cheese if you know what’s good for you.

Amelia Plair is a mom and high school teacher in Starkville. Email reaches her at [email protected].

Amelia Plair is a Starkville resident who writes occasional food columns.