No soup for you!

Soup is a favorite of many people, and I have found that older folks especially like it. But all the canned or frozen soups are unbelievably high in sodium. Even the ones that claim to be "low" or "lower sodium" are just too high in the stuff for me to feed to mama. Today it's unseasonably cool in north Florida for mid-April and it's a good day for soup so here's a recipe I adapted for cream of tomato basil soup.

5 tbs unsalted butter
1/2 cup chopped onion (optional, if you don't like them, leave them out)
4 tbs flour
1 1/2 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp baking soda
3 cups milk (depending on your diet you can use any milk/cream combination you like. I sometimes will use a can of fat free condensed milk and the rest skim milk. If you don't have to worry about fat content you can use heavy cream or half & half.)
1 box Pomi chopped tomatoes (yes, I said box. These tomatoes are from Parmalat, the folks who have the shelf-stable milk in a box. I get them at Publix right next to the canned tomatoes. They have only 10 mg of sodium per half cup serving which is awesome. If you don't like tomato chunks in your soup like I do, they also have strained tomatoes so use those instead)
pepper and basil to your taste

Open the box of tomatoes and stir in the baking soda. This will keep the milk from curdling when you mix it all together. Cook the chopped onions in the butter until soft. Add the flour and cook over medium heat for a couple of minutes. Add the milk & sugar and cook while stirring until it warms through and begins to thicken a bit. Add the tomatoes and then the pepper and basil, stir, taste and adjust the spices accordingly. Let it simmer on low for a little while to blend the flavors and then enjoy your soup!