Preheat oven to 400F. Layer tomatoes (cut side up) in a baking tray. Drizzle with olive oil and season with salt & ground black pepper. If your tomatoes are not in season, sprinkle a little sugar on the tomatoes to help them caramelize better. Place baking tray in the ovens middle rack. Depending on your oven and tomatoes, it will take 45 - 65 minutes.
Heat up your pressure cooker over medium high heat (Instant Pot: press Saut button, then Adjust button to Saut More function). Ensure your pot is as hot as it can be (Instant Pot: wait until indicator says HOT).
Saut onions in 1 tbsp unsalted butter for roughly 2 3 minutes until soften. Add in garlic and season with a pinch of kosher salt and ground black pepper if you like. Saut for 1 minute until fragrant. Add in chopped carrots and saute for another minute.
Pour ~ cup (125 ml) unsalted chicken stock. Scrub all the brown bits off bottom of the pot with a wooden spoon. Keep the brown bits as they are very flavorful.
Add roasted/browned tomatoes, 2 tbsp (30g) jasmine rice, a pinch of dried basil, and a pinch of dried thyme in Instant Pot. Pour in 2 tbsp (30ml) fish sauce and remaining unsalted chicken stock. Close the lid and cook at High Pressure for 3 minutes. Turn off the heat and do a 10 minutes Natural Release. Open the lid carefully.
Blend tomato soup into desired consistency with an immersion hand blender. *Optional: Strain the tomato soup over a fine mesh strainer for maximum smoothness. Add cup (125ml) heavy cream. Taste the soup and season with salt if necessary. Depending on the tomatoes, you may want to add a pinch (or a few pinches) of sugar to balance the acidity flavor. It does wonder to the flavor!
Garnish with fresh basil. Enjoy immediately. This will be a really good soup to serve to your favorite guests with grilled cheese sandwiches on the side
You may also water-bath or steam can this soup. Process pint jars for 20 minutes. Quart jars for 25 minutes. As mentioned above, do not add the heavy cream if canning. Add the cream as you open the jars and reheat.
