Creamy Tomato Soup

This is my all time fave tomato soup recipe. So good. So creamy.
I've heard that not all care for the texture, but we LOVE it!

Creamy Tomato Soup (Crockpot, 6 hours)

Ingredients:

2 (14 oz) cans diced tomatoes, with the juice
1 cup finely diced carrots
1 cup finely diced onions (I use dehydrated onions, I find them less repulsive)
1 cup finely diced celery (I also skip this, because I don't usually have celery on hand)
2 T tomato paste
4 cups chicken broth
1 tsp dried oregano
1 T dry basil
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup flour
1 cup Parmesan cheese
1 1/2 cups half and half (I've also just used milk)
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper

Directions:

Add diced tomatoes, carrots, onion, celery, tomato paste, chicken broth, oregano, and basil to your slow cooker. Cover and cook on low 5-6 hours until flavors blend and vegetables are soft.

About 30 minutes before the serving, prepare a roux.
In a skillet melt the butter over med-low heat and add the flour. Whisk together constantly for about 10 minutes or until the roux is a nice golden brown color.
Slowly add 1 cup of the soup from the crock pot  to the roux, it will make a thick paste, slowly add 3 more cups of warm soup to the mix and stir until smooth.
Add the roux mixture to the crock pot.
Stir in the Parmesan cheese, half and half and salt and pepper. Stir well, let cook on low for another 30 minutes.
Pour soup into a blender (do this in batches), puree until smooth.

Serve with artisan bread, or fresh rolls. So yum!