Tomato rice soup

Here's my mom's tomato rice soup recipe, which is my absolute favorite soup ever:

4 cups fresh tomatoes, roughly chopped
3 sprigs parsley, roughly chopped
6 whole cloves
1 bay leaf
about half an onion, roughly chopped
3/4 tsp pepper
3/4 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar

Put all ingredients into a saucepan and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for about 5 minutes, until everything is mushy. Remove the bay leaf (and cloves, if you can find them!) and puree in the blender. Add boiling water to the puree to bring the volume to 2 cups total. Add to this:

1/2 tsp baking soda

Meanwhile, make a thin white sauce. In a saucepan melt:

2 1/2 tsp butter

Whisk in:

2 1/2 tsp flour

Cook until it gets golden and nutty smelling

Whisk in:

2 1/2 cups milk
1 tsp salt

Cook until thickened. Add to the white sauce:

1 cup cooked rice

Stir the tomato puree into the rice/white sauce mixture and serve.