No this isn’t the first time I have tried tomato soup. I have also tried to make it from scratch a few times but it always goes wrong. The first time it took me ages… I roasted tomatoes and painstakingly removed the skins, put them in a pan with some water and boiled away. It tasted like dish water… and was the same consistency! Another time I tried just using tins of chopped tomatoes and passata but had to boil it down so much to get it to the right consistency that it only served one person.
So last week my Mum rang me from work and mentioned that her friend & colleague had made them tomato soup for tea. She very cheekily took some and left it in my porch (I was at work) for me to try. Well I only got a spoonful because the other half polished it off but wow, it tasted amazing! I decided my hatred of making tomato soup and asked for the recipe. Here is the result…
I couldn’t believe it, this actually looked and tasted like a good quality tomato soup! AND it was super easy to make. My Mum’s friend said she wasn’t really sure how much she used of stuff as it was trial and error. She also said that she makes a huge stockpot full of the stuff so I certainly had to half her rough measurements but here is the recipe…
1lb fresh tomatoes
1 tin chopped tomatoes
4 garlic cloves
Bunch of fresh basil
1/2 jar sundried tomatoes (I had a vacuum pack so used about 1/3 of this)
1/2 jar of roasted red peppers (I used the ones in brine rather than oil to keep the calories down)
3 red peppers
2 onions
1 vegetable stock cube (I used chicken as I didn’t have vegetable)
Put fresh tomatoes, onions, red peppers and garlic in a roasting pan sprayed with frylight and roast on a high heat until browned.
Place in a pan with all the other ingredients, except the basil, and simmer for 45 minutes.
Liquidise and add chopped basil.
How easy is that?! It is really tasty, I think the roasted garlic gives the soup a lovely sweetness that my previous attempts have been missing. I was told to use 3-4 tablespoons of tomato puree but I didn’t have any so left it out. I didn’t think it impacted on the soup at all but if you are going to give it a try, add a bit and let me know how it tastes 🙂
This is last weeks ‘try’ of the week… sorry for being rubbish. This week’s will be on the right day I promise.
2 Comments
Tomato soup is one of those soups I don’t do very often, since it’s full of flavour and overwhelming. I like the typical Portuguese tomato soup, Gaspacho, which is served cold. I’ve never tried hot before.
It’s very similar to gazpacho but the weather is so cold here we need warming up! X