Do you have a really old recipe that you keep using because it's just so easy AND tasty?
I've been making this tomato soup for years, and the recipe came from the cooking classes we did during form 1 and 2 (that's Year 11 and 12 in new money). Yup, good old "manual", where we got to cook, sew and do some sweet woodwork, making, amongst other things, the ugliest spice rack you've ever seen! Admittedly I have made a few tweaks to the ingredients over the years - less salt, sugar and butter, using fresh herbs instead of dried, and the addition of a good splodge of pesto - but the original method of using a food processor on the raw ingredients is certainly an efficient way to whip up a big pot of soup.
I thought this would be a timely addition to the More Plants series, especially if you are growing your own tomatoes. Mine have been ticking along nicely enough to have made a big batch of pasta sauce, and now I have enough (with the addition of a bag of tomatoes from my lovely father-in-law) to make a huge pot of soup. I used 3 kilograms of tomatoes, but I have given the recipe for half that here, and you can multiply as needed.
Easy Tomato Soup
(makes approximately 6 serves)
Ingredients:
1.5 kg tomatoes, cored and roughly chopped
3 medium onions, peeled and roughly diced
4 teaspoons sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons celery salt
1 teaspoon iodised salt
3/4 teaspoon paprika
the leaves from 2 long sprigs of fresh basil (or dried leaves if you prefer)
the leaves from 4 long sprigs of fresh thyme (or dried leaves if you prefer)
2 teaspoons basil pesto
2 tablespoons of cornflour
40 grams of butter
Method:
Place all ingredients except the butter into a food processor or a blender - you may need to do this in batches, pouring each batch into a large bowl after blending. In the meantime, melt the butter in a large saucepan or stockpot. Once you have blended up all the soup, pour it into the pot with the butter. Heat gently and bring the soup to the boil, then turn the heat down and simmer for 10 minutes. During the heating process, the soup will turn from a pinky colour to a rich, deep red.
Serve with a couple of slices of wholegrain bread toasted in the oven with cheese on - mmmmmmmm.
This soup also freezes really well - for when you can't be bothered cooking on a cold evening in the depths of winter. Just whip this out of the freezer, defrost and re-heat while the cheese toasties are cooking. Too easy.
