Scheherazade
Sultana
 
Posts : 146
Birthday : 1983-06-12
Join date : 2013-04-13
Age : 40
Location : Alexandria, EGYPT
 |  Subject: Tomato soup  Sat Jun 22, 2013 8:06 am | |
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Tomato soup is among my husband’s favorite dishes. He loves it that much that he wish I cook it every week  !
These being said, I got down to work and I made my husband the tomato soup in question, whose simple recipe but always appreciated by my family I want to share with you.
Ingredients:
- 1.5-2 kg of well ripened tomatoes or 1 litre of tomato passata
- 1 onion
- 2-3 carrots
- 1 piece of celery the size of a small egg
- optional: ½ of bell pepper
- 1 garlic clove
- 30 ml. of extra-virgin olive oil (this is what I used, a different type of oil is just as good, only that the taste of olive oil makes a really good/harmonious combination with that of tomatoes)
- fresh herbs: 3 bay leaves, 1 stem of fresh thyme, 1 stem of basil, green parsley or basil to garnish (as preferred)
- 1 tablespoon of sugar
- salt and pepper
- to serve: small, short pasta or bread croutons seasoned with garlic
Tomato soup preparation:
You could simply soak the tomatoes in hot water for 1 to 2 minutes so as to be able to peel them with ease, but this time I chose to do something slightly different, i.e. I put the tomatoes on the hot grill, making sure to turn them on all sides, for 5 minutes, which led to a concentration of the aroma giving them a wonderful taste while also ensuring that the skin would easily come off.
I put the peeled tomatoes – after removing their woody inside with a knife – in a suitable pot, covered them with water (you can just as well use some vegetable, beef or chicken stock), added the bay leaves, the thyme stem and the basil one and just a pinch of salt and finally let them boil.
Meanwhile, peel, wash and chop the vegetables in small bits and crush the garlic. Heat the oil in another pot and add all vegetables at once, simmering until soft, at low temperature (you shouldn’t brown them at all – it would only spoil the final taste of the soup). As soon as the vegetables are soft, add a cup of water (200 ml.) and continue to boil.
After boiling for approx. 10 minutes, remove the pot with the tomatoes from the hob, take out the bay leaves and the thyme and then mash the tomatoes using the stick blender (you could also pass them through a sieve, especially if someone in your family is allergic to the seeds).
Add the mashed tomatoes over the simmered vegetables and fill with water until you reach the desired consistency (the soup can either be creamier or more liquid – depends on how you like it). At this stage you need to season the soup with a tablespoon of sugar (necessary to balance the acidity of the tomatoes), salt and pepper to taste.
Keep boiling it until the vegetables reach the desired consistency – I prefer them to keep their crisp texture a bit, rather than be very soft. If you wish, you can also mash the vegetables and then you would get a cream soup.
If you prefer to serve it with some noodles, boil the pasta noodles (some very tiny ones) in the salted water according to the instructions on the packaging and add them in the soup after you refresh them with some water and a drop of oil to prevent them from becoming sticky.
I prefer this soup more than with anything else with toasted bread seasoned with garlic and a greenish drop of olive oil trickling along.
No matter how you choose to serve it is just as delicious so there is nothing else left for me to do but to wish you to enjoy it!
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