Tomato Soup

As you can see from the photos, we have a plethora of tomatoes – multiple varieties, shapes, sizes and tastes. So when tomatoes are in season, I have to become immediately creative to find recipes using fresh tomatoes – lots of them – before they lose their freshness. Homemade tomato soup is a great option.

I also freeze soup when cold in plastic bags, and then re- season with salt and pepper when defrosting since they lose some of their taste no matter how careful so one is to freeze them without excess air or heat in the bag.

My husband has managed to keep our tomato crop going throughout the year, although it reduces to a paltry few in the winter, but nevertheless still enough for our home use. Of course in the summer we are pretty much overwhelmed hence soups, salsa, sauces for pasta and more. Delicious!

Ingredients:

2 Two boxes of Pomi tomatoes in juice OR 32 ounces of skinned chopped fresh tomatoes

4 cups Vegetable Stock – Better than Bouillon 4tbsps in 4 cups of water

2 Two chopped onions

4 tbsp 1 stick of butter

Pinch Salt and pepper to taste

1 tbsp per serving Non fat sour cream ( Optional)

Sprinkle per serving Chopped chives (Optional)

Preparation Time: 10 minutes

Cooking Time: 35 minutes

Directions:

1. Melt the stick of butter in a pot.
2. Add the chopped onions ( 2). Let them saute on medium until transparent.
3. Add the two boxes of Pomi tomatoes chopped in sauce ( they come that way!).
4. Add the vegetable bouillon (4 tbsp of stock in 4 cups of water) and bring to a boil.
5. Reduce to simmer and let it cook for 20 minutes.
6. Let it cool a bit then puree in a blender – and BE CAREFUL to only puree about a half a cup at a time. If not, while it is still hot, it will cause the blender top to pop off – so hold the top down hard while you press the ‘on’ switch.
7. Return the pureed mixture to the pot and reheat on low until ready to serve.
8. Serve in warmed bowls – very important – if not the soup will cool while you are serving and end up luke-warm – which doesn’t make the most of the taste.
9. If you like, you can add a dollop of non-fat sour cream to the soup in each bowl.The sour cream (one tbsp per serving in the middle of the soup in the bowl) will also cool it down. So hot bowls are a must. Use a warming oven, or heat your oven to 200 degrees, then turn it off and put your plates in there after about 15 minutes.
10. You could add chopped chives in the center of the cream for color – optional.
11. If using fresh tomatoes, place them in a dish of boiling water and let them sit for 15 minutes. Then the skin will come off easily. Chop them coarsely in another bowl and save the juice and flesh. Use at the point in the recipe which calls for chopped tomatoes.

Variations:

Adding different herbs to taste will change the soup completely – for example, use fresh chopped basil instead of chives, or add oregano while the soup is cooking. Remember the rule regarding herbs is, ‘don’t overwhelm the dish with too much of anything’ – use just enough e.g. a couple of teaspoons.

Adding Homemade Croutons instead of cream:

Making Croutons – take day old bread, cut the bread into small pieces and fry the pieces in seasoned olive oil on low, turning them often so that the croutons don’t burn. I like to add garlic salt – but that’s a personal taste preference.

Making Seasoned olive oil:

Put some garlic and herbs into your olive oil container and never let the level get lower than the herb mixture. Mine keeps for months and I keep refilling the glass bottle with olive oil from my pantry. Yummy!