Tomato soup is one of the best comfort food, and luckily its incredibly easy and quick to make. My version is a little lighter than your average tomato soup - it doesn't use any cream and uses fresh tomatoes instead of canned. If you want a richer soup, you can add extra tomato paste and add cream at the end of the cooking time.
Lightened-up Tomato Soup
1 onion, chopped
2 carrots, peeled and chopped
1 rib celery, chopped
2 stalks/fronds of fennel, chopped (these are the tops of the fennel bulb -- its a great way to use the top of the fennel which has tons of flavor instead of just using the fennel bulb)
2 pounds of roma tomatoes, chopped (get the ripest tomatoes you can since they are the base of this soup)1 tbsp fresh thyme, chopped
2 tbsp tomato paste
6 cloves of garlic, roasted (to roast the garlic, wrap the cloves in aluminum foil and top with a little olive oil and salt/pepper. tightly wrap the garlic in the foil and roast at 350 degrees until the garlic is completely tender and browned, approx. 30 minutes)
2 quarts of vegetable or chicken stock
use this part of the fennel for soup |
Directions
To make the soup, first sauté the onions, fennel, carrots and celery in about 2 tbsp of olive oil. Sauté until the vegetables become translucent, about 10 minutes.
the vegetables should go from looking like this.... |
to looking like this |
Add the tomato paste and coat all the veggies in it. Allow the tomato paste to cook, constantly stirring it for about 2 minutes. Add the fresh thyme and about 1 tsp of salt and 1/2 tsp of pepper to the pot, stirring. Add the the roasted garlic.
the garlic should be browned, like this |
Add the tomatoes and the stock.
Bring the soup up to a boil and then reduce it to a simmer. Allow the soup to simmer for at least 1/2 an hour, but if you have the time let it simmer for anywhere between 1-2 hours. Use an immersion blender and puree the soup until its completely smooth. Taste for seasoning - you might need to add extra salt and pepper to it. If you have fresh basil add it before you puree the soup for a fresh tomato/ basil soup
Sometimes using fresh tomatoes can be tricky - if they aren't perfectly ripe your soup can end up a little bitter. You can always substitute two 24 oz cans of good quality whole tomatoes for the fresh tomatoes. If your soup is a little bitter, you can add a little bit of sugar to it to balance out the acidity of the tomatoes.
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