~ Homemade Tomato Soup ~ Refreshing & Energizing

Tomato Soup

It has been raining these last few weeks and the cold weather calls for a warming soup. Tomato soup came to mind as I had a dozen of them lying around the fridge plus other vegetables and I thought this would be a good time to whip something easy and tasty. Plus, this is a great way to eat a lot of vegetables and it makes a great snack in between meals without going overboard on the calories.

Tomato Soup recipe:
4 medium ripped tomatoes
3 stalks of celery
1 carrot
1 large red onion
1/2 clove of garlic
2 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon dried basil leaves
500ml water
Salt, Pepper, Sugar - To taste

Method:
1. Firstly, prepare your vegetables. Wash and cut your tomatoes and cut them into quarters and slice off any hard cores (they won't soften during cooking and you'd get hard bits in the soup at the end). Chopped celery and carrots into small pieces to allow even cooking. Peel and chopped onions and garlic and set aside.

2. Pour 2 tablespoon olive oil into a deep pot and heat it over low fire. Once the oil is heated up, add in onions and garlic and give it a quick stir. Add in tomatoes, celery and carrots and mix them with a wooden spoon. Still on low fire, cook the vegetables until they're soft and translucent in colour. This should take you around 10 to 15 minutes and you should stir them occasionally to cook them evenly.

3. Pour in water to the vegetables. Sprinkle a good pinch of salt, pepper and sugar according to your taste buds and dried basil leaves. Give it a good stir so all the flavour are well mixed. Put a lid over the pot and allow it to stew for a good 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. At the end of the cooking, the tomatoes will have broken down and be very slushy looking.

4. At this point, I used my hand immersion blender to grind. If you are using a blender, allow the soup to cool down and blend. Once the soup is blended nicely to a smooth purée consistency, return the pot to the stove and reheat the soup. Taste a spoonful  and add a pinch of salt, pepper or sugar if you think the soup needs it.

5. Ladle into bowls and serve.