Recipe- Make Winter Evenings Warm With Healthy Tomato Soup

It is the zest for perfection that simply weaves magic into the matrix called life. The same can be said for this delicious tomato soup recipe.

Ingredients

4-5 medium size ripe tomatoes
1 medium onion
1 small carrot
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tsp of tomato purée (or 2 tsp thick tomato ketchup)
a good pinch of sugar
2 bay leaves
4 cups hot stock (made with boiling water and 2 vegetable stock cubes).

Method

* Firstly, prepare your vegetables. Cut each ripe tomato into quarters and slice off any hard cores.

* Peel the onion and carrot and chop them into small pieces.

* Pour the olive oil into a large heavy-based pan and heat it over low heat.

* Once the oil is hot, add the onion and carrot and mix them together with a wooden spoon. At low heat, cook the vegetables until they’re soft and just start changing colour.

* This should take about 10 minutes and you should stir them two or three times so they cook evenly and don’t stick to the bottom of the pan.

* Add 2 tsp of tomato purée, and stir it around so the vegetables turn beautifully red. (You can use tomato ketchup instead of the puree but then you need not add sugar).

* Add the tomatoes, sprinkle in a good pinch of sugar and grind in a little black pepper. Add the bay leaves. Stir to mix everything together, put the lid on the pan and let the tomatoes stew over low heat for 10 minutes until they shrink down in the pan and become mushy. From time to time, stir well.

* Slowly pour in the stock, stirring at the same time to mix it with the vegetables.Turn up the heat as high as it will go and wait until everything is bubbling, then turn the heat down to low again and put the lid back on the pan. Cook gently for 25 minutes, stirring a couple of times. At the end of cooking the vegetables will look like a stew.

* Remove the pan from the heat, take the lid off and wait for the mixture to cool. Remove the bay leaves and discard. Pour the soup into a mixie and blend till you get a smooth mix. You can do it in batches.

* Pour the puréed soup back into the vessel and reheat it over medium heat for a few minutes, stirring occasionally until you can see bubbles breaking gently on the surface. Taste a spoonful and add a pinch or two of salt if you think the soup needs it, plus more pepper and sugar if you like. The stock cubes usually will have enough salt for the soup. 1-2 tsp of tomato puree can be added if you think the colour is not red enough.