When I think of simple, tasty and comforting winter food, soup is right at the top of my list, it’s healthy, easy to make and a great way to use leftovers.
Yesterday we zipped into town to battle with the crowds and complete our weekly shop, to escape the bitter cold and refuel we visited a tiny teashop and warmed up with tea, soup and sandwiches. If you don’t have the inclination or appetite for soup AND a sandwich, may I suggest warm bread and salted butter? Or croutons?
I made this soup as we had an abundance of tomatoes to be used up and I absolutely hate wasting food, also preparing a batch of soup makes a few easy meals so I saved time too!
On the subject of saving time, as a batch of soup makes a good 4/5 meals, it’s worth spending a little longer slowly softening the onion in good olive oil or roasting the peppers. As olive oil is something I consider a kitchen staple I felt that it might be helpful to share this guide to choosing the best olive oil.
Ingredients
• 800g Fresh Tomato’s (or tinned tomatoes)
• 1 Tablespoon of tomato puree
• 1 Whole onion (Finely chopped)
• 1 Tablespoon of olive oil (see guide)
• 2 Peppers (if you have the time, roast these in olive oil with sprinkling of salt/pepper)
• Salt, ground black pepper, smoked paprika and mixed herbs (to taste)
• 500mil Vegetable stock (mixed with hot water)
Instructions
• Start by pre: heating your oven to 180degrees and slice 2 peppers and place on a baking tray and drizzle with olive oil before baking for 15 minutes.
• Whilst the peppers are roasting; it’s a good time to prepare the tomatoes and onions. If you have whole tomatoes I recommend cutting these into smaller chunks and setting to one side. Then finely slice the onion and place in a saucepan with olive oil and slowly start to cook over a low heat.
• Boil the kettle and stir in the vegetable stock, then pour this into the saucepan with the onions and chopped tomatoes. The peppers should be ready now, so add these with the tomato puree, salt, pepper, paprika and mixed herbs, stir and allow to cook on a medium/low heat for 30 minutes. Make sure you keep an eye on the soup and mix often to save the bottom of the saucepan being burnt.
• Once the soup is cooked, set to one side and allow to cool before blending with a hand blender or Nutri-bullet.
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Continuing the conversation about soup, I had the best ever pumpkin soup at Jamies Olivers Italian and this is next on my ‘to make list’. How do you feel about soup? Whats your favourite flavour?
Katie
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