Tomato Soup Homemade
Homemade tomato soup is quite different from the canned soups. There is a good amount of texture in this home made soup and the taste of the tomatoes shines through. Oven roasting them for an hour or so before constructing the soup is definitely the way to go for a top quality tomato soup.
6 large ripe tomatoes - approximately 700g / 1½lb
2 x 400g cans of chopped plum tomatoes
1 medium potato
1 medium onion
1 carrot
1 good handful of fresh basil leaves
2 garlic cloves
2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
1 heaped teaspoon of tomato concentrate
2 vegetable stockpots / cubes
2 dashes of Worcestershire Sauce (Lea and Perrins)
Half a teaspoon of sugar
Salt and pepper to taste
Run cold water over the tomatoes and the skins can then easily be peeled off. Cut the peeled tomatoes in half with a sharp knife, avoid squashing them.
Peeling tomatoes
Set the oven pre heating to 200°C / Fan 180°C / 400°F / Gas Mark 6
Peel the potato and cut into four
Peel and roughly chop the onion
Roughly chop the carrot
Peel and finely chop the garlic
The tomato soup can be prepared in advance and reheated, but reheat slowly and don't let the soup boil which would spoil the taste.
Star Anise can also be used to flavour tomato soup. We tried the soup with and without Star Anise and we felt on balance that it was better without. Instructions for using it are included in the step by step instructions below.
Place the halved tomatoes on the baking tray, cut side upwards. Sprinkle the garlic over the tomatoes and spread the basil leaves over the top.
Sprinkle two tablespoons of olive oil over the basil and tomatoes. Place the baking tray in the middle of the pre-heated oven and leave it there for twenty minutes.
Tomatoes ready for baking
After 20 minutes of roasting the tomatoes, take them from the oven and sprinkle the chopped onion and carrot over the tomatoes. Put them back in the oven to roast for a further 40 minutes.
20 minutes before the tomatoes are roasted, place the quartered potato in a large pan with 1.2 litres lightly boiling water. Put the pan of potatoes on the hot plate and let them gently boil. Add 6 whole seeds of Star Anise at this stage if you want.
Chopped onion and carrot sprinkled on tomatoes
After boiling the potato for 20 minutes, leaving the water and potatoes in the pan, add all the other ingredients to the pan (the contents of the rosting dish, tomato concentrate, two dashes of Worcestershire Sauce, crumbled stock cubes or stock pots and sugar). Stir well and leave to simmer for 10 minutes.
STEP 4Use the food blender to puree the soup to a slightly rough texture.
Put the blended soup back in the pan and gently reheat for 5 minutes stirring every minute or so. Don't let the soup boil.
Taste the soup and add any salt pepper according to taste. Serve in warm soup bowls and garnish with a couple of parsley sprigs or basil sprigs if any is left.
Tomato soup homemade
