Topic: Tomato Soup

[Palefire]

I have managed an impressive crop of tomatoes this year - Gardeners Delight, Money Maker and Gartenperle (beautiful colour) - most of which are now coming to an end, but the fridge is bursting, so I have decided to make a soup:

1 1/2 lb - 2lb toms, various kinds, chopped in quarters or cherry varieties left whole
1 potato, chopped
1 onion, chopped
fresh garlic
fresh basil
butter
1 pint stock
seasoning

fry the onions and garlic in the butter, add the toms and pots, cook until starting to fall apart, add stock, season and cook for about 10 mins. CAREFULLY whiz in a blender or strain through a sieve, depending on whether you are bothered by skin and pips or not, return to the pan, add chopped basil and serve immediately.  Gorgeous. Based on the best bits of about 3 published recipes from a newspaper, Tesco magazine and Delia  ;)

Worth a try and better than opening a can of that orange laughable stuff that looks like its been nowhere near a tomato!!

Love, Palefire
xxx

[Doris_Pinks]

Thanks for that I was going to look up a recipe for the same tomorrow! Looking forward to it
Dotty P. :D

[Doris_Pinks]

Palefire, i hosted a coffee morning as part of the worlds biggest coffee morning to support Macmillan cancer relief, and your soup recipe helped raise part of the £201.35! (served em lunch too!)
Everyone raved about it (even though I forgot to put in the basil...Opps!) i did add a pinch of sugar to take away the acidity of the tomatoes! It was a hit.

[Palefire]

Brilliant!!! Actually - i made the mistake of using cherry toms exclusively in it after I posted the recipe - it was very "Tangy" shall we say? - don't do this!!! I had adjusted the recipe to very ripe beef steak toms last year and it worked, but I shall try your tip about sugar in the next batch, as the majority will again be cherry toms with a few moneymaker thrown in. Glad you raised so much - I do a run for cancer research every year and it's a real buzz knowing that you can further good causes!

Love, Palefire

xxx

[Palefire]

Having used the majority of the toms that are red up, I am now looking forward to some more soup :D. I intend to make it a bit differently this time - can I add a swirl of cream to it at the end of cooking to make it "cream of tomato" or is it not that easy?

Love, Palefire

xxx

[Doris_Pinks]

Palefire you have to be careful when you add cream to soup, can curdle if you boil it! YEACH! :P
So add it as a swirl when it is in the bowls and about to be served, looks pretty and tastes good too! (Chopped chives and homemade garlic croutons make it even better!)
I think that you have to have a flour and butter based soup to add cream during the cooking...got a recipe somewhere if you want it, but it is longer winded than your one. Hope this helps :)
Dotty P.

[Palefire]

OK, you've got my mouth watering now - garlic croutons? - How do I make those?!

Love Palefire

xxx

[Doris_Pinks]

Aha, yummy things them!! They sit in the cupboard for ages too once made!
Do them like regular croutons, Cut up stale bread into cubes, drizzle with olive oil, then sprinkle with garlic salt, toss it all together arrange on a baking sheet. Put into the oven, I can't think of the gas mark off the top of my head...going to look it up hang on.................aha, gas 5, 375f,(190c) for approx 10 mins. Keep and eye on them as they burn really easily!
When they are cold I store mine in a placcie bag and save them to lob on soups (v. Good with squash soup) and throw in salads. You can also put fresh chopped herbs in at the mixing stage, these are good too!  ;DDP

[Palefire]

Ah so they're quite easy, then. Shall give them a try on the other half and me some time this week, then. Squash soup sounds nice, to. How am I going to fit all the winter prep in the garden in with all this cooking and Sarah? I wonder!!

Love, Palefire

xxx

[Doris_Pinks]

We muddle along!! I was going to spend the day clearing out my greenhouse today, as my toms have finally finished  :( but so many other things need doing that  it may not get done!! I look at it it will still be there tomorrow!! Who is Sarah? I must have missed something somewhere!! :) DP

[Palefire]

Sarah is my darling little 4 year old patience tester! Cute as a button and doesn't she know it!! It's really nice when she asks to go and get something to eat from the "vegbatul garden", though!

Love, Palefire

xxx

[Doris_Pinks]

I've got 2 of them! Believe me they get more testing on the patience as they(and I) get older!! :) AND they no longer think going to the lottie and digging up stuff is fun! I am gutted......mind you they are approaching teenagerdom, so I figure they have lasted longer than most...and they eat all the veggies I grow which looking at their friends appears to be a minor miracle :o! Rude shaped carrots (of which I seem to grow an unusually large proportion of) seems to be their thing!! Ahh kids, gotta love em! Dotty P.

[Palefire]

Definitely DP!!
I'm glad to say that Sarah has, at the moment, got the (if a little self-righteous) attitude that children who say they don't like vegetables are just "Whinging" and her school has a policy called the National Fresh Fruit Scheme, where children are not allowed break time snacks, as they are given a piece of fruit for their snack in the morning. I'm afraid I'm guilty  ;) (and my mum would back me up here) of near perfecting reverse psychology and brainwashing on our poor child where her diet is concerned. As far as she knows, broccolli makes your blood, fruit gives you nice skin, carrots and potatoes make you big and strong and chicken and fish give you big brains and muscles!!  ;D

I'm just waiting for the first time she comes home and says "how long have you been conning me, Mum?"!  :-/

Love, Palefire

xxx

[Doris_Pinks]

I was like that too! Must be the growers in us!! Now they just give me a withering stare if I mention healthy!! But I figure that it is indoctrinated in them somewhere ;D  DP

[Palefire]

Don't worry - it will be. I grew up hating cooked carrots - and I still don't like them, especially if there has been salt in the cooking water, but now I just make a habit of looking at what I am served, eating the things I don't like first, then settling down for the really scrummy bits!

I tend to eat healthily due to what I was given by my Grandma to eat when I visited and my Mum was always keen to try out "healthy" things, so it has rubbed off - I'm someone who used to be vegetarian, bordering on vegan, but couldn't hack it and now I'm in a comfortable slot of 95% veggie, 5% fish eater (piscovore?!).

When Sarah has the odd "I don't like that" moment, I tell her to try mixing it in with the other things, or eating it first then getting rid of the taste with something she does like. At the risk of jinxing it, it has worked so far!!

Love Palefire

xxx