Recipe: Tomato Basil Soup

This is one of my old standby recipes for when I don't have alot of time and we are low on cash. It makes for an amazing one dish wonder dinner and with a nice Feta as garnish, a good crusty loaf of bread, and a nice salad (see Greek salad, later post) you have a fast, healthy home cooked meal. I cook by feel so all of the ammounts are approximate, feel free to add/ reduce quantities for taste.

Ingredients:

Ripe tomatoes- 1 kilo appx (I like Roma because they have the least amount of water)
Fresh Garlic- 4-5 cloves
Fresh or Roasted Bell peppers (see How to roast a pepper below)- a whole pepper, more or less depending on your taste
Fresh basil or Italian seasoning - one handful fresh, 2 good teaspoons dried
Salt- to taste
Sugar or Honey- to taste (will need a few spoonfuls to cut the tartness of the tomato)
Tomato Concentrate- Small can
V8 or other tomato juice- 1 bottle (I like V8 because it has other veggies too)
Heavy Cream- I use about 2 cups because my husband likes a really creamy soup. You can use a lower fat cream and use less for a "healthier" soup if you want. DO NOT use milk as it WILL curdle the soup
Dollop of Butter (optional, I used it when I have it in the fridge, it doesnt make a HUGE difference one way or another)

Garnish with:

Fresh black pepper
Chopped basil
Crumbled Feta

Also need:

One very large soup pan
Blender


To Prepare:

Preparation is fairly easy with total prep approximately 15-20 minutes max and a cook time of around an hour to an hour and a half depending on how high you boil the soup/ how far down you choose to reduce it.

Step one:
Take the first four ingredients (Tomatoes, Garlic, Peppers, and Basil)
and add them into a blender. I usually loosely chop the tomatoes into nickel sized chunks so they blend faster. Blend starting on the lowest speed for a few minutes. The longer you blend the smoother soup you will have. If you like a slightly chunkier soup, use the pulse feature instead for a shorter time. You will need a full blender of puree mixture (I sometimes have even a blender and a half or so and that is fine too).

Step two:
Pour the tomato puree from the blender into the soup pan and add the tomato concentrate and the tomato juice to the pan. Bring to a boil and keep at a rolling boil stirring regularly until the soup has reduced to almost a spaghetti sauce consistency for a thick soup, for a thinner soup do not reduce it as far. At this point add the salt and sugar (honey) to taste. Once it has been seasoned to your liking, turn the burner to the lowest setting and add the butter and heavy cream, stirring quickly so that the cream and soup do not separate. Taste and add sugar/salt if needed. Let soup simmer for a few more minutes to thicken before serving.

This soup tastes great and reheats very well.

How to Roast a Bell Pepper:

These days you can buy Roasted Bell Peppers in almost any supermarket, but I find that they are quite pricey and it is cheaper and tastier to just do them at home.

To roast a pepper all you need is a burner, gas is best but electric works as well, and a pair of metal cooking tongs. Wash and dry the pepper and place it directly on the burner. Leave the pepper on the burner until the outside has blistered and turned black over the entire pepper turning as needed. Once the skin of the pepper has burned, remove it from the burner and place on a plate to cool. Once it has cooled, run it under cool water and rub it gently so that the burned skin washes off. You will be left with a skinless roasted pepper. At this point, take a knife (or your fingers) and remove the stem and insides of the pepper and discard. Easy!!