Soup’s up!
What wild weather we’ve been having here recently! Torrential downpours in between clear days with blue skies - the only constant is that it seems to be continuously bitterly cold. Add that to the fact that the new job has me waking up at 5am and leaving the house by 6am, and you can understand why I am almost desperately addicted to warm, nourishing foods which will keep me going through the day.
Whilst I adore soups and broths, most of my experience with them has been Korean dishes so even at the age of 26, I’m still quite unfamiliar with a lot of Western-style soups. My exposure to most of the ones I know happened when I was in primary school and a family friends mother bought/discovered the blender.
Oh dear.
She thought herself quite the cook, and while her Korean cooking wasn’t bad (though honestly it was quite wretched in comparison to my mothers), her explorations into Western cuisine were abysmal, and left me horrified every time that we went over for dinner. The month that she discovered the blender, I was subjected to two of the most disgusting dishes I’ve ever put into my mouth - her pea and ham soup, and her tomato soup.
I’m not going to call her lazy, but her assumption was that these Western soups were just ingredients blended and boiled, so the soups of hers that I experienced were both bland and horrible at the same time. I hate to say it, but these childhood scars stuck with me through life, so that every time since that I’ve come across either of these soups, I’ve become quite visibly paler and backed away fairly quickly. I managed to avoid them fairly well, until I went to my best mates home for a dinner and telly sesh (we get together every Sunday night to have dinner and watch the hilariously craptastic Gladiators, Grey’s Anatomy and Brothers and Sisters together) and I was informed that she had made tomato soup for dinner.
Gulp.
Not to be ingracious to the wonderful host, I quickly volunteered to have the smallest serving, then carried my soup mug to the lounge room, plonked on the couch and hesitantly lifted the spoon to my mouth. Taking a cautious sniff, I warily brought the spoon to my lips and took a sip. WOW! What…what was this? This amazing smooth yet textured delight that tasted wonderfully of tomatoes yet had a freshness that I couldn’t quite put my finger on. Pacing myself, I savoured every spoonful till I was left mournfully scraping the sides of my mug and wishing for more but alas, there was none to be had.
Grabbing the recipe from her, I made the soup the next chance I had and enjoyed every drop of it, and I can now confess that I love tomato soup - well, this version anyway.
While I’m glad that I decided to give it a try and have this new experience that has even made me appreciate celery (a vegetable which I quite detest) and discover a love of this soup, I’m afraid that the mere thought of pea and ham soup still makes my stomach feel tender…at least for now.
Fresh Tomato Soup
Ingredients
750g roma (plum) tomatoes
3 sticks of celery, washed and trimmed
1 large brown onion
1 1/2 cups reduced salt vegetable stock
4 cloves garlic
1 tbsp reduced salt tomato paste
1 tsp sugar (this helps counteract the acidity of the tomatoes)
Salt and pepper, to taste
80g risoni pasta (or orzo, whichever you have handy)
1. Cut a cross into the base of the tomatoes and blanch so you can slip off the skins. Roughly chop tomatoes, celery, onion and garlic.
2. Heat a little olive oil in a pot over a medium flame, then add the chopped vegetables and saute for 5 minutes and then place the lid on the pot and simmer for 20-30 minutes, or till the celery is soft. Pour cooked veg into a blender and blitz till it has become a smooth puree, then press through a sieve to remove any tough fibres that will ruin the texture of the soup.
3. Add the strained puree back to the pot and stir through the stock, tomato paste, salt, sugar and pepper. Once it is well combined, add the risoni and bring the pot to a simmer over medium heat, cooking till the pasta has gone soft.
4. Serve piping hot, with a decent hunk of crusty bread for mopping up the soup.
Technorati Tags: tomato soup, soup, risoni, pasta, vegetarian, recipe
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Comments
Mandy That looks delicious! I’ve never made Tomato soup before, my soup experience is mainly pumpkin, with occasional forays into pea & ham. I’ll have to give it a go, nothing like soup during winter. 
chiffonade We just got my brother a nine quart Le Creuset in red. (He asked for a dutch oven for Christmas and someone got him a bitty little 6 qt. Emeril black oven.)
I told him there might be enough cold weather left in Jersey to mandate a nice pot of soup or stew over the weekend. Your tomato soup looks excellent! (I love tomato in just about all forms…)
Got BF hooked on tomatoes - I think if I ply him with a grilled cheese, he’d dive right into your tomato soup!
<3 Chiffy
grace your soup makes campbell’s tomato soup look like water dyed with food coloring. gorgeous! (and much tastier, to be sure!)
farida This soup looks amazing! I am sure it tastes great too. I love tomato soups What I usually make is a plainer version of it, but I like your recipe a lot! Rice must be a good addition. yum!
Indigo I love the colour of this - I’m not a big tomato soup fan but you’ve made it look ridiculously appetising.
By the way - I made the Korean pancake from this blog the other day! Thanks for the recipe ^__^
Johanna While I love some tomatoes in soup, I avoid soups that are mostly tomato (apart from the tinned stuff which is a childhood favourite) but I am tempted by this one.
And I hope you do get to learn to love pea soup - admittedly I don’t put ham in mine but I still love the smooth sludgy texture - made it last night and could have eaten the whole pot - will hopefully post about it soon. But if you didn’t grow up on it I understand that it lacks a certain comfort factor!
Ed OMG, I made almost exactly the same soup the other day. I was going to be lazy and buy a tin of Heinz but senior dog was upset because of the thunder. Fired onion, chopped up overripe plum toms, celery and risoni to bulk it up. The toms were sweet enough to do without the sugar and I didn’t use the tom paste. Freaky.
Shari I might just have to try this tomato soup recipe to use up some of the stock I’ve been accumulating! Looks delicious.
RecipeGirl This sure looks fresh and delicious. I like the addition of pasta- I don’t believe I’ve seen tomato soups with pasta in them before!
Ellie Lore - LOL! Not terrible at all 
I guess it just depends on what you’ve grown up with I’m still learning all the different herbs, will have to see if I can get my hands on some caraway
Mandy - I was much the same, just pumpkin or chicken soup, so I’m kinda excited about exploring more kinds And you’re right, soup is the epitome of winter fare.
Chiffonade - Nice present, hope your brother was grateful! And I’m also a huge fan of the humble tomato And nice one - this is quite marvellous with a grilled cheese sandwich!
Grace - Oh god, I’ve had that tinned stuff once… 
My tastebuds were not happy!
Farida - Not sure how rice would handle the bulk of this soup, but it is a good recipe I’ve been making it about once a week since I got the recipe!
Indigo - Aww, cheers babe Glad you liked the Korean pancake
Johanna - Can’t say I have much stomach for tinned soups, but I think it has a lot to do with my upbringing and being raised almost exclusively on Korean cuisine As for the pea soup…we shall see
Ed - Lucky, my tomatoes were somewhat underripe and bland, hence the sugar and t-paste to boost colour and flavour. As for the coincidence…great minds?
Shari - Soup is wicked for using up stock
RecipeGirl - It helps to turn it into more of a meal
Cereal-chan Hi Ellie! I am usually a lurker here (a very loyal lurker, mind you!) and I’ve shown some of your recipes to my friends, but I have to commend you on your new layout and photos! Well..wait..are the photos just looking better after the blog facelift, or did you do something with them? I have to know
And I agree with you on the tomato soup, although that particular recipe looks extremely great. Being Chinese, I’ve only seen those amazing blended soups in magazines, along with the nasty Campbell’s in the commercials…gg for getting over your fears!
jen What vegetable stock did you use? If commercial, what brand? I have to know what you exactly you used, so i can duplicate it for my hubby who loooves tomato soups! I don’t like it (tastes like ketchup), but after hearing you I might give it a go now too.
Lorraine E I’m definitely going to try this recipe. It’s getting cold here in Australia and it looks so warm and vividly inviting!
michelle @ thursday night smackdown of course the weather just turned this afternoon and now it’s 75 degrees, or i would totally be making this soup.
if i did, i might just eat it with a little dollop of creme fraiche on top, if that’s okay with you.
jen Hubby loves tomato soup, so I made the soup for my hubby who’s sick today. I admit, i hated it at first, for it’s just like diluted ketchup, but this version is terrific with a capital T - for tomato!
Nat That looks delicious! I will have to make this for a friend of mine. His (13yo) son is slack and won’t cook proper stuff for himself, so eats lotsa tinned tomato soup. I think he’d just die of happiness if he tried this.
Do you think it would freeze ok?
Ellie Cereal-Chan - Thank you for delurking~! The photos are about the same, but I’m glad you like the facelift I think the lighter colour scheme helps make the photos stand out
Margot - Thanks hon
Jen - I use the Massel range of boxed gourmet liquid stock, all three stocks are completely vegetable based and therefore vegetarian-friendly, and it’s not bad tasting
Lorraine - Tell me about it! I was watching the news before and it said that we here in Melbourne have had a total of just 6 hrs of sunshine all week! Thankfully I had brought some tomato soup in for lunch to keep me warm 
Michelle - Be grateful the warm change means that the summer berries will be heading your way I miss them already!
Jen - Capital T is right I’m glad your hubs enjoyed the soup!
Nat - Tell him not to feel too bad about his slack son - my 21yo kid sister still can’t even chop up vegetables for a salad!! How that happened is a mystery to my mother and me! As for freezer, I think it should be fine but I’d make one alteration - leave out the pasta and boil a small handful of it and stir it in to the reheated soup, freezing then reheating it might make it lose texture and become gluggy
rebecca I luv any soup that has tomato in it. Your soup looks wonderful & I bet taste really great. It’s a pity it’s hard to find good roma tomatoes in singapore. Sure makes me miss melbourne. 
I love the celery addition, delish! I make mine with caraway seeds and just a tiny bit of crumbled Feta on top.