There will be food bloggers out there who would turn their nose up if asked to use canned tomatoes to make a tomato soup! I have no time for food snobbery, not everyone can afford to buy fresh tomatoes or expensive tomato juice and heaven forbid when we look at the prices of organic tomatoes! Sometimes it is quite okay to use cheap ingredients to feed a family, no judgement, we all have to do what we have to do, right?
Anyhoo, I am getting emotional about the do´s and dont´s about food so lets get back to this very comforting dish I made tonight.
The original recipe was from Taste Magazine, but it involved baking potato bread and using raclette. I have adapted the recipe to make it quicker and a lot more cost effective.
Between you, me and cyberspace, I bought the cheapest canned whole tomatoes and ready-made garlic bread, the rest of the items you will usually find in my pantry. It is HOW this dish is made by adding a pinch of this and a dash of that, that results in a really comforting soup.
Bon appetite!
You’ll need
- 4 x 400 g cans whole peeled tomatoes in juice
- 6 x garlic cloves, finely chopped
- ¼ cup x olive oil
- Sprigs of fresh thyme (optional)
- 2 cups x vegetable stock
- 2 Tbsp x fish sauce
- 2 Tbsp x sugar
- Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- 1 x loaf store bought garlic bread
- 4 x slices mature cheddar cheese, cut in half or you can use about 100g grated cheddar
Method
- Preheat the oven to 180°C.
- To make the tomato soup, empty all the cans of tomatoes onto a large oven tray.
- Add the garlic and olive oil and toss.
- Roast for 45 minutes, or until the tomatoes are very rich in colour.
- Transfer the tomatoes to a large saucepan and add the vegetable stock. (Remove the sprigs of thyme)
- Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for 25 minutes.
- Using a masher, slightly mash the large pieces of tomato so that there’s still some texture to the soup.
- Add the fish sauce, sugar and season with salt and pepper.
- Change the oven setting to "Grill".
- Place the slices of garlic bread on a lined baking tray and toast in the oven for 3 minutes, flip them over and place a slice of cheddar cheese on each and grill for a further 2 minutes or until the cheddar is gooey and slightly golden.
- Serve the soup hot.
Tip - This soup is really versatile. Use it as a pasta sauce, add prawns or a can of beans, poach eggs in it, or spice it up with harissa paste. I freeze any leftovers and use it either as a soup or as a sauce.