This delicious Tomato Soup recipe comes from Caren McSherry, owner of Gourmet Warehouse, who is a long-time supporter of Project CHEF.
The main ingredient in a Tomato Soup ought to be tomatoes, right? While that may be the case, you don’t necessarily need to use fresh tomatoes. In today’s recipe, we are using canned tomatoes. It is possible to make a delicious & nutritious meal from ingredients in your pantry. If using canned or packaged foods, it is important to read the list of ingredients. In Canada, by law, anything that comes in a package has to tell you what’s in it. The ingredients in our can of tomatoes are organic tomatoes & organic tomato juice.
Yield: About 4 – 5 servings
Preparation time: About 30 minutes
Cooking Time: About 40 minutes
Digging Around
- Have a look around the house and read the list of ingredients on some packaged foods. Are there any ingredients you don’t recognize? Write them down in your Food Journal and try to find out what they are. Some ingredient names are so long that it’s hard to even pronounce them. We call those “blah blah blah” ingredients. Not all of these ingredients are bad for you, but we like to know what we are putting in our bodies.
- Count how many ingredients are in each packaged food you found and record it in your Food Journal.
INGREDIENT LIST
- 1 small onion, chopped
- 1 garlic clove, grated with a micro-plane
- ½ cup (125mL) sweet potato, peeled and diced
- 2 Tbsp (30mL) olive oil
- 2 Tbsp (30mL) butter
- 1x 794g (28oz). can tomatoes (San Marzano, if possible)
- 2 cups (500mL) chicken or vegetable stock
- 2 sprigs fresh thyme
- pinch salt and pepper
EQUIPMENT LIST
- Micro-plane
- Small sharp knife
- Vegetable peeler
- Strainer
- Cutting board
- 2 small-sized bowls
- 2 medium-sized bowls
- Wooden spoon
- Large pot or stock pot with lid
- Hand blender or blender
- Ladle
METHOD
- Cut the onion in half, from tip to the hairy root and peel it. Slice into 1 cm thick slices then cut each slice into 1 cm wide strips. Place in a medium-sized bowl.
- Grate the garlic using a microplane. (If you don’t have this tool, crush the garlic with the bottom of a pot). Add to the onion bowl.
- Peel the sweet potato and cut in half lengthwise (or have an adult do this for you). With the flat side down, cut into 1 cm wide slices then into cubes. Add to the onion bowl.
- Place a large pot on the stove-top. Turn on the stove to a medium heat. Add the olive oil and butter and let heat up for a minute. Add the onion mixture of vegetables to the pot and cook, stirring frequently, until the onions are yellow and translucent and the sweet potato is soft (about 12 minutes). Cover pot but stir frequently.
- Add the can of tomatoes, stock and thyme, pinch of salt and pepper. Mix together. Cover and simmer for about 20 minutes, stirring every few minutes. Remove from heat.
- Remove the thyme sprigs and puree using a hand blender. Be very careful of hot soup spattering.
TASTY TIP
- Some herbs to garnish for extra flavour and colour can make your meal extra special!
SKILLS
STEP-BY-STEP – TOMATO SOUP!
STEP 2
Cut the onion in half, from top to bottom. There’s nothing flat about an onion, so go slow and hang onto it with a sturdy claw hand. Teeter totter when you get stuck.
STEP 11
Stir constantly using a spatula and cook until the onions are starting to become yellow & translucent. Some of the onion bits may stick to the bottom like you see in this photo. That’s okay, in the next step our can of tomatoes will deglaze the pot, releasing all the stuck bits off the bottom.
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Not to be copied or reproduced without express permission from the author