TOMATO SOUP

The recent hot weather has ripened the last of my tomatoes so I made a large pan of tomato soup sufficient for a couple of meals and more to freeze.

Ingredients

Really ripe tomatoes
1 or 2 sticks of celery
Large onion
2 cloves garlic
1 carrot
2 litres vegetable of chicken stock - you can use bouillion or stock cubes to make this
Seasoning
Sugar
Cooking oil

Method

Prepare the vegetables.  Wash and halve the tomatoes, run a peeler down through the celery to remove the string. Chop the onion, garlic, celery and carrot.

Place the vegetables (minus the tomatoes) in a large, lidded pan/stock pot and sweat in a little oil until transparent - about ten minutes.

Add the tomatoes and continue to sweat until they break down.

Pour in the hot stock and add the seasoning.

Simmer slowly, stirring occasionally.

When the vegetables are soft and cooked use a blender stick or liquidiser to puree the soup.

Taste and add further seasoning, if necessary.  A small teaspoon of sugar added at this stage will remove any bitterness.

Serve with a swirl of double cream, if desired.

I haven't given exact measurements for this soup as I just used a big bowl of tomatoes from my garden. You will need to adjust the amount of vegetables and stock accordingly.