Recipe: One of Everything Spicy Tomato Soup

This tasty tomato soup is easy to make and very adaptable. You can substitute any of your favourite herbs and spices. As the recipe is very straight forward, it is an ideal base recipe with which to experiment.

The sodium content in canned soup is actually pretty shocking. Homemade soup is fantastically easy and therefore a great way to eliminate some of that extra salt from your diet.

I usually prep all of the vegetables the night before, then cook the soup in the morning while I’m having breakfast and drinking coffee. It needs to cool in order to be puréed, so just turn off the stove and leave it all day when you are at work. Come home, throw it in the blender, and reheat!

As the title implies, this recipe calls for “one of everything”:

1 tablespoon of oil

1 chopped onion

1 clove of garlic (minced)

1 substantial pinch each of: dried chili flakes (or powder), dried basil, salt, pepper

1 cup of water

1 chopped stick of celery

1 chopped carrot

1 tablespoon of sugar

1 can of tomatoes (stewed, crushed, sauce, any kind will do)

Directions:

  1. Brown onions in a small stockpot with the oil (medium heat). Add garlic and spices. Cook for another couple of minutes.
  2. Add the water and scrap bottom of pan to ensure all of the browning from the onions is picked up in the broth.
  3. Add all other ingredients and simmer for 30 minutes.
  4. Let the mixture cool, before transferring to a blender and purée.
  5. Return to stockpot and heat through.
  6. Serve with a dense, whole grain bread.

Things to note:

It is very dangerous to purée the soup while it is still hot. You MUST let it cool down. If the soup is still warm (i.e. still giving off steam), you can remove the clear plastic cap from the blender lid and purée very small amounts of soup at a time.

The sugar helps reduce the acidity of the tomatoes, but it is not an essential ingredient and can be left out if desired.

It is important to let the onions brown well as this is creating the base of your soup broth. You can also use broth instead of water, but this will increase the sodium content of the soup.

 Happy Eating Everyone!