Spicy Tomato Soup

Name: Spicy Tomato Soup
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 20 min
Total time: 35 min
Ingredients: Olive oil; 1 onion peeled and roughly chopped; 4 garlic cloves peeled and roughly chopped; 3 red chillies de-seeded and roughly chopped; 1 whole stick (around 75g) of celery roughly chopped; 1 kg of roma tomatoes quartered and de-seeded; A bunch of fresh basil; 1 litre of vegetable stock; 750 g tomato puree; Salt and pepper for seasoning; 1 teaspoon of sugar; Sour cream for garnish or coconut yoghurt if you're vegan; Torn up bread on the side, gluten-free bread if you're gluten free

September 12, 2018 by Nicolas 38 Comments

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A beautiful home-made soup packed full of flavour. It’s lighter than most winter soups but it will still warm you right up so you can’t go wrong with this recipe. Oh, and it’s super easy to make 😉

When you take that first slurp of this soup, you get a big smack across the face….in a good way of course. The big hit of flavour with the chilli is what makes this soup great, but it can be easy to overpower the flavour so here’s what I did.

Tomatoes are acidic!

I see a lot of people adding tomato paste to tomato based recipes like this one. However, in this case, I really don’t think that it’s necessary as the tomato flavour is already intense and acidic enough.

In fact, I think it’s important to balance out that acidity in tomato soups and sauces. And the way to do this is to add a touch of sugar. Now if this tip is new to you don’t worry, a bit of sugar will not make your tomato soup taste sweet. The sugar simply mellows the overpowering flavour and stop the acidity from being too intense.

I also blended plenty of basil through the soup which gives a nice freshness.

You didn’t peel the tomatoes?

You do get the tiniest flecks of tomato skin here and there in the soup but it’s barely noticeable and it really isn’t a big deal. I promise you that no-one will take note of it. The only reason I didn’t remove the skin was because I wanted this recipe to be as simple and quick as possible, and I felt that adding the extra step wasn’t an absolute must by any means.

However, if you want to take that extra time to remove the skin please do so. And if you don’t know how to peel a tomato, here’s how you do it:

You simply just use a small knife to make a few incisions in the skin of the tomatoes. You then bring a pot of water to a nice gentle simmer. Add your tomatoes and leave them in the hot water for no longer than 30 seconds, you should start to see the skin loosen on the tomatoes.

Use a pair of tongs to transfer to tomatoes to a bowl, and then fill that bowl with cool water. Once the tomatoes have cooled down, you should be able to pick them up and peel the skin away.

Use plenty of garlic

I don’t know about you guys but for me, tomato and garlic are best friends for sure. Whenever I make a tomato based curry or a tomato sauce for pasta, meatballs etc. I don’t think I remember a time where I didn’t use garlic, it really is one of my favourite ingredients.

So that is why I encourage you to not be shy with it in this recipe, don’t just add one or 2 cloves, but enough so you can really get the garlic hum and aroma when you eat it. I believe that this is what takes the dish to the next level.

Roma tomatoes vs regular tomatoes

Now, I don’t think one is better than the other. I think both are good for different types of dishes and cooking/recipe methods. And they are quite similar although they do have some subtle differences:

Roma tomatoes have a richer, deeper flavour.
Roma tomatoes have more flesh and have less juice inside.
Roma tomatoes also tend to boil down faster than regular tomatoes.

Overall, if you want to use fresh tomatoes to make something like soups, sauces or any other recipe that involves breaking down a tomato and boiling it, using roma tomatoes can be beneficial.

If you want to prepare something like fresh salads or tabouli, then it may be nest to stick with regular tomatoes. However, this isn’t a golden rule you must follow, just something to keep in mind. And if you end up using regular tomatoes to make this soup, not a problem, it will be fantastic.

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Lastly, if you’re a fan of tomatoes like me, then why don’t you try making this Garlic Bread Bruschetta?!

5 from 1 vote