TOMATO SOUP

I made tomato soup on Saturday, everyone’s favourite so I thought I would put up the recipe on here:

For four you will need:

6xfresh tomatoes [don’t have to best quality]

1xsmall carrot

1xmedium onion

1xcelery stick

1.2litre vegetable stock [to include 2xchicken stock cubes]

3xbay leaves [crushed]

1xsmall leek, roughly sliced

1xtsp sugar

1xtsp mixed herbs de provence

2xgood squirts of tomato puree

2xtbsp olive oil

1xtbs white flour

0.2litre fresh milk

What you need to do is cook everything for ages then blend it. What I do is lightly fry the onion in the olive oil, add salt and pepper and herbs at this stage, add the flour stirring constantly then add all of the milk then when it has thickened, add all the stock. Keep stirring.

Then add all the vegetables, the puree, the sugar and the bay leaves, stir a couple of minutes longer, then leave to simmer. Keep an eye on the pot, make something else in the kitchen because if you are not careful the pot will boil over because of the milk content.

After half an hour take the bay leaves out [don’t forget!] turn off the heat and leave to cool for ten minutes.

Blend it all, shouldn’t be more than a minute and a half. Re-heat just before serving.