How to Make Homemade Tomato Soup with Tomatoes and Fresh Veggies
Making Tomato Soup - Tasty and Healthy
Have you ever tasted something, so delicious, nutritious and fantastic that your body seems to glow with satisfaction as if to say "Thank You" for feeding me this? This tomato soup recipe is one of those things. My tomato soup prepared from fresh vegetables is admittedly, a better tasting soup than the can, and the canned soup version really wasn't all that bad. But now the tastebuds have learned how great the original stuff can taste, so I usually go to the trouble of making it from scratch.
This version is made without milk. It's water based and filled with vitamins. Delightful Spring, Summer, Fall or Winter, I especially love to make it when fresh tomatoes are red, ripe, and plentiful.
Mmm-Mmmm-Good
Tomato Soup Recipe
Chop and fry two onions in vegetable oil at a medium temperature, stirring and waiting until they become transparent. A few drops of the water helps it reach this point a little faster. Ultimately, they will be mushed into nothingness, used to give the soup its base flavor, since it is a meatless soup.
When they reach the transparent stage, finely minced garlic and parsley can be added. I usually add between two to four cloves of garlic, depending upon who is eating (kids and older people usually don't like garlic). Fry, stirring with a wooden spoon.
In a separate bowl, wash, boil and peel five large tomatoes, also known as blanching them (poor Blanche!) Dice them and add them to your fried onion mixture. Clean,scrape and finely grate two to four small carrots. Clean, then cut into long strips one green and one red paprika / bell pepper - they each lend a different taste to the soup.
Add a little more oil (olive is fine) and keep mixing. The vegetables will release moisture, but don't add any water until the vegetables are all medium-soft and starting to intensify in color.
When they do eventually soften up, add two liters of water and let the veggies cook about 40 - 50 minutes longer. Along with the water, add 2 T. of tomato paste, and two celery stalks, washed well and with celery tops. This vegetable alone is of high importance in giving the vegetable soup its wonderful flavor.
At the end of the cooking time,the vegetables will be put through a strainer / smasher to wring out all the vitamins and minerals left over from the vegetables.
Now it's time to add two chicken boullion cubes, 1 T. Mrs. Dash or Vegeta, sweet red paprika powder to taste, two T. of sugar, pinch of oregano and basil, one bay leaf, 4 smashed pepper corns, and a pinch of salt. A T. or so of tomato paste can be added to beef up the color of the soup.
When the soup comes to a boil, add a plate filled with crunched up soup pasta - also known as manistra here.
Tiny, fine manistra is especially good, cooked al dente is recommended. Two fistfulls of rice is also wonderful.
This is a good light meal or the beginnings of a sumptuous feast.
Short and Sweet Express Version
There is also an abbreviated version for a spur-of-the-moment meal which tastes almost as good.
Fry in olive oil the finely minced celery tops (leaves), watching so they don't burn. When the leaves are fully softened, pour 8 oz or more of tomato sauce into the pot, then water to dilute,
sugar, oregano, salt and pepper to taste, and let it cook to let the flavors blend. Add one or two bouillion cubes - chicken, beef or veggie bouillion.
When the soup flavor tastes right, bring it to a boil and add the tiny noodles.
It's a winner and a crowd pleaser when you've run out of time, groceries, or ideas!
Dobar Tek - Bon Appetit!
In a tall soup pot, fry celery stalks (also known as Selena in Croatia)
