How To Make Tomato Soup Fast

Soup just got easy.

My original tomato soup recipe calls for a 400g tin chopped tomatoes, onion, celery, garlic, 400ml chicken or veg stock, chilli flakes, parsley and basil, seasonings, and a dollop of crème fraîche. And then blitz with a handblender. You need a handblender. Buy one if you don’t own one.

This is my current approach to tomato soup. Easier. Fewer ingredients. And poke me in the nose if it doesn’t taste 99.9% just as good as my original. No faffing about chopping stuff into equal size bits either. Just whack-smack with a knife, toss in a pot, stir, toss in the tinned tomatoes, stir, add some spicy heat if you’re feeling chilly, open a jar of pesto, plop, maybe plop-plop if you’re keen on pesto … blitz.

So, here we go:

Into a large pot over medium-low heat, add 1 tablespoon of olive oil, and 1/2 a large onion, quartered. Stir. Don’t brown. When it’s nearing the translucent stage, add 1 large peeled garlic clove that your bashed flat with the side of your knife. Stir. Don’t brown. Open a medium size tin chopped or whole tomatoes. Toss the tomatoes in the pot/recycle the tin. Stir. Add 400ml (almost 2 cups) hot chicken stock from a cube (1 cube+400ml boiling water). Stir and simmer for 2-3 minutes. Add 1 teaspoon chilli flakes (I’m hot on piri-piri seasoning mix at the moment, so I used 1 teaspoon of that). Stir. Plop 1 tablespoon  green pesto from a jar into the soup. Stir. Also plop 1 tablespoon pesto into a small bowl and add 1 tablespoon olive oil. Stir to a runny consistency, and then set aside for tarting-up the soup in the bowl. Blitz. Done. Slurp. Goodness. I sound like Gordon Ramsey.

It just occurred to me that if I added a shot of vodka I’d have a hot Bloody Mary! Hmmmm … I wonder –