Can somebody please explain to me how on EARTH it is December next week?! Seriously. Slow doooooown!! But actually don’t, because I am counting down the sleeps until I can decorate and enter the magic time that is full blown Christmas mania and results in our house becoming Santa’s grotto and me eating, breathing and sleeping gingerbread, pine cones and sugar plum fairies for an entire month. The excitement is almost unbearable! Can I listen to Christmas carols yet?
So before this craziness completely takes over, and because it also feels like we are coming into winter instead of summer, let’s have one last non-Christmas related quick & easy recipe to rescue you for those days when you are surrounded by tinsel and cinnamon and can’t stand it anymore….by the way this is never me, I’m just thinking about you guys. Enter epic, super comforting homemade tomato soup. Easy, delicious and healthy enough that it counteracts the inevitable 25 day sugar hit.
I got the inspiration for this soup from Stephanie at Girl Versus Dough. She used fire roasted tomatoes in her tomato soup which sound delicious but are not something we have in our NZ supermarkets! So I used regular old tinned tomatoes and added smoked paprika and a little pinch of chili powder to make up for it.
It is so simple to make this homemade tomato soup. Cook up the onions, garlic and butter, add the tomato paste and cook for a couple more minutes and then add all of the other ingredients and simmer away for about 30 minutes before removing the herbs, adding a splash of cream and whizzing up using a stick mixer.
It’s the perfect lunch and is amazing served with bread or crackers but highly recommended – grilled cheese!
- 2 TBSP butter
- 1 tsp crushed garlic
- 1/2 onion diced
- 2 TBSP tomato paste
- 2 tins chopped tomatoes 410g
- 4 cups vegetable stock 1L
- 1 tsp sugar
- 1 tsp smoked paprika
- 1/2 tsp more to taste chili powder
- 2 bay leaves
- 2 sprigs fresh thyme
- 1/2 cup cream
- Salt & pepper
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Add butter, garlic and onion to a large pot and cook for 5 minutes or until onion is cooked. Add tomato paste and cook for a further 2 minutes.
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Add tomatoes, vegetable stock, sugar, smoked paprika, chili powder, bay leaf and thyme to the pot and stir to combine. Bring to the boil and then turn down the heat and simmer for about 30 minutes, uncovered until the soup starts to thicken slightly.
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Remove from the heat, remove bay leaves and thyme and stir in the cream.
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Using a stick mixer, or transfer to a blender and whizz up until the soup is smooth.
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Add salt and pepper to taste, and serve immediately (with grilled cheese!)
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Soup will freeze well or refrigerate for 5 days.
This just sounds yummy. I know it really is a 25 day sugar fest – my kids finish school tomorrow and it’s been candy canes non stop for weeks already!!
Haha hope you’ve got lots planned for them over the holidays! How lucky are we that the Christmas break is in summer!