Vegetables in Soups!
Now that the weather is finally feeling like winter, many of us are thinking about a warm bowl of soup for lunch or dinner. Making your own homemade soup is a lot easier than many people realize, and the taste of homemade soup (such as tomato soup) beats a canned variety of soup any day.
Homemade soups can easily be prepared in the morning before work or school in a slow cooker and simmer all day for a tasty dinner that night. Some find it easier to prepare soup or soup ingredients over the weekend and freeze them until needed.
Making your own soup also allows you to be creative when it comes to ingredients, especially vegetables. Even soups such as a cheesy broccoli or cheesy chicken soup can include vegetables such as fresh sautéed spinach, corn, carrots and zucchini, just to name a few.
Making homemade Tomato soup is no exception. Using fresh tomatoes is the key for a delicious tomato soup from scratch. Tomato soup also freezes well, and can be a used as a soup base for other soups such as vegetable soup or vegetable beef soup. If adding fresh vegetables to tomato soup, be sure to sauté them in a skillet with some Olive oil or butter until tender.
Below is a basic tomato soup recipe using fresh tomatoes. Hope you enjoy it!
Tomato Soup:
1 T. Olive Oil
1 small onion, chopped
2 cloves fresh garlic, peeled
2 lbs. fresh tomatoes, peeled (about 4 large)
1/2 cup water
1 tsp. dried basil
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. sugar
1/4 tsp. crushed red pepper (optional)
1/8 tsp. of ground black pepper
1 tsp. lemon juice
In a soup pot, heat olive oil over medium high heat. Add the onion and garlic and cook for approx. 1 minute. Add the tomatoes and cook for 2 more minutes. Add the water, basil, salt, sugar, red pepper if desired, black pepper. Reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes, or until the vegetables begin to soften.
Remove from heat. Transfer soup into blender. Puree until smooth and return to pot.
Serves 2 to 3. May be frozen.
– Recipe courtesy of Produce for Better Health Foundation, MoreMatters.org.
