Happy meal #16: Summer tomato soup

Continuing the story of my soups for the sickly, I dropped by the supermarket after seeing the doc’s and grabbed a kilo of tomatoes. Only to realise, upon coming home, that I only needed about 500g of it to make a tomato soup that serves four.

Gah.

Anyway. I was inspired by Laura Calder‘s French Food at Home, which I had watched on telly the night before. She’s gorgeous, isn’t she? She makes cooking French food look so easy and breezy. In that episode, she was supposedly making a birthday champagne lunch for a friend and on the menu was Summer Tomato Soup with Basil and Croutons.

Did someone say tomato? Ding!

Summer tomato soup with Basil and Croutons
Adapted from Laura Calder’s recipe
What you need:

• 500g of ripe tomatoes, chopped and deseeded
• 1 can of stewed tomatoes
• Half a cucumber, rough chopped
• A handful of breadcrumbs
• 1 clove of garlic, smashed
• Half an onion, roughly chopped
• A handful of basil leaves, preferably fresh
• 1 cup vegetable stock or tomato juice
• Handful of croutins
• Truffle oil, to taste
• Salt, to taste
• Pepper, to taste
• Cayenne pepper, to taste
• Slice of bread for croutons
• Butter, a knob, for croutons

Directions:

• Mix the tomatoes, cucumber, onion, breadcrumbs and garlic in a glass bowl
• Add the stock and basil leaves and leave to marinate in the fridge for 3 to 4 hours
• Make your croutons just before pureeing the soup: dice the bread into 1cm thick cubes. Heat a knob of butter into a frying pan and add the bread cubes. Fry until they turn crispy.
• Puree the tomato mixture, and season with salt, pepper and cayenne pepper
• Add a drizzle of truffle oil and top with basil leaves and croutons

I didn’t have the time to marinate it for 12 hours as suggested, nor did the NTUC Fairprice I went to sell red wine vinegar. These two steps would probably lend a richer taste but for someone who lacked time, this was good enough.

Mr Thick thought that it tasted a bit raw, which it does since nothing was cooked or fried. Except for the croutons, which he didn’t have because I ate up every piece by accident. He was not a happy camper to see just one small scrap of bread that I had missed sitting in the frying pan. Oops.

It made for a strange bedfellow with my rice and chicken dish, since it was chilled and slightly on the bland side. On its own, however, it was a nice appetizer for the insufferable hot evenings we have been having.