Tasty Tomato Soup

Ingredients

• 40 g butter or olive oil
• 100 g shallots or onions, peeled and quartered
• 1 garlic clove, peeled
• 80 g raw potato or sweet potato, peeled, cut in small 1 cm pieces
• 500 g fresh ripe tomatoes, quartered – see 1st tip, or 400 g tinned tomatoes
• 500 g homemade chicken stock or vegetable stock
• ¾ tsp honey or 1 tsp unrefined cane sugar
• ½ tsp balsamic vinegar
• 1 level tsp fine sea salt
• ¼ tsp freshly ground pepper, black or white
• 50 g tomato purée/concentrate or 30 g sundried tomato paste
• 10 fresh basil leaves – optional, plus a few small fresh basil leaves for garnish – optional

Method

1. Chop butter, shallots and garlic 7 sec/speed 5 then cook 5 min/Varoma/speed 1; meanwhile place diced raw potato pieces in simmering basket and rinse under cold running water then set aside to drain.
2. Add tomatoes and chop 10 sec/speed 5.
3. Transfer rinsed potato pieces from simmering basket to TM bowl, add stock, honey, balsamic vinegar, sea salt, pepper and tomato purée, then cook 20 min/100°C/speed 1 or longer until potatoes are fully cooked and tender.
4. Check potato is fully cooked before blending – see 2nd tip. Add the 10 basil leaves if using. Blend 1 min/speed 10 then serve, garnished with a few small fresh basil leaves.

Janie’s Tips

1. If your fresh tomatoes are not fully ripe or it’s winter and they don’t have much flavour, instead of step 1, roast shallots, garlic, tomatoes, and olive oil instead of butter, for 30 minutes in a preheated oven at 200ºC/400°F/gas 7/Aga roasting oven to intensify their flavour. Meanwhile place diced raw potato pieces in simmering basket and rinse under cold running water then set aside to drain. In step 2, use roasted tomato mixture instead of tomatoes.
2. In step 4 before blending, check that the potato pieces are fully cooked by poking a few pieces with the tip of a sharp knife – they should be completely tender and cooked through. If not, cook again 5 min/100°C/speed 1 or longer as required – potato must be fully cooked and tender before blending because undercooked potatoes can become gluey when blended.
3. To add a bit of a spicy kick, in step 3 add ¼-½ tsp spicy herb salt (recipe in Fast and Easy Indian Cooking) or ¼ tsp cayenne pepper.
4. This recipe is gluten free (GF) – read all ingredient labels to ensure all your ingredients are gluten free if gluten free is required.
5. For dairy free (DF), use olive oil instead of butter and read all ingredient labels to ensure all your ingredients are dairy free if dairy free is required.
6. For vegetarian, use vegetable stock.
7. For vegan, use olive oil and vegetable stock.