Quick and Easy Tomato Soup

Tomato soup is a definite no-no for me at restaurants, mainly because till date I have had tomato soup so divine only twice, one was at the restaurant in Lemon Tree - Allepey and the other one at Dine - Escape Cinemas.  Most of the places serve a ketchupy soup, or to thin and runny tomato water, and I have been to a fair share of restaurants.

This recipe is drawn from Sanjeev Kapoor’s show,the difference being the use of Maggi veg stock cubes that I have incorporated and lack of celery and bayleaf.

Ingredients (Serves 4-6)

Tomatoes (ofcourse) 4-6 nos

Onions 1 nos (medium  size or 2 small ones)

Carrot  ½  sliced

Maggi soup cube 1 nos

Bayleaf 1 no

Pepper Corns  6-8

Ground Pepper  ½ tsp

Garlic chopped 3 cloves

Water  1 ltr

Rice 2 tbsp (for thick soup)

Oil 1-2 tbsp

Salt to Taste

Making the Soup

Heat the oil on a pan and add garlic, bayleaf. Sauté,then add onions and carrots  to the pan. Now add tomatoes, pepper corns and cook further. Now add about ½ litre of water along with the maggi stock cube. Let it cook for about 10 - 15 mins, then strain it through a sieve, collect the stock and set aside. Now put the contents in the strainer into a food processor add the rest of the water to cool it and grind. Now add the contents back into the pan, add the stock, pepper powder and salt. Bring it to boil and again strain the contents through the sieve, ensure the sieve is pressed well to extract all the liquid. Again bring it to boil and serve hot with Croutons.

To thicken the soup you could add rice while cooking the vegetables or add cream just before serving the soup.

One could add more water to thin down the soup a bit.

Preparing the Croutons

Slice the bread into small pieces, heat a pan with olive oil and add the bread pieces. Keep tossing them till they turn golden brown.

Add Ons : You could also add pumpkin pieces (skinned and deseeded) while cooking to add more flavor