Tomato Soup

For you who needs some veggie intake boost, this heart warming soup is a good option. This soup is packed with rich-in-vitamins tomatoes and is perfect to warm up a cold winter night. The recipe is actually adapted from BBC Good Food (with a few changes) and I just had to put this on my blog because it's such a pain reading it on the actual website whenever I want to make this again.

Ingredients:

• 1 kg ripe tomatoes
• 1 onion
• 1 carrot
• 1 celery stick
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1-2 tbsp of ketchup
• 2 bay leaves
• 1.2 litres of beef stock
• Pinch of sugar
• Salt
• Black pepper

How to make:

1. Dice the tomatoes. Cut celery, carrot, and onion into small pieces. 
2. Heat olive oil and saute the onion. After it starts to wilt, add in celery and carrot. Cook the vegetables about 10 minutes. Stir a couple of times to prevent sticking to the bottom of the pan.
3. Squirt ketchup and stir. Add in the diced tomatoes, sprinkle a pinch of sugar, black pepper, and 2 bay leaves. Put the lid on and let the the tomatoes stew over low heat for 10 minutes.
4. Pour the hot stock and stir. Turn the heat high and when everything is bubbling, turn the heat to low and put the lid on. Simmer for another 25 minutes, stirring a couple of times.
5. Take out the bay leaves. Use a hand blender to puree the soup right in the soup pan, or you can ladle the soup into a blender and pureed it.
6. Lastly, improve the taste to your liking by adding more black pepper, sugar, or salt.

Notes:

• The actual recipe calls for vegetable stock, but I find it tastes better using beef stock
• Best served warm with accompanying puff pastry. Or you can make it into tomato zuppa soup.

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