Easy Tomato Soup Recipe

Bridal showers demand a wide range of foods. It is most preferable if you aim for easily manageable finger foods or soups. And what is the easiest (and most tastiest) soup to prepare of them all? Think red. That�s right, tomato soups happen to be some of the most scrumptious soups around.

Whenever you think of the juicy soup, you tend to associate it with fancy brunch or dinner. Which is why it makes for the perfect starter soup at bridal showers. In fact, people even expect and look forward to sipping on these soups at bridal showers, especially the ones who are of pure vegetarian persuasion and for whom your main course meat dishes may not hold any appeal to.

Tomato Soup Recipe

Here you will find an incredibly easy to follow, step by step procedure of preparing our ruby red soup. Let us start with the ingredients:-

Ingredients

• Tomatoes (like duh, how could you have tomato soup without tomatoes. Here you will need around one pound or so)
• Stock (the essential for preparing any and every soup under the sun. The quantity of stock you buy depends on the quantity of soup you plan to prepare, which in turn depends on your expected bridal shower turnout)
• Flour (used very sparingly for the soup. Not more than an ounce or so)
• Butter (same as flour)
• Sugar (used in the soup even more sparingly than flour or butter) For seasoning purposes-
• Salt
• Pepper

Next, we have an assortment of vegetables for garnishing the soup. Of course, the selection of the veggies is entirely up to you. Here are some suggestions from our side-

• Broccoli
• Carrot
• Onion
• Thinly sliced potato (wafer thin)
• Finely broken mint (about a teaspoon or two for added flavoring)

Procedure

Alright, completed the list of ingredients? Well then, onto the easy (as promised before) procedure:-

There are many ways to start. Let us get the simplest parts off our chests first.

Washing and chopping the veggies

Take the onion, peel it and chop it.

Likewise, wash your carrot(s) and chop it into similar sized pieces.

Now, take broccoli, wash it and chop it into tiny pieces.

Afterthat take potato, peel and wash it neatly, cut potatoes into very, very thinly pieces. Almost wafer size.

Lastly, wash the tomatoes properly and cut them up neatly.

See to it that you have thoroughly removed all of the pips and skins of these vegetable pieces. Otherwise, you may have to end up passing the boiled mixture through a sieve, which is some tedious work.

Now that all the chopping and washing is taken care of, let us get down to the actual cooking-

Select a large pan or cooking bowl. Heat it and toss an ounce of butter into it.

Once the butter has melted, toss in all the chopped carrot, onion, potato and broccoli pieces. Make sure that these pieces soak up the butter nicely. For this very purpose, keep saut�ing them about as the pan heats. But do make sure that they does not burn to a crisp brown. You do not want the burnt remains of the veggies sticking to the teeth of the guests now, do you?

After a few minutes, add the queen of the soup herself- the sliced tomatoes, along with the stock and the salt and pepper seasonings. Let the mixture boil for about an hour. You may keep stirring it time and time again until the veggie pieces become soft and juicy. (Note: Your cooking will consume less time if you put the lid over the pan as it cooks).

In a mixing bowl, you may add water to flour. After mixing them properly and creating a paste, you may pour in the cooked vegetable mixture into the bowl.

Break the mint leaves off their stalks, tear them up and sprinkle them over the contents of the bowl. Stir for a bit.

You may now empty the mixing bowl into another cooking pan or pot. (Or you could use the previous pan, provided you have washed it since its last use).

Boil the pan for another five minutes or so. Keep stirring the stock and vegetables together to avoid burning anything. Keep tasting the soup to see if it needs anything. More salt perhaps? For it still isn�t too late to add some if necessary.

Finally, sprinkle a little sugar into the soup and gently saut� the veggies about before removing the pan from the stove.

Last Minute Adjustments

Whenever one prepares soup, there is always that nagging doubt present at the back of the head. Is this soup too watery? Is this soup too thick? Any time during cooking, if you feel your soup is too watery, feel free to add a little more stock to it. Similarly, add a good mix of flour and water if you feel it is a bit too thin. Just take care of not overdoing anything in either direction i.e. do not add too much stock or too much flour and water otherwise you would reach the other extreme. Do not forget to reheat the soup after whatever addition you make to it.

Serving tomato soup / Soup Dip

Now it is time to get out your best china ware to serve your blood red soup in. You may add in a tray of salted biscuits which make for great soup dip.

You know what else makes for yet another yummy dip for this kind of soup? Plain ole toast. Fine, it may not look all that pretty resting on your finest china ware tray but boy does it taste divine. Butter it up for that extra bit of the 'Ooomph!' factor.

Another awesome alternative for soup dip happens to be the ever favorite pizza accomplice, also known as garlic bread. The taste of the garlicky richness of the bread dipped in the thickness of the soup tomato, (with little buttered veggie pieces clinging onto the surface of the bread) makes for one helluva treat!

So there you have it. A simple non exhaustive delight and a perennial favorite at bridal showers � the recipe for the tomato soup. Slurp it, sip it, dip all kinds of things into it. Any which way you are in for a guaranteed blast!