I was full of joy when the first tomatoes started to grow in our garden some weeks ago. Its not that I hadn’t seen it before, I mean my parents really have a bunch of different types of tomatoes growing in their garden, its just after soo much time invested in gardening it was nice to see that my plants were giving fruits. I was never before like that, a gardener, in fact I saw it as a boring hobby. Nowadays I just enjoy watching my plants growing, a new leave and some surprising colors and developments here and there. I can see my plants are all having a blast too including the insects who are threatening them.
So, I have got home grown tomatoes. Fully red and ripe lying there waiting for me to make good use of them. In my mind tomatoes reminds me of the Méditerranée, the provence, the southern France with its wonderful cuisine, olive oil, herbs and fresh vegetables. Its such a wonderful place,… imagine sublime beaches, magnificent weather, friendly locals with a cute accent, divine food and natures glory, all in one place! Its heaven on earth, for me at least and if we weren’t living already in the sun, then believe me I d aim on owning a home in the future there. I wish I could provide some of our holiday pictures of the past, for you all to understand why I am raving like an obsessed about the Méditerranée, but those photos are lying thousands of kilometers away in a box. Next time maybe…
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Since the fasting time is coming up, I thought of providing you all with some vegetable treats. Not that I follow a 100% the view and laws of our religion, its just that I believe that a once a year fasting can be quite well doing to the body. BUT I am not just going to torture myself and eat only vegetables in the next 40 days, a hot hunger crave needs something more at times, so for the non fasting and all round eaters in our midst, you can breath up again because you ll get to see some non Veggie recipes too in the next weeks.
Back to the tomato soup,…
The advantage of this soup is that you can enjoy it hot or even cold. A cooled version can be so heat relieving in the summer, its a pure saver. The heat is a appetite killer, in the same time you have to keep on drinking lots of liquid, or u ll change into a raisin. Here the summer is knocking on the door and we can feel already the high temperature waves. In Europe I hear more of the opposite, 2 meters high snow ( I d love to jump from the balcony into white softness!) and an unimaginable freezing environment (I am glad I am escaping that one). For those of us who r stuck with winter, I d suggest a hot bowl of a fresh home made tomato soup a la provencal and I can guarantee you that your tummy and toes will thank you for that!
- 1 kilogram ripe Tomatoes
- 2 onions - chopped
- 6 cloves Garlic - chopped
- salt
- pepper
- Olive Oil
- pinch Thyme
- 15 medium leaves fresh Basil - chopped
- 1 cup water
- First blanche the tomatoes by heating up a pot with water and adding the tomatoes for 20 seconds to the boiling pot. The tomatoes should have wrinkles and the skin should be easy to peel after the hot bath.
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- Peel, rinse and chopp the Onion and garlic small. Cut the tomatoes in quarters. Add little Olive oil to the pan and fry the onionand garlic first for 2-3 minutes, then add the tomato pieces.
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- Add to the pot 1 cup water, salt, pepper, thyme and the chopped basil and let it cook covered for 15 minutes. Check on the soup every now and then and add water in case it gets too dry.
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- After 15 minutes cooking time, smash the soup with a potato masher or puree it. (I like tomato bits in mine.) Ready to serve!
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Hot or Cold soup for you?
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I love my soup hot. I like the new format of Masala herb. The tomato soup looks lovely and is just the way I make it at home. Only, I didn’t know they did the same back in France 🙂
Anita that means u have a great instinct in combinating ingredients! 😉
Ohhh I need to add this to my list of soups to try!! This sounds fantastic! I’m all about warm soups. Except in the summer, I always crave gazpacho!
Helene, this tomato soup looks just the way I’d like it – rustic, chunky and so tomatoey… And thanks for dropping by my blog and checking out Made with Love Mondays. It’s a weekly series so you can always link-up a from-scratch post at any time as long as it meets the criteria.
What a lovely way to celebrate the bounties of your garden, Helene. I can’t wait until we too have tomatoes growing in the garden. Did you use basil from your garden too:) Your soup looks simply heavenly. Thank you so much for sharing…
Hi louise!
we do have basil growing in masses in our garden but its not the european type, here its called Tulsi. It smells and tastes differently. For this soup I needed the proper basil and I had to buy it. I wish I could get some seeds though to grow my own. I am already looking all over goa for herb seeds.
Lovely photos! I prefer my soup hot, if it’s cold I just feel like I’m drinking a smoothie 😛
This is a lovely soup and I do like the chunkiness along with the fresh basil. Bet is tastes divine.
That looks fantastic and so full of delicious colour too! 😀
Your soup looks fantastic! My Mum makes something similar. It’s always gobbled up quickly whenever it’s served. I just love tomato soups.
Mmmhhh, that soup looks delicious! Really irresistible.
Cheers,
Rosa
Beautiful – looks so rich!
That looks so delish! I can’t wait to harvest our tomato plants — hopefully soon 🙂 It’s still a baby!
It is so great that you are growing your own tomatoes. Being an apartment dweller isn’t so good for this. The soup looks amazing! As soon as we start seeing decent tomatoes here I will give it a try. Thanks for sharing 🙂
HOT and COLD for me Helene! I love them both – I am a REAL soup lover, in summer and winter and this soup looks delicious…..wonderful, so full of flavour!
Karen
I really like tomato soup,which is a bit surprising because I never liked soup until a few years back.
Your ‘Tomato Soup A La Provencale’ – Pleasantly simple – uses only a few ingredients!I want to have some now,with warm garlic bread.Yummy!