Simply the Very Best Tomato Soup

Today my poor little girl was sick today. So for poor little Amy, it was congee with some smoked ham sliced into it to give a little flavour. She ate well so we were all happy, as she seems to be on the mend. But we are locked in the condo though, so let’s get some other food going for her now, this is the recipe for The very best tomato soup.

I opened one of the cupboard doors the first thing that caught my eye was tomato soup. Ideas cakes flooding to me from what my mate Edward did recently at My Little Spanish Place. I also used some experiences of the Balinese Volcano Corn Soup that I made. I came up with this, The very best tomato soup.

This is fun, delicious, quite unique, gets everyone involved, and it really is.

Stage I – soup stock

• 1 litre of tomato soup;
• 3/4 of a litre of chicken stock;
• 2 teaspoons of smoked paprika;
• 4 garlic cloves chopped finely;
• 1 red onion chopped finely; and
• A good pinch of salt and pepper.

Place all this in a saucepan. Bring to the boil, and then reduce to a simmer for about 20 minutes. Stir every 5 minutes or so.

Stage II – the accompaniments

• Half a packet of smoky streaky bacon, cut in to thin strips. Get this in a dry pan and fry until browned and crispy;
• 3-4 young celery stalks sliced very finely;
• 4 finely sliced Spring onions;
• 4 finely sliced button mushrooms; and
• 1 finely sliced Jalapeño pepper.

Stage III – serving

• Serve the soup into a bowl, and place a sprig of young celery leaf on top;
• On a small platter neatly arrange the bacon, celery stalks, Spring onion, mushroom and Jalapeño.

Now you can make your very own soup. The very best tomato soup. Have a couple of spoons of the soup, and then add in all the accompaniments. What a difference. How simple, how amazing. Looks pretty damned good. Tastes damned good. And it is good fun to boot!

Enjoy!!!