This is a nice, easy and not too heavy meal for a cold day or when you're just feeling kind of "blah".  Or you can serve it as a starter before the main meal. Or basically just for whenever.

The first time i had tomato soup was not long ago in an Italian restaurant in Copenhagen. Even though it was just a starter, it was pretty much the best part of the whole meal. Before that i had thought that i probably wouldn't like tomato soup, but i was proven wrong. Then a while ago i decided to come up with a recipe for the soup myself. It never really turns out quite the same as before, but i'm still tweaking the recipe.

 

Tomato soup (3-4 servings)

- 5 large tomatoes or 500 g crushed tomatoes

- 1-3 onions

- 2-3 cloves of garlic

- 1/2-1 dl chopped celery

- 1/2 red paprika

- 1-3 dl water

- 2 dl cooking cream

- fresh or dried basil

- 1 tsp salt

- 1 tsp sugar

- black pepper

- chili

- tabasco (just a few drops)

- (1 tsp worchestershire sauce)

- olive oil for frying

 

Soften the chopped onions and chopped or crushed garlic with some olive oil in a saucepan. If you are using whole tomatoes, cut a shallow X in the peels of each one and  dip them into boiling water for a minute or two until the peels start curling up. Remove the peels (it should be really easy now) and the hard core and chop the tomatoes up. Add the celery, paprika, tomatoes and spices in the saucepan and let simmer for about 10 mins. Add some water if the mix seems thick. Blend the mixture a small batch at a time in a blender until it's smooth.

Put the smooth paste back in the saucepan. Add the cream and let the soup simmer for 5 more minutes. Serve as it is or add a little cottage cheese on top of your soup. A nice thing to serve with your soup is freshly baked bread with self made garlic butter.

 

Garlic butter

- 50 g margarine or butter

- 1 large clove of garlic

- parsley

- black pepper

 

Crush or chop the garlic. Cut up the parsley and mix in all the ingredients. (Fresh parsley is best, but dried will do. Also try freezing your parsley when it's fresh. It will stay green, defrosts fast and will stay soft instead of drying up too much.) I also added a little chives in mine for color, since i was using dried parsley.

So here's my lunch (and dinner, and lunch and dinner for tomorrow also ; )

Tomaattikeitto  - Valkosipulivoi