Super easy Tomato soup recipe

I grew up on Heinz tomato soup. It’s not particularly healthy (lots of sugar and salt), so recently I whizzed up this healthy version of nostalgia in a bowl. It definitely tastes better than Heinz. Such an easy way to use up a glut of tomatoes and it freezes well too.

Makes 4 small bowls
Ingredients
1kg of any old tomatoes, more or less
Knob of butter
1 onion, chopped
1 -3 cloves garlic (optional), chopped
Squeeze of balsamic reduction
Sprinkle of Herbamare or herb / onion salt

Method
- Skin the tomatoes. It’s simple, just score a cross in the bottom of each fruit with a very sharp knife. Pop into a big pot of boiling water. Scald the tomatoes for 60 seconds or so, then carefully drain and cool.
- Peel the skin off each fruit and crush with your hands, returning the tomato pulp to the pan. It’s very satisfying, a fruit acid treatment for your skin!
- In a different pan, saute the onion and garlic in butter until translucent. The butter is important to make the soup creamy.
- Add tomato pulp and bring to the boil.
- Add a squeeze of balsamic reduction and sprinkle of herb salt. Turn heat down and simmer for around 20 minutes.
- Cool a bit. Blend. A stick blender is easy, as long as you don’t splash yourself with hot soup. I have done this before.
- Serve with chopped fresh herbs and a grind of black pepper.