Tomato soups always have a taste of the sea. It was Mediterranean cuisine that gave us the best recipes for tomato soups, be it Spanish gazpacho, tomato soup with cheese or seafood. They are all worth making and trying.
Classic and more gazpacho
We'll start with a traditional Spanish dish - gazpacho. The main thing that you need to know about gazpacho is that in Russian this word is spelled with one letter "h" and that in his homeland - in Andalusia - gazpacho is served not in plates, but in tall glasses, often even with ice. Here the heroine of the cult film by Pablo Almodovar "Women on the verge of a nervous breakdown" is immediately remembered, who throughout the action tries to treat all the people who appear in her house with a glass of gazpacho.
However, if drinking soup from a glass is too unusual for you, you can pour gazpacho into plates without a twinge of conscience and eat with a spoon. Actually, this is how it is served in most of our restaurants and never in Andalusian restaurants.
Various liberties are also permissible with ingredients. You can vary the composition and amount of vegetables, experiment with spices and herbs, replace wine vinegar with balsamic or even lemon juice. If desired, you can add vegetable broth or even ready-made tomato juice (but only without sugar).
Ingredients:
- Tomatoes - 5 pcs.
- Cucumbers - 1 pc.
- Red bell peppers - 1-2 pcs.
- Celery stalk - 1 pc.
- Shallots - 1 pc. (small)
- Red wine vinegar - 1 tbsp l.
- Olive oil
- Tabasco sauce - 1-2 drops
- Salt to taste
- Black pepper to taste
- Greens to taste (parsley, basil, cilantro, celery)
Preparation:
- Pre-bake the red bell pepper. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees, add quite a bit of olive oil to the baking dish, sprinkle the peppers with oil too. Bake for 30 minutes.
- Scald the tomatoes with boiling water and peel them. After that, you can use a trick so as not to insist the ready-made soup in the refrigerator for several hours before serving. So, if you wish, tomatoes can be marinated in olive oil with basil, left in the refrigerator for half an hour. Once again, we repeat that this item is at your discretion.
- Peel the cucumber, cut into large pieces.
- Remove the skin from the baked pepper (it should come off very easily), peel off the seeds.
- Place the tomatoes, celery, garlic, cucumber, shallots and baked peppers in a blender. Add freshly ground black pepper and sea salt. Punch until smooth.
- Try the resulting soup. Then add salt, pepper, Tabasco sauce (1-2 drops), olive oil, wine vinegar, basil, parsley to taste. To adjust the consistency, you can add cold water or a little tomato juice. But not necessarily.
- Mix everything again. Refrigerate for 2-4 hours. If you marinated the tomatoes in advance, it is enough to let the soup stand in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes. But keep in mind that in any case, the gazpacho must be very cold.
- Remove from refrigerator, pour into glasses or plates.
- You can add finely chopped greens (of your choice) and pre-fried croutons to the plates. You can put ice in glasses and garnish with a sprig of parsley or basil.
- The same croutons, ham, anchovies, coarsely chopped vegetables can be served with the soup.
Tomato soup with mussels
For this recipe, the Passata tomato paste - mashed tomatoes - will be even preferable to fresh tomatoes, as it has an ideal consistency for a soup. But if you haven't found it, let's take the tomatoes. But not ordinary tomato paste!
Mussels can be substituted for canned fish such as salmon or even tuna (1 can). But the taste will be much more fishy than seafood. Chicken broth is also allowed.
Ingredients:
- Tomatoes or mashed passata tomatoes - 800 g
- Mussels (without shells) - 300 g
- Vegetable broth - 0.5 l
- Sweet pepper - 1 pc.
- Potatoes - 2 pcs.
- Bulb onions - 1 pc.
- Olive oil
- Dried basil
- Fresh herbs to taste (parsley, green basil)
- Salt, pepper to taste
Preparation:
- Boil vegetable or chicken broth. Keep it hot.
- Finely chop the onion and pepper.
- Peel the potatoes and boil until half cooked. Cut into strips or cubes.
- If you have frozen mussels, defrost.
- Place the tomatoes in a blender, you can add a sprig of green basil, punch well.
- Pour olive oil into a saucepan (preferably with thick walls), put onions, peppers and mussels, simmer for 2-3 minutes.
- Add dried basil and stir.
- Now pour in hot broth, trade wind or homemade tomato paste, add potatoes, bring to a boil. Cook over low heat for 10-15 minutes. It will be better if the potatoes are boiled.
- Serve with finely chopped herbs. Homemade croutons are ideal for the soup.
Tomato puree soup with cheese
Very tasty soup, even the smallest fussy will like it. Ideal with a fresh baguette, oven-dried white bread or homemade croutons.
Ingredients:
- Tomatoes - 1 kg
- Passata tomato paste - 400 g
- Bulb onions - 1 pc.
- Garlic - 4-5 cloves
- Dried basil, oregano, thyme and marjoram
- Green basil - small bunch
- Cream not less than 20% - 200 ml
- Olive oil
- Sugar - 1 tsp
- Salt to taste
- Ground black pepper to taste
- Hard cheese - 50 g
Preparation:
- Make cuts on the tomatoes crosswise, pour over with boiling water, then easily remove the skin. Cut into large wedges, put in a dish greased with olive oil and bake for 45 minutes.
- Chop onion and garlic finely.
- Heat olive oil in a saucepan, put onion and garlic in it, fry over medium heat for 5-7 minutes.
- Add baked tomatoes, fry for another 2 minutes.
- Add the trade wind, finely chopped fresh basil, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil and cook for 10-12 minutes over low heat.
- Grind the soup in a blender and pour back into the pot.
- Mix the cream, sugar, salt and spices separately in a blender and add to the soup. Mix. Let it boil and simmer for 5 minutes.
- Turn off the heat, let it brew for 2-3 minutes. Serve very hot, sprinkle with plenty of grated cheese.
- If you have special baking pots, you can pour soup into them, cover with cheese on top and mark in the oven for a few minutes - you get a delicious cheese crust.
Tomato puree soup with basil
Note that only green basil will work for this recipe, not purple basil. Green basil is not always found on supermarket shelves, but it is usually found in markets. In addition, this herb with a characteristic exquisite aroma can be grown even at home - it is not very whimsical.
Ingredients:
- Tomatoes - 1 kg
- Tomato juice - 3 cups
- Fresh green basil - small bunch
- Milk or non-fat cream - 200 ml
- Cream cheese - 100 g
- Salt to taste
- Ground black pepper to taste
Preparation:
- Cut the tomatoes, scald with boiling water and remove the skin. Chop coarsely.
- Pour tomato juice into a saucepan and put chopped tomatoes, bring to a boil. Cook over low heat for 30 minutes.
- Remove from heat, cool slightly. Place the soup in a blender, add the green basil and puree until smooth.
- Return soup to saucepan, add milk or cream and cream cheese. Mix thoroughly, salt, pepper and cook for 7 minutes, stirring constantly so that the cheese does not go into lumps.
- Remove from heat. Serve with croutons or a baguette, garnished with herbs, best of all with a fresh basil leaf.
