Saturday, September 12, 2009

Tomato Herb Soup



This is an every morning ritual since we moved to this country to chat online with my sister. The five hours and a half, time difference work well for both of us. I chat with her before I move on to my daily chores, by which time she would have a free afternoon.
She is a cook who puts her heart to her cooking and is full of ideas. Few days ago I told her about the soup/salad dinner options I intend to follow. She suggested that we can try using vegetables themselves to thicken the soups replacing the flour – butter combination. That very day I had some chayote in my fridge and few very good tomatoes. I also had fresh mint and oregano leaves. They were enough to tempt me to try out this soup.
The herbs lend the soup warm balsamic and aromatic flavor. It was such a soothing soup. We had the soup with some tossed salad and bread rolls were full.
What I used:
3 medium size roma variety tomatoes
½ cup medium cut pieces of chayote
A tight fist of fresh mint leaves
1 sprig (approximately 15 leaves) of oregano leaves
1 very small red onion cut
2 teaspoons cooking oil/ghee/butter (I used sunflower oil)
Salt and pepper according to taste.



And how I went about the soup:
Heat oil in a pan and toss the onions for a few minutes to alleviate the pungent taste that may be present if cooked raw.
In a container put whole tomatoes, cut chayote, tossed onion and the cleaned herbs together. Pressure cook until one whistle. The tomatoes will be easy to peel this way.
Peel tomatoes. Transfer all the contents to the jar of a blender and blend well.
Wash the jar with ½ cup of water and add this water to the puree above.
Cook this in a pan adding salt and pepper until desired consistency is achieved.
Serve hot with a salad and dinner rolls of your choice.
Mint leaves are recommended home remedy for digestion heartburn from indigestion etc. Oregano is high in antioxidant properties. It is proven to treat food-borne diseases.
Both of them can be safely had in mild teas or soups during pregnancy. If you have morning sickness and throwing up food, this soup can contain your sensation. Mint also aids digestion.

I would like to send this recipe to Food for 7 stages of life - Pregnancy (Zero hour) hosted jointly by Radhika Vasanth of Sourashtra Kitchen and Sudeshna Banerjee of Cook Like a Bong
and to Sireesha of mom’s recipes soup n juice event.

























9 comments:

  1. Adding chayote to the soup is new to me. I have always added bottlegourd,pumpkin etc. Nice aromatic soup. Must be heavenly with all those fresh herbs.

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  2. Hey Lata,

    Way to go. Only wish you could parcel some soup to me all the way from Ghana!!!

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  3. wARMING BOWL OF SOUP IS VERY INVITING..

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  4. Lovely soup. There is something waiting for you in my blog. Plz collect it dear.

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  5. Looks lovely, adding chow chow is a nice idea. Should have tasted awesome with those herbs in them.

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  6. Soup looks absolutely amazing..Adding mint is new to me. Well, a great idea ! This tomato soup is my comforting food no-1. I just love a hot tomato soup.

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  7. Like you ,I chat with my brother,who is in Aussie ,first time in the morning..that will go like 3-4 hrs...He is the one who tells me ,he feels like eating this and that...i make it that day and give it my Hubby dear :)
    Tomato soup looks so soothing!!!

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  8. very interesting recipe, I haven't done much of soups lately, someday i must try this

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Hello,
Welcome and thank you for taking time to drop by.
I appreciate your valuable comments and tips.
I sincerely hope to improve with them.
Hope we shall interact often.
Thanks once again,
Lata Raja.