Hadda's Tomato Soup

20. January, 2009

Hadda Fjola Reykdal is a friend of mine I met in art school. We studied the beautiful art of printmaking (a technique which I absolutely adore) although she is now a renowned painter. I don't know of many people which combine and use colours as wonderfully as Hadda. She has a special gift for blending colours delicately, in a way you would never think would work. It's almost poetic. I have had this feeling for some years now that artists have a culinary instinct, one which other people such as perhaps bankers, politicians, bus drivers etc. don't have. Maybe I'm totally wrong (I don't have any scientific backing for this hypothesis of mine ha ha). I just think that when blending colours and texture, you can easily transfer this into the art of making food...some colours just don't work well...and the same applies to some food ingredients. Ok maybe I'm wrong but in Hadda's case I know I am right! This soup is almost like one of Hadda's paintings, deep, full of flavours and lovely texture and I love the deep red colour of the soup, almost as red as Hadda's hair! The red colour also tells us that the soup is full of antioxidants (Hadda's hair is probably not though...can hair have antioxidants?). The soup is also full of vitamin C. Hadda lives in Sweden now with her three children and doctor husband and regularly makes this soup for her family.

You can make this soup rich or light, depending on your preferences. Use light cream and light cream cheese for a fuller taste and use oat cream or skimmed milk for a lighter variation.

Note that you will need a food processor (or a blender/hand blender) to make this soup.

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Hadda's Tomato soup, almost as red as her hair!
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This recipe is:

  • Egg free
  • Gluten free
  • Nut free

Hadda's Tomato Soup

Serves 4

Ingredients

  • 1 onion, chopped coarsely
  • 4 potatoes, chopped coarsely
  • 2 celery stalks, chopped fairly finely
  • 2 carrots, chopped fairly finely
  • 2 garlic cloves, chopped finely
  • 1 tablespoon coconut oil
  • 400 grams (14 oz) tinned tomatoes
  • 600 millilitres (20 fluid oz) water
  • 2 yeast free vegetable stock cubes
  • 3 tablespoons organic tomato ketchup
  • 1 tablespoon tomato puree
  • 1 tablespoon curry powder
  • ½ tablespoon ground coriander
  • ½ tablespoon ground rosemary
  • ½ tablespoon ground paprika
  • ½ tablespoon ground saffron (or a pinch saffron threads)
  • Pinch of pepper (black)
  • Pinch of salt (Himalaya or sea salt)
  • 120 millilitres (4 fluid oz) semi-skimmed milk or light cream
  • 100 grams (3½ oz) light cream cheese

Preparation

  1. Peel the onion and 4 potatoes and chop coarsely.
  2. Peel the 2 garlic cloves and chop finely.
  3. Wash the 2 celery stalks and the 2 carrots and chop fairly finely.
  4. Heat 1 tablespoon coconut oil in the saucepan.
  5. Place onion and garlic in the saucepan and heat for 5 minutes or until the onions turn soft. Add a couple of tablespoons water if needed.
  6. Add chopped celery and potatoes and heat for 5 minutes.
  7. Pour 400 grams tinned tomatoes into the saucepan along with the 600 millilitres water, 3 tablespoons tomato ketchup and 2 vegetable stock cubes.
  8. Turn the heat up and let simmer for 15 minutes.
  9. Add ½ tablespoon ground paprika, 1 tablespoon curry powder, ½ tablespoon ground coriander, ½ tablespoon ground rosemary, ½ tablespoon ground saffron, a pinch of pepper (black) and a pinch of salt.
  10. Allow the soup to cool for 15 minutes. Blend with a hand blender for 1 minute or until smooth. You can also turn the soup in batches into a food processor or blender.
  11. Add 125 millilitres semi-skimmed milk or light cream along with the 100 grams light cream cheese.
  12. Allow the soup to simmer for 5 minutes without boiling.

Tips

  • Serve with nice bread.
  • For stronger tomato flavour add more tomatoes and reduce the curry powder by ½ tablespoon.
  • The soup is even better the next day once the flavours have really settled. Pour the soup into containers and re-heat the next day.
  • For a thinner soup add more water. 
  • If the coconut oil is cold (in which case it becomes solid), place the jar in a bowl filled with hot water for a couple of minutes.      
  • You can use regular stock cubes instead of yeast free ones.
  • You can use chicken stock instead of vegetable stock.  
  • The soup can be frozen and reheated later.
  • You can use coconut milk, oat milk/cream or rice milk instead of the single cream.
Tags Soups, Vegetable dishes, Autumn, Cheap, Winter
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