Spicy Tomato Soup with Basil and Bacon
Serves: 2
Time: 45 mins
Tomato soup is delicious on it’s own but what gives this one that added scrumptious happy on the inside feeling is the yummy bits of crunchy goodness sprinkled over the top. You could swap the bread out for a gluten free croutons instead and drop the bacon if you wanted just a veg option(and change the stock) but I highly recommend going all out and loading up on the toppings. Soup I otherwise don’t find hugely filling so this recipe makes two large bowls. Now I have a 3 year old so instead of going heavy on the chilli flakes at the beginning I add Cholula hot sauce which is very similar to tobasco sauce at the end which could be why I love this soup so much as it reminds me of a bloody mary.
Leftovers
This doesn’t provide enough leftovers for lunch but if you do want it for tomorrow as well I have added more ingredients to the lunch list to bulk up the yield.
What you'll need
1 large brown onion
3 cloves of garlic
1 1/2 cups of chicken stock
2 sticks of celery
2 tins of whole peeled tomatoes
1/4 bunch of basil
4 rashers of bacon
1/2 a loaf of Turkish bread
From the Pantry
1/2 teaspoon of dried chilli flakes approx
1 teaspoon or more of Cholula hot sauce or Tobasco
1 tablespoon olive oil
salt and pepper
Optional Xtra for Lunch
2 cups of chicken stock
2 tins of whole peeled tomatoes
2 sticks of celery
4 rashers of bacon
Feeding Four
To make this into a dinner for four I have added the same ingredients that are in the lunch xtra's list.
Prep
Preheat oven to 180
Make Soup
Peel and roughly chop onion and garlic and saute in a large pot with approx 1 tablespoon of oil till soft.
Wash and roughly chop the celery and add to the pot along with the chilli flakes and saute for 30 seconds.
Add the chicken stock and then the tinned tomatoes.
Pick the basil leaves, keep the smaller ones for garnishing and add the larger leaves to the soup.
Season with salt and pepper, bring up to the boil then turn down to a high simmer and cover with a lid. Leave to cook for 30 minutes stirring occasionally to make sure it doesn’t catch on the bottom.
Cook Crunchies
While the soup is cooking, lay your bacon out on an oven tray lined with paper and pop into the oven to cook for 8 minutes. After 8 minutes the top should be looking nice and crispy, pull the tray out and turn each piece over then cook for another 2 minutes. Remove from the oven and leave to cool.
At the same time, you can be getting the croutons ready. Rip the bread up into bite sized pieces and toss in a bowl with enough olive oil to lightly coat the outside. Sprinkle with salt and pepper, if your feeling game and like a real kick you could sprinkle with some chilli flakes, but keep in mind chilli flakes have a real intense kick.
Toast the croutons in the oven until lightly crunchy.
After approx 5 minutes give them a little stir and have a feel to see how crunchy they are your cooking time will vary depending on oil ratio and size so keep a close eye for the next 2-4 minutes and take out when golden crunchy and delicious (try not to eat them all before the soup is ready).
Roughly chop the bacon up once cold.
Plate it Pretty
Once the soup has reduced down use a stick blender to blitz until smooth. Check the seasoning I will often add more salt, right now it will just have a subtle amount of heat from the chilli, you can add more chilli now if desired, just a little at a time.
Ladle the soup into bowls.
Combine the bacon bits with the croutons and the baby basil leaves and scatter over part of the soup in a semi circle shape.
Sprinkle with a touch of fresh sea salt flakes and some cracked pepper and serve with cholula or tobasco.
Enjoy!
Medium Heat
Cooking on a medium heat requires a lot of patience which I am not always good at, but it's worth the wait on this one, because if you cook on a heat that is too high your nuts are going to burn.
Lunch tomorrow
Did you add the xtra lunch ingredients to your soup? if yes then you will have enough for lunch otherwise this was just a recipe that feeds two because the tomato soup I don’t find as filling as other hearty soups so while it makes a pretty decent amount to have as a meal I find you need the whole lot.
If you don’t want to double the soup perhaps just some eggs on Turkish toast?