Tomato/Basil soup

I love soup for several reasons. It makes a great lunch, a great entree or a fabulous snack. It can even be breakfast. Why not? Almost the entire Asian continent has done that for centuries and hey, look at them... they are healthier than most of us in the West.

Soup comes in handy when you've got lots of little left over vegetables, herbs or potatoes in your cabinet and fridge. Make a big pot of soup and freeze it in meals for one, for those days you can't be arsed to slave over the stove or when you simply don't have time because you've got better things to do than be a kitchen princess, like shopping. And... think of the dishes. Only one pan. Yay!

But best of all, you can get really creative with soup. There are endless varieties, and most of the time, you only need to know how to chop things up and boil them. Any idiot can make soup.

For my first recipe, I've chosen a soup that I've made up all by myself. Probably a million Italian women before me have come up with the same, but I swear to God, I don't know them.

Kitchen utensils

• big pan
• chopping board
• knife
• wooden spoon
• water boiler
• blender
• measuring cup
• oven

Ingredients

• medium sized onion, chopped (any will do, I've used red onion)
• 3 garlic cloves, crushed
  
• table spoon of olive oil
• small courgette/zucchini, in cubes
  
• 1 cup/250ml of vegetable stock
• 2 cups/500ml of siffed tomatoes (you can buy it ready-made in packages but also make it yourself by pealing off the skin of tomatoes [carve the skin with a knife, drop the tomatoes in boiling water for a few minutes and it comes off without problem] and siff the seeds out, chop them up and throw them in the soup. It's more work, but if you're watching your salt intake it is better to make it yourself because to most packages of siffed tomatoes, salt is added. Plus, I love the taste of fresh tomatoes. Get really beautiful roma tomatoes or vine tomatoes. They have a lovely full taste.)
• dried Italian herbs like oregano, thyme, marjoram, basil...
• fresh basil, chopped (I used a package that had a few stems of basil)
• bread (optional)
  
• (soy)butter (optional)

Preheat oven for bread (about 200 Celsius or 392 Fahrenheit). Chop up onion and crush garlic. Put olive oil in medium hot pan and fry onion and garlic for a minute or two. Add courgette/zucchini. Stir for a few minutes until courgette is softened. Add vegetable stock, heat until it simmers. Add siffed tomatoes. Heat until it simmers. Trow about two table spoons of dried herbs. Let it simmer for five minutes. Turn off stove. Use the blender in the pan to make a smooth soup. Turn on the stove, let the soup simmer and throw in fresh basil. Simmer for a minute. Turn of stove and use the blender one more time. Put bread in oven (you can do that while making the soup so everything is ready at the same time). When the bread is ready, carve the top a few times and put (soy) butter in the bread. You can also use herb butter or garlic butter.

When you reduce the water in the stock or let the soup simmer for a while longer so it will thicken, this will also be an awesome pasta sauce.