Cream of Tomato soup

Food tastes better in Winters. Especially hot soups! Winters call for some piping hot and tasty soups recipe for dinner and I love to experiment with different recipes for soups. Whenever I have some leftover cream in my fridge I think of some "Cream of something soup" and go right at it.

 This time I made the very common yet very delish CREAM OF TOMATO SOUP!

What you need for this soup: (for 8 cups of thick soup)

1) 5 big red tomatoes - coarsely chopped
2) 2 medium size carrots - washed and chopped in cubes
3) 2 medium size onions - coarsely chopped
4) Garlic cloves - 6 to 8
5) Chopped Basil leaves - 2 tablespoon
6) Chicken or Vegetable Broth or Water - 500 ml
7) Salt, Pepper
8) Pinch of  Garam Masala (can be replaced by one Bayleaf and one Cinnamon stick)
9) Olive Oil
10) Tomato Ketchup - 4 table spoons
11) Cream - 3/4th cup


How to cook the soup

1) In a big pan, put some olive oil and add Garlic and Onion. Cook for 2 mins
2) Now add the Garam masala or bayleaf-cinnamon and cook for 30 seconds
3) Add the chopped carrots and let the carrots cook for 10 mins.
4) Now add the tomatoes, broth, chopped basil leaves and let the mix come to a boil.
5) When it starts boiling, cover the pan and let it simmer in low flame for 30 mins
6) Add Salt and pepper to taste
7) Blend the coarse soup mixture with a hand blended and then strain this through a sieve to remove any coarse pieces/skin and have a good thick consistency of the soup
8) Put the strained soup back on the burner at low flame, adjust the Salt and pepper to taste
9) When the mix boils, switch of the gas and add cream to the soup and mix it well


SERVE the soup with toasted bread or crispy breaded croutons!
PRESERVE it!
EAT for 2 days!