Monday, February 10, 2014

Instant carrot and tomato soup

I know I shouldn't complain, but living in a building site is starting to get me down. The fact that I also have to work in one (my office building has been yellow-stickered and I'd rather not take my chances of surviving if it collapses), is adding insult to injury.

Working from home certainly has its advantages, but I struggled to find any today thanks to the bitterly cold wind turning the place into an icebox. Then I remembered that I could make myself something warming and restoring for lunch in between phone calls and emails and life seemed a little brighter. Here's what I did.

Easy Tomato And Carrot Soup

Instant Carrot and Tomato Soup
This soup is inspired by - but unrecognisably different to - one in Soup Glorious Soup by Annie Bell. Hers involves carrots and scallops; I like to think of this one as a simpler, humbler relation. It's an excellent rescue remedy for cold days when it feels like there's nothing to eat (and it only takes 20 minutes to make, most of which is hands-free). This amount makes enough for two, but is easy to scale up as necessary. Don't try to scale it down - just freeze the leftover amount for a rainy day. And for more vegetarian soup-y ideas, you might like to check out the links at No Croutons Required (though it's ok to add croutons if you want.)

500g carrots, washed, peeled and roughly chopped
1 x 400g tin of whole peeled tomatoes
400ml (approx) good quality stock or water
salt and pepper
cream, creme fraiche or yoghurt, for swirling

Put the carrots and whole peeled tomatoes in a medium-sized saucepan and set it over medium heat. Using the tomato tin, measure in the stock or water. Cover and bring to the boil, then simmer for 10-15 minutes, stirring occasionally. When the carrots are soft enough to collapse at the prod of a fork, remove from the heat. Blitz to a puree with a stick blender or in a food processor (the latter is faster but involves more washing up afterwards), then season with salt and pepper to taste. Reheat until starting to simmer, then serve with a spoonful of cream, creme fraiche or Greek yoghurt swirled across the top.

Do you work from home? What do you make for lunch?


12 comments:

  1. soup is a great 'work at home' meal... we often make a bowl not disimilar... i also know how depressing it can be living in a building site. Some days you can't see the end of it but it will come and then it will all be worth it x

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    1. Thanks Dom... it's only been a month so far, I guess I am just short on patience!

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  2. Can we send you some heat from Auckland? It's cooking up here (sorry, don't want to rub it in).

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    1. About 10 degrees (more) would do nicely, thanks. Can you send it in time for the weekend?

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  3. one of the benefits of working from home is taking a photo of your lunch without colleagues thinking it is a rather odd thing to do - and of course your soup looks great

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    1. Yes, that is very true - and if the tradies think it's odd, well, they're not saying!

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  4. Hi Lucy.
    This looks scrumptious. I work from home too and had a big bowl of tamarind beans today. Barlotti beans cooked in a tamarind sauce served with olive oil and fresh lemon juice. We have it a lot, very inexpensive and really healthy.

    I've made your chocolate teapot biscuits and I love them. I didn't have any chocolate so made them without but they are so more-ish, I can't stop eating them. I hope you don't mind I've linked over to your recipe.I haven't reproduced it, just linked but let me know if you want me to take it off.
    Thanks debx

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    1. Thanks Debby - so pleased you liked the biscuits and those beans sound great. I have a packet of tamarind pulp in the fridge that I don't know what to do with - can you share the recipe?

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  5. What an easy and tasty idea. I love soups that involve the immersion blender because then I can make it as chunky or smooth as I want and it's very simple. I have the Soup Glorious Soup cookbook, too, the savoury shortbreads sometimes catch my eye. Also all the great ideas for lentils.

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  6. I do something sort of similar but involving a lot more veggies. I put an inch or so of water into a pot, add half a chopped onion and a clove of garlic, sometimes some ginger. Then chopped veggies: carrot, broc, spinach, kumara, pumpkin, chard. Just whatever is around. I just chop up enough for 1 meal. cook it until the veggies are done, add some stock powder and then blitz it with the hand blender. Pour it into a bowl, olive oil and brewers yeast on top. Lunch (or dinner!) done!

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  7. I am loving this soup.. I've never thought of making a carrot and tomato soup before. Gorgeous! Thanks for submitting it to No Croutons Required. The roundup is now live

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  8. Just got my check for $500.

    Sometimes people don't believe me when I tell them about how much you can make filling out paid surveys online...

    So I took a video of myself getting paid over $500 for taking paid surveys.

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Hello - thanks for stopping by. If this was real life I'd make you a cup of tea and open the biscuit tin, but in lieu of those things, let's have a chat anyway...