How to Make Tomato and Red Pepper Soup

By Kimathi J Muchomba

Soup is a food that is made by combining ingredients such as meat and vegetables with stock, juice, water or another liquid. A basic tomato soup is simply tomatoes cooked together with celery, onions and carrots for flavoring. Other seasonings may be added, including salt, pepper, sugar, garlic and green pepper, and milk may be used to create cream of tomato soup.

Whether prepared from a can or homemade, tomato soup is a source of vitamin C, vitamin A and iron.

Canned tomato soup is low in calories but high in salt. One cup has 85 calories and 695mg of sodium. This represents 28 percent of the recommended daily value for salt, based on a 2,000-calorie-a-day diet. You'll receive 17g of carbohydrates, which includes 6g of sugars and no dietary fiber.

With only 2g of total fat, tomato soup provides 2 percent of the daily value for total fat. It contains no cholesterol, 0.36mg of saturated fat and 1.4mg of the healthier unsaturated fats.Here is a basic home made tomato and red pepper soup that is simple and less costly to prepare

INGREDIENTS

1 chicken stock

1 tablespoon chopped fresh basil- to garnish

Extra virgin olive oil-to garnish

600g ripe tomatoes- quartered

400g tin chopped tomatoes

2 tablespoon olive oil

1 onion- chopped

2 large red peppers, seeds removed and roughly chopped

2 cloves garlic- chopped

METHOD

1. Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan.

2. Saute the onion, peppers and garlic for about 5 minutes.

3. Add the fresh tomatoes and cook for another 3 minutes.

4 Add the tinned tomatoes, the stock and a cup of water. Bring to the boil, reduce the heat and simmer for 30 minutes.

5. Remove from the heat and allow to cool a little.

6. Puree the soup in batches in a food processor or with a hand-held blender.

7. Strain through a coarse sieve and add a little extra stock.

8. Season to taste with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Serve hot, and garnished with the basil and a of drizzle extra

olive oil

Serves 4

NB;

1. Roasting the vegetables gives the soup a delicious flavor.

2. Halve the onions, tomatoes and peppers, place them on a lined baking tray, drizzle with a little olive oil and roast at 200ºC in oven for 60 minutes, turning the onions and peppers once before using them in the preparation of soup.

Name: Kimathi Jackson Muchomba

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Chicken Soup - Does It Heal?

By Julie E Lewis

They say chicken soup is good for the soul, but what about the body?

Let's take a look at chicken soup as a medicinal remedy for the common cold. Was Grandma right, if you eat chicken soup when you're fighting the common cold, will it help?

The chicken soup folklore has been around as long as people have, handed down generation to generation, along with the favorite chicken soup family recipe. The medicinal claims have never been proven, but from the time of the ancient Greeks, it has been used religiously to lessen the affects of a cold or the flu.

The ingredients in chicken soup include chicken of course, carrots, celery, water or broth and spices, always including garlic. The soup is served steaming hot, which is where I believe one of the medicinal claims stems from. Let's face it; whenever you're feeling stuffy, drinking anything that is steaming hot helps to open up the sinuses, which immediately helps you to breathe better, thus you begin to feel better.

If we take a closer look at the ingredients of chicken soup, one in particular stands out for its antioxidant benefits. Garlic is considered by herbalists to be one of the most useful herbs for medicinal purposes. Many cultures have used garlic for centuries in medicines, as it is a known antioxidant, used to treat many respiratory ailments including hoarseness, coughs and the common cold. The main compound in garlic, allistatin has antibiotic qualities used in some cultures to treat whopping cough, flu and other viral and bacterial diseases.

Anyway you look at it, a steaming bowl of hot chicken soup when you're feeling under the weather can't hurt, and if you add garlic to your recipe, it may help.

The recipes below should be individualized, use the ingredients that you and your family like, don't like carrots? Use turnips instead. If your family is partial to peas, add peas. Use rice instead of pasta, whatever suits your taste. Just be sure to add the garlic, as stated above, its medicinal attributes make it a great addition to any soup.

Basic Soup Recipe

Chicken broth

1 3 lb chicken, 3 quarts of water

3 large Carrots

3 stalks of Celery

Onion Salt and pepper to taste 1 bay leaf Fresh chopped basil.

Put all the ingredients in a large stock pot and simmer for 3 hours, skimming the surface often. Remove the chicken, remove meat from the bones, and put aside. Discard vegetables, and chill broth. After broth as chilled for a while, remove fat from the top. You are now ready to use broth in your soup.

chicken soup

2 cups chopped cooked chicken

8 cups chicken broth

Salt and pepper to taste

Carrots, chopped

Celery, coarsely chopped

Diced garlic to taste

Any small pasta

Simmer until carrots and celery are soft and pasta is cooked, about 10 minutes. Serve hot.

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Julie E. Lewis, Owner
http://www.coolstuffforthekitchen.com

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Soups - Ham and Split Pea Soup

By Lynne Evans

There are many ways of preparing this soup and you can use split green peas or yellow ones, depending which you prefer, or which you have in your store cupboard. Personally I prefer the green ones and use the yellow ones to make fava, which is a dip rather like hummus. You can leave the soup chunky or puree it until it is thick and smooth; it is entirely up to you. I like to add cumin seeds and coriander seeds which have been dry-fried to bring out their flavour and a dried red chili, but you don't have to use these things. If you do want a spicier soup than usual, use a teaspoon of coriander seeds and 2 of cumin seeds, dry-fry them for a minute or two until they release their aroma and add them to the soup when you add the water. The dried crumbled red chili pepper can also be added at this time. This recipe is for the traditional green split pea soup with ham. I hope you like it!

Ingredients

750 gr of ham hock or knuckle, washed and rinsed

500 gr green split peas, cleaned to remove any dirt or grit

1 large onion, chopped

2 celery stalks, trimmed and halved

4 medium carrots, cleaned and thinly sliced

4 cloves of garlic, halved

2 large sprigs of thyme or 1 tsp dried thyme

8 sprigs of parsley either curly or flat-leaved

2 bay leaves, torn but still intact

10 black peppercorns

salt to taste

freshly ground black pepper to taste

4-6 allspice berries (optional)

sprigs of parsley to decorate each bowl if desired

Method

Put the ham hock or knuckle and peas in a large pan and cover with 2½ liters of water A and bring to the boil. Remove any scum which comes to the surface.

You can either fry the onion, garlic, and carrots gently in olive oil, or simply add them to the pan after the scum has been removed along with the herbs and spices.

Partially cover the pan and cook, simmering, for an hour and a half.

Check that the peas are cooked and if necessary cook for half and hour more with the lid on firmly.

When the soup ingredients are cooked, remove the ham hock and allow it to cool before removing the skin and then flake the meat from the bone with a fork. Return this to the pan and mix well, then blend the soup in batches until it is smooth.

Reheat the soup and serve in warm bowls and decorate with parsley sprigs if using.

Bon appetit!

http://www.herbs-treatandtaste.blogspot.com If you liked this recipe, why not find more on this site, along with information about food, herbs and spices which keep you healthy?

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