Thursday, December 2, 2010

Tomato and Spinach Soup

This could be called 'veggies are my friends -- part 3.' It's just soup, so the directions are pretty general. This is what I started with -- some leftover celery from the Thanksgiving relish tray, onion, carrot, a can of diced tomatoes, spinach, chicken broth, olive oil and a few spices. It doesn't need a lot of salt, since both the tomatoes and the broth have salt in them.
I didn't start this until about an hour before I wanted to eat it, so I diced the veggies pretty small so they'd cook faster. They went into a saucepan with some olive oil and a few spices. Then I put the cover on the pot and let them sweat on medium low for about ten minutes. At this point, if I'd remembered, I'd have thrown in a generous tablespoon of flour and stirred it around for a couple of minutes. I forgot, and it was fine. The broth is a little thicker if you remember the flour. I added the tomatoes and about a cup of broth, put the cover on again and simmered for 15 minutes or so.
I used my hand blender to break up the chunks, but I didn't go so far as to puree them. I like smallish chunks in this soup.
I added another cup of broth at this point, then rough chopped a large handful of spinach. Maybe a cup and a half raw after chopping, and threw it in the pot. I put the cover on again, and let it simmer for another 5 or 10 minutes. This is a good point to taste it. If it tastes a little acid-y, you can add a teaspoon of sugar.
My house smells great, and there was enough soup for lunch and leftovers for lunch tomorrow.
Nothing fancy, just soup.