Spice It Up – with South African Spicy Tomato Soup

When you take a vacation in South Africa, it’s hard not to be endlessly boring about your pictures. But seriously, everyone wants to see my pics, right? OK maybe not all 457 of them – even though they’re all fabulous. Here are just 4… 

 

Just in case you do want to seem more click here. Or, just skip it and go to the recipe below.

http://www.flickr.com/apps/slideshow/show.swf?v=71649

Now about that South African Spicy Tomato Soup…

Another highlight of the trip was the food. In Cape Town, we had a great evening at The Gold Museum of South Africa sampling both the culture and the food. They danced. They sang. They fed us very well. 

For me the culinary highlight was an amazing tomato soup. 

I found myself thinking about that soup. Of course the next thing I did was send the restaurant an email asking for the recipe. Sure enough – next morning there it was- the email from Cindy in South Africa. I love our world of connectedness. 

Here is the Gold Museum of South Africa’s recipe for “SPICY TOMATO SOUP”. It is so easy it’s silly. I tried the recipe and it really was as tasty as the soup we ate in Cape Town. 

 

Spiced Tomato Soup

Serves 6

 2  800g tin whole peeled tomatoes, chopped in their juice

2 tlbs butter

1 onion, finely chopped

1 litre hot vegetable stock

½ tsp Green Masala

1 tsp paprika

1 tsp sugar

1 cinnamon stick

4 whole cloves

Sour Cream for serving (optional)s

1 bay leaf, lightly crushed

salt and black pepper

Melt the butter in a large saucepan and fry the onion long and slow until richly coloured and jammy. This will bring out their sweetness, which is vital to the flavour of the soup.

Add the tomato, stock, masala or chilli, paprika, sugar, cinnamon, cloves and bay leaf, and season with salt and pepper.

Cover and simmer for about 20 minutes.  Puree in a food processor or blender. Serve hot or chilled with a drizzle of sour cream. 

ENJOY!