Recently, we’ve been having a lot of homemade soups for lunch, partly as a consequence of Jane having picked up a book of soup recipes at the start of the year. Some have been better than others, including some that have been very good indeed. I’d count today’s effort in that latter category.

Today’s soup was based on tomatoes but it also included some carrots, which I suspect help with the colour and stop the natural acidity of the tomatoes being overpowering, and a base of onion. We used some large, fresh tomatoes that were on offer in Lidl yesterday but, when we try this again, I think I’m inclined to try with a tin of tomatoes instead as the process of peeling them took ages!

The process also involves mashing the cooked veg and I strained it as well. That was another extra bit of work and I wonder if getting a vegetable mill tool might be a worthwhile investment to create such purees if we carry on soup making? Straining it creates quite a lot of pulp but even that doesn’t go to waste. I combined the left over pulp with the vegetable peelings (skins pre-washed) and tomato skins and that has been cooked up with water in the slow cooker to make another batch of vegetable stock. I’ll strain that out once it has cooled tomorrow morning and the residue will then go onto the compost heap, so nothing gets wasted at all in a veg-based dish like this.

By the way, no snow after all today – just lots and lots of icy cold rain!