Yesterday Jo asked if we had 500g of tomatoes for the tomato and carrot soup she was planning for dinner.

I guess so…

So we had this for dinner – hot.

Summer carrot and tomato soup

A bright-tasting soup for a summer’s day. It works well chilled, too. But do make certain that you serve it thoroughly cold. Serves 4.

a medium onion

2 tbsp olive oil

450g carrots

450g tomatoes

a litre of vegetable stock or water

2 bay leaves

a handful of chives

Peel and roughly chop the onion, then let it cook slowly in the olive oil in a deep pan. Roughly chop the carrots and add them. Halve or quarter the tomatoes and stir them in. Pour in the liquid, add the bay leaves, then season with salt and black pepper.

Leave to simmer for about 35 minutes, until the carrots are soft and will crush easily with a little pressure. Blitz the mixture, in three or four batches, for a short time, so that you end up with a rough-textured puree rather than a smooth soup. Serve the soup in deep bowls with a scattering of chives.

This soup is by Nigel Slater who along with Monty Don, Annabel Langbein, Simon Hopinson and Hugh Fearnely-Whittingstall is on our short list of the only cook books you will ever need. Alton Brown would be on the list but I don’t know if he has books. He does have a great TV show but. His Dutch Babies and Pop Overs are fabulous.

The soup is lovely and the colour of marigolds.

And I made 3 more quart jars of tomato passata.

Cheers

Franky