Tomato Stilton Soup Recipes

SIMPLE TOMATO SOUP

Steps:

• Heat butter and olive oil in a large saucepan over medium-low heat and cook onion and garlic until onion is soft and translucent, about 5 minutes. Add tomatoes, water, sugar, salt, pepper, red pepper flakes, celery seed, and oregano. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer for 15 minutes.
• Remove from heat and puree with an immersion blender. Reheat soup until warm and season with more salt and pepper if desired.

TOMATO SOUP

Steps:

• Firstly, prepare your vegetables. You need 1-1.25kg/2lb 4oz-2lb 12oz ripe tomatoes. If the tomatoes are on their vines, pull them off. The green stalky bits should come off at the same time, but if they don't, just pull or twist them off afterwards. Throw the vines and green bits away and wash the tomatoes. Now cut each tomato into quarters and slice off any hard cores (they don't soften during cooking and you'd get hard bits in the soup at the end). Peel 1 medium onion and 1 small carrot and chop them into small pieces. Chop 1 celery stick roughly the same size.
• Spoon 2 tbsp olive oil into a large heavy-based pan and heat it over a low heat. Hold your hand over the pan until you can feel the heat rising from the oil, then tip in the onion, carrot and celery and mix them together with a wooden spoon. Still with the heat low, cook the vegetables until they're soft and faintly coloured. This should take about 10 minutes and you should stir them two or three times so they cook evenly and don't stick to the bottom of the pan.
• Holding the tube over the pan, squirt in about 2 tsp of tomato purée, then stir it around so it turns the vegetables red. Shoot the tomatoes in off the chopping board, sprinkle in a good pinch of sugar and grind in a little black pepper. Tear 2 bay leaves into a few pieces and throw them into the pan. Stir to mix everything together, put the lid on the pan and let the tomatoes stew over a low heat for 10 minutes until they shrink down in the pan and their juices flow nicely. From time to time, give the pan a good shake - this will keep everything well mixed.
• Slowly pour in the 1.2 litres/ 2 pints of hot stock (made with boiling water and 4 rounded tsp bouillon powder or 2 stock cubes), stirring at the same time to mix it with the vegetables. Turn up the heat as high as it will go and wait until everything is bubbling, then turn the heat down to low again and put the lid back on the pan. Cook gently for 25 minutes, stirring a couple of times. At the end of cooking the tomatoes will have broken down and be very slushy looking.
• Remove the pan from the heat, take the lid off and stand back for a few seconds or so while the steam escapes, then fish out the pieces of bay leaf and throw them away. Ladle the soup into your blender until it's about three-quarters full, fit the lid on tightly and turn the machine on full. Blitz until the soup's smooth (stop the machine and lift the lid to check after about 30 seconds), then pour the puréed soup into a large bowl. Repeat with the soup that's left in the pan. (The soup may now be frozen for up to 3 months. Defrost before reheating.)
• Pour the puréed soup back into the pan and reheat it over a medium heat for a few minutes, stirring occasionally until you can see bubbles breaking gently on the surface. Taste a spoonful and add a pinch or two of salt if you think the soup needs it, plus more pepper and sugar if you like. If the colour's not a deep enough red for you, plop in another teaspoon of tomato purée and stir until it dissolves. Ladle into bowls and serve. Or sieve and serve chilled with some cream swirled in. For other serving suggestions, see opposite.

BLUE STILTON SOUP

Steps:

• Melt the butter in a medium size saucepan, add the vegetables, and fry gently for 5 minutes until soft but not browned.
• Stir in the flour and cook for 1 minute. Remove from heat. Stir in the stock and return to heat. Bring to a boil, stirring continuously until the soup thickens. Allow to simmer on low heat for 30 minutes.
• Cool soup slightly and press through a sieve. Return soup to pan, add the milk, and heat gently. Stir in the Stilton, salt and pepper, and heavy cream until melted. Blend soup for extra thickness.
• Do not allow soup to boil at this point, it will curdle.
• To serve, garnish with croutons.

TOMATO STILTON SOUP

Steps:

• Heat butter or oil in large saucepan over medium heat. Add leek, celery, and garlic and sautee until just tender. Add tomatoes, broth and thyme and cook until tomatoes are starting to break down about 30 minutes. Pulse with a handheld blender a couple times, then add miso (if using), cream and stilton. Serve warm.

TOMATO STILTON SOUP

Steps:

• Place tomatoes with their juice in a medium bowl; crush tomatoes well, into small pieces, with a potato masher.
• In a 3-quart saucepan, heat oil over medium-low heat. Add onion and celery; cover and cook 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Stir in tomatoes, broth, wine, sugar and thyme; heat to boiling over high heat. Reduce heat to low; cover and simmer 20 minutes until vegetables are very tender.
• Stir in cream and 1/2 cup Stilton; heat through but do not boil. Ladle soup into 6 soup bowls; sprinkle with pepper and remaining Stilton.