This soup is not dissimilar in taste to Heinz cream of tomato soup only its way better because it’s not loaded with sugar and it’s made with the freshest ingredients! It’s so simple to do too. If you happen to know someone who grows tomatoes and would like to gift you some (like we did!) even better!!

Tomatoes generally taste sweeter and better if they are in season so opt for local produce when you can.

Ingredients-

1 large red onion

1 carrot

2 cloves of garlic

Olive oil

700g tomatoes (I’ve used a variety of around 5 different types of tomatoes- aim to get hold of ones grown as locally as you can!)

1 tablespoon of tomato purée

1 tablespoon of maple syrup

1 pint vegetable or chicken stock (I prefer chicken if it’s not important for it to be vegetarian)

2 tablespoons of fresh basil

3-4 tablespoons of double cream

Dice the onion, peel and cut the carrot into small pieces, roughly chop the garlic

In a saucepan heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil

Add the onions and carrots and cook on the medium-low heat for 5-8mins stirring occasionally.

Meanwhile roughly chop the tomatoes

Add the garlic to the pan and cook for another 2mins, stirring so the garlic doesn’t stick

Add the tomatoes to the pan 

Along with the tomato purée 

The maple syrup (or another sweetener)

And the stock

Bring to the boil then simmer for 30mins

Roughly chop the basil and add it to the pan

Remove from the heat and blend the soup until it’s smooth. You’ll get a smoother result if you use a proper blender but I prefer the convenience and ease of a hand blender!

Finally add the cream and stir through.

Enjoy!