Expat Kiwis: Recipe - A bit of comforting Soup; for all that post Festive indulgence ;)

Tuesday 30 December 2014

Recipe - A bit of comforting Soup; for all that post Festive indulgence ;)

Well the festive season is in full swing now. We really hope all of you are having a great time with your friends, families and loved ones.

We've certainly had a lot of food and some days we're still pretty full but need to have something easy and light as a meal. So we've decided to share this really simple but satisfying Soup with our readers. Great as a light lunch or dinner; and you can make it all year round.

So without further delay; our own take on the Tomato and Egg Soup, which has a Chinese influence to it.

The recipe is pretty simple:

Olive Oil

4 Tomatoes

2 lightly beaten Eggs

3-4 Cups of Water

Veg or Chicken Stock

3 teaspoons of Sugar

Salt and Pepper

Chopped Parsley

Other ingredients such as Tofu or Prawn; it's a matter of preference

You'll notice that the last thing is other ingredients which shows the great versatility of this Soup. Some might like to put some meat like cooked diced Chicken or thinly sliced rare Beef. We've added Tofu Puffs and Prawn before to make it a bit more filling :)

First thing is to cut up the Tomatoes into wedges. Pick some Tomatoes that are acid free so they have a nice sweetness to them. Love the wonderful redness of fresh Tomatoes.

Add a bit of Olive Oil to a Pot and heat it up on medium heat. Once the Pot is hot enough, add in the Tomato wedges. Cook for about 2 minutes, gently stirring. The Tomatoes will start to release their juice. This is perfect as the juice adds to the flavour of the Soup.

Add in the Sugar to help it caramelise a bit. Cook for a further 1-2 minutes, stirring to encourage the Tomatoes to break down a bit more.

Next; add the Water, and the powder Stock as desired to flavour. Stir and then put the heat on heat to bring the Soup to the boil. As you can see, the Soup is a beautiful red/orange from the Tomatoes.

Once it is boiling; turn it back down to low, add Salt and Pepper to taste.

If desired, stir in a bit more Sugar to bring out the flavours a bit more.

Last thing is to add in the beaten Eggs. A good thing to use is a Fork. Slowly pour in a steady stream of Egg, circling around the pot. Behind the stream of Egg, use the Fork to make slow stirs. Don't stir too fast as you don't want the Egg to break up too much. Add in all of the Egg.

30 seconds later; add in the desired Ingredients. We've used some cut up Tofu Puffs and fresh Prawns before. Stir these ingredients through.

Let the Soup simmer for another 2 minutes, turn off the heat, sprinkle some chopped Parsley on top and it's ready to serve!

Here are the 2 versions we've made before; the Tofu one and the Prawn one. The Egg in the Prawn one turned out better as we stirred the Egg in a lot slower. The Tofu one the Egg is a bit too fine due to stirring too fast. Down to preference really :)

Here is the Tofu one.

And the Prawn one. Remember Prawns don't need to be cooked long otherwise they go a bit rubbery. The Egg in the Prawn version turned out more like scrambled Eggs and we actually prefer it this way.

Give this simple Soup recipe a try. It is great for versatility of ingredients and is a wonderfully clean, clear Soup with the sweetness of a Tomatoes.

Try it out and let us know how you go! What extra ingredients did you/would you add?