This week is “British Tomato Week” so I have been thinking about all the different meals which I add tomatoes to over the years. This ranges from lasagne to pies and everything in between. One of my daughter’s lived on cherry tomatoes when she was little, walking around with a punnet of tomatoes. 🙂 It was her favourite snack as a little girl.
Yesterday I made a quick tomato soup for lunch. I used onion, a carrot, a handful of cherry tomatoes which were starting to soften, 1/2 a red pepper, 2 tablespoons of red lentils and a vegetable stockcube. I boiled the ingredients in a [amazon_textlink asin=’B00537P25S’ text=’pan’ template=’ProductLink’ store=’wwwlovetobake-21′ marketplace=’UK’ link_id=’aa6cd9e1-406e-11e7-8a34-67b29c60ff40′] and left it to cool before blending together with a few basil leaves and chopped chives using my [amazon_textlink asin=’B010FMO1XO’ text=’hand blender’ template=’ProductLink’ store=’wwwlovetobake-21′ marketplace=’UK’ link_id=’86282f7b-406e-11e7-9676-7379c10d22e6′]. I served the soup with some tiger bread – MMMmmmm!! This is another bread which I would love to master – just so I didn’t have to go and buy it from the supermarket all of the time. I am sharing the soup recipe today as it was a very tasty Tomato & Basil Soup which went down very well with my husband and myself.
[lt_recipe name=”Tomato & Basil Soup” servings=”2″ prep_time=”10M” cook_time=”10M” total_time=”20M” difficulty=”Easy” print=”yes” summary=”Nutritionally, one bowl of soup contains 93 calories, 0.4g total fat (1% daily total fat), 19.9g total carbohydrate (7% daily total carbohydrate), 6.6g fibre (23% daily fibre) (based on a 2000 calorie diet).” image=”https://www.love-to-bake.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/tombasilsoup13.jpg” ingredients=”1 carrot;10 cherry tomatoes;1 onion;1/2 red pepper;2 tbsp red lentils;1 vegetable stock cube;500ml water;6 basil leaves;chives;” ]In a pan add the chopped onion, carrot, and red pepper.;Add the cherry tomatoes, water, lentils and stock cube.;Bring to boil then simmer for 10 minutes.;Allow to cool.;Add the basil leaves and chives then blend.;Serve hot with bread.;[/lt_recipe]
Tomato plants are so easy to care for (once you have grown them in the [amazon_textlink asin=’B01D4RPXY8′ text=’greenhouse’ template=’ProductLink’ store=’wwwlovetobake-21′ marketplace=’UK’ link_id=’c23e9200-406e-11e7-a67c-2555a5ce3b5b’]) and give a wonderful source of fresh food straight from the garden to your dinner plate whenever you feel the need. They are a nutritionally sound foodstuff with plenty of vitamins and minerals needed for a healthy diet. In particular, tomatoes are an importance source of potassium which is needed for the heart, skeleton and muscles to function correctly. It helps to balance the acid and water throughout the body. Tomatoes have cancer fighting properties due to the presence of lycopene, a flavonoid antioxidant, carotenoids and other antioxidants which have been proved to combat many types of cancers. Tomatoes contain vitamins C, A and B in abundance as well as iron, calcium and manganese plus many more.
Tomatoes are a fruit, however, in cooking they are used in savoury dishes and are classed as a vegetable. I can not think of any sweet dishes where I would add tomatoes to the recipe. Maybe, I could use some in a muffin recipe with some ginger and cinnamon spices to compliment the tomatoes. Something I may have to try out in the near future.
This morning I made Strawberry and Chocolate Chip Muffins for the family at breakfast time but I don’t think the chocolate chips would work with tomatoes – but you never know? I could make the muffins savoury with tomatoes, basil and cheese but I would like to make a sweet muffin with tomatoes and it is something I may be going to try later today.