Tomato and Pesto Soup - Great for the Whole Family

A super quick and tasty soup here.  Incredibly cheap too.  Easily enough to feed two hungry adults or two adults and a little one.

Generally I tend to cook tomato soups and sauces for a long time but I experimented here and I'm really happy with the results.  The result?  A surprisingly delicious, sunny pulpy bowl of gorgeousness.  If you can drag your kids away from the orange stuff in a tin, give it a go.  For one the adults will like it and I'm a big fan of giving kids food which doesn't have to have a smiley face on it to make it attractive, especially if it involved good bread and dunking (most kids and adults in my experience are fans of both.)

Quick Tomato and Pesto Soup - Serves 2 Adults and 1 Todder

Ingredients

1 tsp Olive Oil
2 cloves garlic
1 Tin chopped tomatoes
1 Pack of passata (mine weighed 500g, 17.5 oz)
1 tsp Sugar
Black Pepper
1/4 tsp Salt (optional)
2 tsp Pesto (substitute for vegetarian pesto if avoiding animal rennet)

Method

Crush or finely chop the garlic.  Fry the garlic gently in the olive oil until releasing the fragrance but not browning.

Add the tomatoes, passata, sugar, pepper and salt if using.  Bring to the boil and simmer for 5 minutes.  Add the pesto and serve.  Great with sourdough and proper butter.

Yes, yes I know for all my sugar free baking I've just included sugar in a savoury dish but it is a small amount and with the tomatoes it really lifts the flavour.  Perfect food when it's cold outside but warm inside your heart (or you're just longing for warmer days.)

Shhh... don't tell but this is also really cheap to make.  The tomatoes and passata cost 67p together, the pesto cost £1 for the jar but there's loads left to make this vegetarian lasagne or to just stir through pasta.  What's more I made the bread myself so I'm feeling kind of virtuous right now and so is my pocket!