Colm O'Gorman's comforting cream of tomato soup with brown soda hazelnut bread

There aren’t many things more comforting than a bowl of my lovely cream of tomato soup.

The holidays are over, and we are all heading back to work, or school, or whatever our regular routine might be. The days are getting longer, but only by seconds so it is hard to sense it, and after the holidays, January can feel like a long month. After all the cooking, and eating, of the past few weeks, many people will be looking for simpler, lighter fare. But lighter does not have to mean less tasty, or less comforting, and comfort matters at this time of year.

There aren’t many things more comforting than a bowl of my lovely cream of tomato soup. My take on this classic soup is made using staple ingredients, the kinds of things you are likely to have in your cupboards, so this a great ‘go-to’ recipe when you need something quick and delicious. The one item you may not have to hand is evaporated milk, though I now always have a can in my cupboard just to make this soup. If you do not have any, you can use regular milk instead. It will lack some of the creaminess of evaporated milk, but it still works perfectly well. Just be careful not to use condensed milk by accident. Condensed milk is super sweet and would ruin this soup.

Kids love this soup, and it also refrigerates very well. It will keep for a few days and, kept warm in a flask, it is lovely for school lunches, or for serving up as a quick, comforting supper when they get home from school. If you want to turn this into a more substantial meal, have it with some fresh bread and a caprese salad of tomatoes and buffalo mozzarella with a little pesto over the top.

I always serve this soup with my freshly baked soda bread with hazelnuts. This bread is fabulous and takes just minutes to make. Do not skip the hazelnuts in this recipe, they make this loaf something special. I usually toss a few seeds over the top when I bake it. Use whatever you have in the cupboard, be it sunflower, pumpkin or sesame seeds, just toss a small handful over the top of the loaf before you pop it in the oven. You will find molasses in most health food stores, but if you cannot get hold of any, black treacle is a good substitute.

This recipe will easily serve four people.

Cream of Tomato Soup

recipe by:Colm O'Gorman

The bread in this recipe will take 40 minutes to cook, with five minutes of preparation.

Servings

4

Preparation Time

 10 mins

Cooking Time

 10 mins

Total Time

 20 mins

Course

 Starter

Ingredients

• Cream of Tomato Soup

• 1 tbsp olive oil

• 1 large onion

• 1 clove of garlic, crushed

• 2 tins of chopped tomatoes

• 1 tbsp soft brown sugar

• 1 bay leaf

• 2-3 cloves

• 1 tsp dried basil

• 250ml evaporated milk (you can use fresh milk if you prefer)

• 1 tbsp cornflour

• Brown Soda Bread with Hazelnuts

• 375g whole-wheat flour

• 125g plain white flour

• 2 tsp bicarbonate of soda (bread soda)

• 1 tsp flaky sea salt

• A handful of whole hazelnuts

• 350 ml buttermilk

• 1 tbsp molasses or black treacle

Method

1. Begin with the soda bread. Heat your oven to 180 Celsius. Mix the dry ingredients in a large bowl. Make a well in the middle and add the buttermilk and the molasses. Mix well, you do not need to knead this dough, it’s a soda bread so you can just mix it with a big spoon. Once you have brought the dough together, spoon it into a one pound non-stick loaf tin and bake in your pre-heated oven for about 40 minutes. Check the loaf towards the end of baking. Tip it out of the tin and give it a tap on the bottom – it should sound a little hollow. If it does, it is done. Set it aside on a wire rack until you are ready to serve

2. While the bread is baking, make the tomato soup. Heat the oil in a medium sized pan. Finely chop the onion and garlic and sauté them for a few minutes, until the onion is soft and translucent. Add the tinned tomatoes, the bay leaf, brown sugar, basil and cloves and season with salt and pepper. Let the pot simmer for five minutes.

3. Warm the evaporated milk in a small saucepan. Bring it almost to the boil, and then reduce to a simmer. Mix the cornflour with a few tablespoons more of the milk and then stir it into the cakepan of hot milk. Keep the pot on a low heat, stirring constantly, until the milk is thick and creamy. This will only take a minute or two. Remove the bay leaf from the soup and gradually add the milk, stirring constantly. Do not pour it all in at once or the milk may split, slow and steady does it.

4. Once the milk has all been stirred into the soup, bring it up to a simmer and let it cook gently for five minutes to cook out the taste of the cornflour. As with any soup, do not boil it or you will reduce the flavour. Finally, use a stick blender or a liquidiser to blitz the soup to a lovely creamy consistency. If it is a little thick for your taste, you can thin it out with some more milk. Serve immediately in warm bowls, with lots of your freshly baked soda bread, smothered in butter, on the side. Heaven.