Tomato Potato Basil Soup
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| If your soup ends up red, that's a good sign! |
One of my passions is cooking, so I figured I would periodically post some of my favorite recipes with tips and tricks. Enjoy!
- Onion: 1 medium sized
- Garlic: 3 Cloves
- Potatoes: 6 Small Red/Brown
- Basil: A handful
- Tomatoes: 4 Cans, diced
- Sea Salt: 1 Tablespoon
- Oregano: 1 Tablespoon
- Water: 2-4 cups
- Water: 2-4 cups
- Olive Oil (just always assume you need that)
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Procedure:
1. Cut those damn vegetables
By far the most annoying part of any procedure, but don't get too caught up in this step. I spent a lot of time worrying over how to cut, dice, or chop vegetables when I was a cooking newb, but you really don't have to. You cannot screw up this step. If you're simply concerned with a delicious meal and not about presentation, no worries. Just remember to peel the garlic and you'll be fine. Here are my chopped veggies:
2. Other Prep
Open the cans of tomatoes, measure your salt and oregano, and get all your ingredients on hand. You'll be cooking your onion and garlic together, so they can share a bowl, but the rest of the ingredients should be separated from each other. Get out a pot big enough for soup. I used a stock pot, but you certainly don't need anything that large. Just get the biggest pot you have.
Have all your ingredients nearby, take a final tally to make sure everything is accounted for, and your cooking life will be smooth.
3. The Cooking
Start by cooking the onion and garlic in the pot. Pour some olive oil in the pot and turn the burner to a medium or high heat. You can really play with the burner at this point to see where it should be. You're shooting for a nice sizzle, but less than burning the vegetables (a good measure is if anything is sticking, the burner is too hot). If it is sticking, an easy way to help prevent sticking/burning is to just stir the veggies a little bit. If this is your first time doing this type of cooking, then I recommend attending to the onion and garlic very closely. Once you've done it a few times, you can be like me and make an Rdio playlist while this stuff cooks. Cook until the onion becomes translucent.
Next you will add the potatoes. You may need to turn up the heat a little when you add the potatoes since the sheer amount is going to eat up most of the heat. I cooked the potatoes for maybe 5 minutes, but it really isn't set in stone.
Next you literally add everything else. I like to do the tomatoes first, but to each his own. The amount of water you add is going to dictate how soupy or stewy your soup ends up. More water for thin, less water for thick. I kept my burner in the middle to high heat range again, turning it up or down to make sure it kept simmering. Cook it for 30 minutes and you have your soup!
WARNING: The only thing you can really do to screw up this recipe is under cooking the potatoes. Before you take the soup off the burner, taste a piece of potato. It should be soft!
4. The Aftermath
Personally, I love bread so I bought a bagette, stuck it in the oven, and then dipped it in the soup. Extremely delicious and easy. I turned the oven to 250 and put the bread in for about 5 minutes (really I just put my hand on it and decided it was warm enough for me).
I also added ground black pepper and red pepper flakes to my soup. If I had it, I probably would have considered cheese or sour cream as well. Feel free to try anything that sounds good. The soup recipe is pretty simple, so customization is easy. If it sounds like it will taste good, it probably will.
Wrap Up:
For your copy and pasting convenience:
Ingredients
Open the cans of tomatoes, measure your salt and oregano, and get all your ingredients on hand. You'll be cooking your onion and garlic together, so they can share a bowl, but the rest of the ingredients should be separated from each other. Get out a pot big enough for soup. I used a stock pot, but you certainly don't need anything that large. Just get the biggest pot you have.
Have all your ingredients nearby, take a final tally to make sure everything is accounted for, and your cooking life will be smooth.
3. The Cooking
Start by cooking the onion and garlic in the pot. Pour some olive oil in the pot and turn the burner to a medium or high heat. You can really play with the burner at this point to see where it should be. You're shooting for a nice sizzle, but less than burning the vegetables (a good measure is if anything is sticking, the burner is too hot). If it is sticking, an easy way to help prevent sticking/burning is to just stir the veggies a little bit. If this is your first time doing this type of cooking, then I recommend attending to the onion and garlic very closely. Once you've done it a few times, you can be like me and make an Rdio playlist while this stuff cooks. Cook until the onion becomes translucent.
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| The onion and garlic gettin' it on. |
Next you will add the potatoes. You may need to turn up the heat a little when you add the potatoes since the sheer amount is going to eat up most of the heat. I cooked the potatoes for maybe 5 minutes, but it really isn't set in stone.
Next you literally add everything else. I like to do the tomatoes first, but to each his own. The amount of water you add is going to dictate how soupy or stewy your soup ends up. More water for thin, less water for thick. I kept my burner in the middle to high heat range again, turning it up or down to make sure it kept simmering. Cook it for 30 minutes and you have your soup!
WARNING: The only thing you can really do to screw up this recipe is under cooking the potatoes. Before you take the soup off the burner, taste a piece of potato. It should be soft!
4. The Aftermath
Personally, I love bread so I bought a bagette, stuck it in the oven, and then dipped it in the soup. Extremely delicious and easy. I turned the oven to 250 and put the bread in for about 5 minutes (really I just put my hand on it and decided it was warm enough for me).
I also added ground black pepper and red pepper flakes to my soup. If I had it, I probably would have considered cheese or sour cream as well. Feel free to try anything that sounds good. The soup recipe is pretty simple, so customization is easy. If it sounds like it will taste good, it probably will.
Wrap Up:
For your copy and pasting convenience:
Ingredients
Onion: 1 medium sized
- Garlic: 3 Cloves
- Potatoes: 6 Small Red/Brown
- Basil: A handful
- Tomatoes: 4 Cans, diced
- Sea Salt: 1 Tablespoon
- Oregano: 1 Tablespoon
- Water: 2-4 cups
- Olive Oil (just always assume you need that)
Procedure
1. Cut Vegetables
2. Cook onion and garlic till onion is translucent (watch for burning)
3. Add potatoes and cook for 5 minutes
4. Add all other ingredients, simmer for 30 minutes
5. EAT!
Enjoy!
Thank you for sharing good sir. This recipe will be coming soon to a pot near me.
ReplyDeleteI look forward to more Dietz recipes.
Update: I just ate this for lunch the next day and it was delicious.
ReplyDelete