Tomato and pear soup

Soups

A delicious, an unusual, recipe from Sona worth trying.

vegetables

Every year, when the freezing temperatures are approaching the country I live in, Estonia, I have to decide what to do with the many kilos of tomatoes that are still left in my greenhouse.

This year, when I was preparing a Canadian Relish, I tasted the ingredients before adding the large quantities of vinegar and sugar that a relish needs in order to become a thick sauce. What a precious combination of tastes if they are in their very early cooking stage!

This inspired me to create this soup:

1 kg of tomatoes, the hard center removed, then cut into big slices or chunks
6 celery sticks, including some leaves, cut into very small slices
500 g of ripe pears, peeled and cut into big pieces
300 g of red or white firm and fresh onions, cut roughly into pieces
1 tablespoon of cumin seeds
1 tablespoon of white mustard seeds
1 tablespoon of sweet red pepper powder
1 or up to 2 teaspoons of salt
Chili powder to taste or 1-3 fresh chilies

Take some oil (for instance coconut oil) and fry the cumin and mustard seeds. When the mustard pops, add the celery. Fry until just before the spices get too brown. Add a little bit of water and simmer for up to 12 minutes – depending on the freshness of your celery sticks.

Add the tomatoes, the onions and the red pepper powder and mix.

Put on big flame and after 1 or 2 minutes add the pears and salt. When your soup is boiling, wait until the tomatoes shed their skin – which is a short time – then take it off the fire and let it cool for some minutes.

Blend in grinder and serve.

Notes:

You can put the rest of the soup into glasses and freeze for another serving or sterilize it at 80 degress for 30 minutes.

If you use more pears (600 instead of 500 g) and add them only at the very end, and reduce the amount of chili to a tiny bit, your soup will have much more of a mild pear taste.

Recipe and photo by Sona

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