The cheating side of town (or 5 minute tomato soup)

This is nearly as fast to make as opening a can of tomato soup.

I'd found myself with a pot of droopy basil which I hadn't got around to using, and rather than waste it, i decided to rescue it while it was still OK to use. I only had store cupboard ingredients to hand, so used what I had.

The ingredients are just as pictured above: Serves two

I can of tomatoes + one and a half cans of water.

Dried onion flakes

Garlic granules

Coarsely ground black pepper

3 vegetable stock cubes

Half a small tub of cream cheese

(optionally, if you'd like to increase the tomato flavour, a small squeeze of tomato puree

Fresh basil (chopped)

Fresh chives (chopped)

About 1 tsp olive oil

Method:

Warm the olive oil in a saucepan and stir the tomatoes through it for just a minute to enhance their flavour.

Add the water and stock cubes and all of the seasonings except the fresh herbs. Dried seasoning - use to your own taste.

Add the cream cheese and use a stick blender to blend the soup until creamy and smooth.

Chop the herbs and add those at the last moment before serving the soup.

[Imaaan]

Great use of the available ingredients to you and I'm sure the final product was delicious as heck

[Activity2004 Administrator]

This looks and sounds wonderful, Sue. I'll definitely try this very soon. This is perfect for the cold temperatures we're having lately. Thank you for sharing it with us.

[Sara_2611]

I call meals like that -a " using up" meal - because no matter what little (or lot) you have left you can still make a good meal out of it

[Femai]

Wow well Done you!