Chilled Tomato and Basil Soup

Cool and refreshing: chilled tomato and basil soup

This vibrant  chilled tomato and basil soup is quick and easy to make, and it’s cool and refreshing on a hot day.

The soup has just a few ingredients, which I nearly always have on hand.

I really love the sweetness of the red capsicum to balance the tomatoes, and I think that the balsamic vinegar adds just the right amount of acidity.

I like to puree some basil leaves into the soup, but feel free to just use them as a garnish if you prefer.

I find it’s a great soup for the kids to take to school in a thermos, especially for the Year 12 student who seems to eat lunch on the go.

Even if she has just a few minutes to break for lunch, I know she will find this nourishing.

Alternatively, the soup can be frozen in a small plastic container. It will keep other lunch items cool, and it will have defrosted and be ready to eat by the middle of the day.

Serve the soup with toasted pita breads sprinkled with a little sea salt, or a few breadsticks. A dollop of roasted cashew and celery leaf pesto stirred into the soup tastes good, too.

Tinned tomatoes: the pantry staple

Francesco Cirio (1836 – 1900) is credited with being one of the pioneers of appertization (invented by the Frenchman Nicolas Apperti).

Appertization refers to the technique whereby foods are placed in air-tight vessels (cans). They’re then heated to a high temperature to destroy all the micro-organisms.

This method of food preservation overcame the difficulties associated with exporting perishable goods, such as tomatoes, by extending their shelf life.

In 1856, at the age of twenty, Cirio opened his first factory in Turin, Italy.

After his initial success with peas, he extended the range to include various other food products. His business exported products worldwide.

Tinned tomatoes are one of the most versatile ingredients in my pantry – they’re great for soups, pasta sauces, baked beans and baked eggs, too.

I’m rather partial to tins of cherry tomatoes, but you can really use any tinned tomatoes for this recipe, or even a bottle of passata (pureed, strained, uncooked tomatoes).

Homemade chicken stock

I’ve used homemade chicken stock for this chilled tomato and basil soup. However, vegetable stock works just as well.

Homemade stock tastes much better than the store-bought variety, and it’s cheaper, too. I made the stock simply by reducing the liquid from my poached chicken breasts.

You can find the recipe for poached chicken breasts here.

Cookbook inspiration for easy family meals

Tomato soups remind me of the late Bill Granger, self-taught cook, restauranteur and cookbook writer, and dad of three.

Did you know that he wrote 12 cookbooks? I often refer to his cookbooks for easy and casual family meals.

He included a wonderfully comforting cream of tomato soup in his book ‘Feed Me Now,’ using tinned tomatoes and a handful of other ingredients.

Together with little cheese toasties, the soup was on high rotation when the kids were little.

Tomato soups, both hot and cold,  remain a firm favourite in our family, even now the kids are all big.

More Chilled Soup Recipes

Both these recipes for chilled soups contain cashews which provides a lovely creamy texture without the heaviness.

Chilled corn and cashew soup

Cucumber and cashew gazpacho

Best wishes,

Amanda

PS: If you’ve tried this chilled tomato and basil soup or any other recipe from At Amanda’s Table, please let me know how it turned out in the comments below.

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