If you’ve read this post, then you’ll know that once
again Mike and I are taking on the Live Below the Line challenge, living on
just £1 per person per day, for five days. I’ll be doing a daily diary as well
as posting a few recipes, so check back tomorrow for the first instalment!
I’ve changed my
approach a bit this year in terms of what I’m buying and cooking, but I knew
that soup was going to remain a constant – it’s delicious, warming, healthy and
it can be really cheap, plus it’s easy for Mike to take to work. This is a
variation on a soup I often make with peppers and tomatoes, and to be honest I
haven’t changed a huge amount – it’s made with a massive pile of vegetables and
not much else. Usually I’d use stock in a soup, but this time it had to be water
as I couldn’t afford the stock cubes. I’ve also been much more restrained in
terms of seasoning, which I normally love!
Want to support us? We're not getting sponsorship this year, just to avoid any clash with the official campaign, but what we'd REALLY love for you to do is start donating regularly to your local foodbank. You can usually do this at the supermarket so it couldn't be easier - just buy something extra when you do your food shopping!
Ingredients
 |
| Five days' worth of soup! |
3 large yellow peppers (or 5 small ones)*
3 large onions
3 fat garlic cloves
Butter, for frying
1 carton Sainsbury’s Basics Chopped Tomatoes
1 large tablespoon Sainsbury’s Tomato Puree
A good pinch of salt
A pinch of curry powder
*I had 5 small peppers because I bought a cheap bagful –
not bad for £1!
Makes 5 pretty
generous servings
Start by melting a generous scoop of butter in a large
pan. Peel and chop the garlic and get it frying in the butter, and then de-seed
the peppers and cut into long thin strips and add those in too. Put the lid on
so that the peppers sweat a bit in the butter – just remember to take the lid
off every now and again and give them a good stir.
Next, do the onions – I did them in a separate pan to
start with, but you can do them in the same one, it’ll just take quite a bit
longer to get everything softened up. Peel them and cut into slices, breaking
these up into separate layers with your fingers, and then fry in another large
pan with a bit more butter. Put a lid on these too.
Once the onions have softened up a bit, you can scrape
them into the pan with the peppers and give it all a good stir to combine. Add
the chopped tomatoes, and then fill the carton up with water, twice, and add
that to the pan, along with the tomato puree. Stir it really well, and then put
the lid back on and bring the whole thing up to the boil and let it bubble for
a few minutes.
Next, remove the pan from the heat, and puree with an
immersion blender until the soup is nice and smooth. Put it back on the heat
and add the salt and curry powder, stir really well, and have a taste. To be
honest, although it wasn’t quite as flavoursome as I’d usually like, the lovely
sweet, fresh flavour of the peppers really shone through and was surprisingly good
without much salt, especially with the addition of the curry powder. Not bad!
