Lethargic Tomato Soup Recipe

This week has been extremely eventful for me. Not only did I have a car crash last Friday which seriously stunted my attempts at blogging before it has even got off the ground, but as a result, I’ve been dopped up on happy pills to get rid of the back pain, so my cooking has definitely taken a back seat.

But despite all of this, of late, Thursdays has been the day when Andy has his friends round and they all bond over a good game of cards. I, being the dutiful wife, try to entertain myself by doing all the things that I don’t have time to do in the week whilst he is lazing about the place like the ironing, cleaning and cooking.

Well, being the lovely person that I am, I made the guys some mango chutney early on in the evening whilst they got set up and Andy fried off some popadoms to go with them. Before you all start wondering, why this thread is called tomato soup, my mango chutney recipe is a closely guarded secret that I haven‘t even told my little brother, so unfortunately, you’re never going to ascertain the recipe for that little gem. However, the soup I made for my dinner that arose as a combination of my lethargy and need to use up some old tomatoes definitely is one worth trying.

One of my favourite parts of cooking is opening the fridge and finding ingredients that I know need to be eaten up soon and rustling up something with them. Being creative stops the boredom from setting in and definitely helps to fend off the food ruts that turn up when you have a limited repertoire of recipes to work with.

Anyway, as promised, my soup recipe. Unfortunately, I didn’t think far enough ahead to actually take photos, so you’ll just have to trust me on this one; it looks and tastes great!

Makes two good sized portions or four starter portions.

½ jar of pasata sauce
6 medium tomatoes
3 large stems of fresh basil
8 springs of thyme
Half a large onion
1 large clove of garlic
½ tsp of cracked black pepper
½ tsp of salt
1 tsp of vegetable bouillon
1 tbsp of caster sugar
3 tbsp of greek yogurt
2tbsp of sunflower oil
1 tbsp of tomato puree
1 large nob of butter
2 handfuls of conchiglioni pasta shells


1) Put the onion into the food process and blitz until finely chopped. Grate the garlic through a fine grate or crush in a pestle and mortar.
2) Heat the oil and butter in a large saucepan, then add the onion and garlic and fry off until soft. Make sure you continuously stir so as not to let the onions brown.
3) Take the tomatoes and cut the skin in a cross shape all the way round. Put them in a bowl and pour hot water over the top. Leave them submerged for a few minutes until the skins loosed, then peel and put in the food processor. Add the fresh herbs (destalking the thyme) and blitz.
4) Boil the pasta shells in a separate pan until soft (just follow the instructions on the back of the pack).
4) Add the blended tomatoes and the pasata to the onions and heat until simmering gently.
5) Add the yoghurt, salt, sugar, pepper, bouillon and puree to the soup and heat until it starts to thicken.
6) Once thick enough, use a hand blender and blend until smooth. Add the pasta shells and enjoy!