Spicy Tomato & Bacon Soup

Peter J's Note:

Original recipe that I thought tasted great, it is quite spicy so reduce or omit chilli flakes and/or pepper for a mild result. Can of course be scaled up easily.

• Total Time: 30 mins
• Prep Time: 5 mins
• Cook Time: 25 mins

Ingredients:

Servings: 2

• 2 teaspoons olive oil
• 1 slice bacon
• 2 teaspoons garlic, crushed
• 1/2 teaspoon onion flakes
• 1 cup crushed tomatoes
• 1 chicken stock cube
• 1 tablespoon tomato paste
• 1/2 teaspoon chili flakes (optional or to taste)
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper, ground
• 1 tablespoon fresh parsley, torn apart
• 6 basil leaves, torn apart
• 2 cups water
• 1 slice bread

Directions:

1. Remove rind from bacon and tear into bite sized pieces.
2. Place bacon, oil, garlic, and onion flakes into medium saucepan and cook over medium heat until bacon is browned and cooked through.
3. Add all remaining ingredients apart from bread and slowly bring to boil over medium temperature (will take around 10 minutes).
4. Reduce temperature to low and simmer for 10 minutes.
5. Meanwhile toast bread and cut into small squares as croutons.
6. Serve soup in bowl with croutons sprinled over the top.

Reviews

[~Leslie~]

Peter, this soup was outstanding! I doubled the recipe and made a big batch. I used garden tomatoes that I ran through my food processor and dried basil as I am all out of fresh. The only different thing I did was to add some freshly grated parmesan cheese on top just before serving. This had the perfect amount of chili flakes for us. My DH loved it too, he had two bowls and commented several times about how great it was. It took about 20 minutes to make and is just an easy, homemade soup. Also, I loved that there was no flour in this recipe, great for low-carbers. Thanks for a recipe that will become a regular in our house!

[uk queen]

I loved this soup. I have been looking for a good recipe for tomato soup for years and this is it!
I did change a few things, I cut the pepper and chili flakes in half and it is still fairly spicy. I also added 1 1/2tsp of salt and 2 tsp of sugar to cut the acidity. Thanks for a great recipe.

[Elmotoo]

Delicious soup!! I tripled it! :) I used chicken broth instead of the bouillon cube as well. I think fresh chopped onion might be better, too - the flakes browned too quickly & almost burned. A nice easy recipe. Everybody loved it! Made for the 4/08 recipe swap.