28 June 2007

Tomato Soup with Rice


Domatesli Pirinç Çorbası

Since I last visited my blog, it's been two months and it's now winter in Melbourne. This week, it's been raining heavily, there are floods in the southeast, trees falling down, riverbeds overflowing. The good news is I am still busy but less so. This soup is a great winterwarmer soup again from Turkey, and also great for the Weekend Herb Blogging hosted by Kalyn's Kitchen this week. This soup is commonly made with fresh parsley, but dried mint also works well.
Fresh tomatoes are always better, but tinned tomatoes are practical and work fine. Another short-cut (great for weeknights) is to use one-day old leftover cooked rice. 1 cup is enough, and you only need to add the rice, and bring the soup to boil. If using cooked rice, adjust the amount of water to 3-4 cups.
If you like thicker consistency, stir 1 tablespoon of flour into the thickened tomato mixture and before slowly adding water.
Spice it to taste, sweet paprika, freshly ground black pepper, ras-el-hanout (I know it's not Turkish, but I love it).

2 tablesp olive oil
1 clove of garlic, diced
2 large tomatoes, crushed
(or a tin of crushed tomatoes, around 400 gr)
1/2 teasp salt
1/2 teasp sugar
1/3 cup uncooked rice
5-6 cups of water
1/3 cup fresh parsley, chopped
(or 1/2 tabsp dried mint)

Lightly fry garlic in oil in a large saucepan. Before garlic changes colour, add the tomatoes, salt and sugar. Cook tomatoes for about 5 minutes until it is thickened. Add the rice and water. Cook covered, stirring occasionally for about 30 minutes until rice has softened. Add the parsley, cooking for a couple of minutes. Serve warm.

Croutons: Croutons are optional, not being part of the original recipe. To make your own croutons, dice one-day old bread, drizzle with olive oil and place in a microwave safe container. Microwave uncovered in high for 2 minutes. Stir, if necessary, microwave another 20 seconds, and another 10 if necessary. (Watch out, they burn quickly - so only increase time at short intervals).

6 comments:

Kalyn Denny said...

Thanks for sharing this recipe which sounds just perfect for a quick dinner after work. I love parsley so this sounds great to me.

Anonymous said...

Mooo! Winter in Melbourne. I love hot soup and tea in these months.

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It could be really useful to you for promoting your blog, getting ideas, meeting people and discussing things with them.

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Anonymous said...

Tomato soup with rice, sounds easy and delicious :) Definitely helps when I'm in hurry, thanks !:)

Nicole said...

You're back and with a wonderful recipe at that! I will try and make this soon. It's summer in Amsterdam but you wouldn't know it!

Anonymous said...

HI!

I have discovered ur blog now and I am very happy about it, cause my bf is turkish and if we would marry in future, he would want me to make him turkish food also (although I am so afraid cause I bet I will never make it turkish enough, if you know what I mean, I am originally from Macaristan:D)...but I was happy to discover this tomato soup, cause we have exactly the same food in hungarian, so I am relieved now:D

Keep up the good work!

Ceviz said...

I know quite a few non-Turkish who cook great Turkish food. Hope you enjoy the other dishes as well. And I must say I quite enjoy Hungarian cooking, still remember the dishes from my visit to Hungary.