Not Everything is About Chicken Soup…Tomato & Basil Soup Saves The Day!

For the past few days, my entire family has been under the weather.  Hannah had a bout of food poisoning and is nursing a slight cough now.  Ethan is coughing a little too, although both the kids are well on their way to recovery now.  Both Pete and I have our noses blocked now. 🙁

It’s no fun at all, I’m sure you know, and just as I was racking my brains today trying to come up with something comforting and soothing to enjoy (apart from the traditional chicken soup), I figured I would just throw some stuff together and see if it tastes good.

Now I know that basil is supposed to be good for ailments such as cough and cold, so I definitely wanted to add that into the soup.  Then I just added whatever else I thought would taste yummy, and so I ended up with my very own version of Seafood Tomato Basil Soup!

Ingredients:

• 3 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1 yellow onion, minced
• Some olive oil
• 2 medium tomatoes, chopped into cubes roughly
• Italian seasoning
• 3 tbsp tomato puree or instant tomato pasta sauce
• About 20-25 leaves of fresh basil, roughly chopped
• 15-20 shrimps, peeled
• 1-2 cups water, depending on consistency preferred
• Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Heat up olive oil over a medium flame, and sautée the onions, garlic and Italian seasoning until fragrant.
2. Pour in the tomatoes and tomato puree/pasta sauce.
3. Add the water and increase heat until soup comes to a boil.
4. Stir in the shrimps, and lower the heat till a simmer.  You could also add in other types of seafood like fish slices, clams, crabmeat etc.
5. Add salt and pepper to taste and simmer for about 2 minutes.
6. Stir in the fresh basil and mix gently.
7. Serve hot, either with steamed rice, bread, buns or even pasta!

Have you cooked up a recipe simply on a whim before? 🙂

This soupy recipe was certainly a welcome change for our palates, and the tomato and basil went so well together!  I’m definitely adding in some clams the next time I cook this!