Cream of Tomato Soup

I'm back from a lovely weeks holiday in the South of France and I am very much missing the sunny weather already. Today has been grey, gloomy and wet in London, and just what I needed was a lovely bowl of soup to warm me up. This uses evaporated milk as the "cream" bit and works really well flavour wise although it seemed to split a bit when I added it and reheated the soup.


                               













Cream of Tomato Soup

(Serves 4)

(2 WW ProPoints per serving)

cooking spray

2 leeks, chopped

8 tomatoes, cored and chopped

1 tsp dried thyme

1 bay leaf

960ml vegetable stock

2 small cans evaporated milk

1/4 tsp dried basil

salt and pepper

Coat a large saucepan with cooking spray and set pan over medium heat. Add leeks and sauté until soft, about 5 minutes. Add tomatoes, thyme and bay leaf; cook, stirring occasionally, until tomatoes break down, about 5 minutes.

Add stock and reduce heat to low; simmer, covered, 10 minutes. Remove from heat and remove bay leaf.

Purée tomato mixture in saucepan using a blender. Return the purée to saucepan and set pan over low heat. Add milk and simmer 1 minute to heat through. Remove from heat and stir in basil; season to taste with salt and pepper. Garnish with thyme and serve.