If you are a regular reader of my blog, then you certainly know by now what a terrible child I was when it came to food. If I were my mother, I would beat me all the time – or at least during / after each meal! I was one of the pickiest little girls (nowadays I am rather picky about other things, erm, like men!!). However, there were certain dishes that I was totally obsessed with. This soup is one of them.

 

 

When my mother cooked this soup, which is by the way the easiest soup in the world, I would eat portions after portions of it. I’m absolutely sure that she was very happy when she found out that I am obsessed with this soup – finally something that I would certainly eat!

 

 

After I left home at the age of 18, though, I rarely cooked this soup myself. Nor did I remember to ask my mother to cook it for me whenever I visited. It’s so strange, as if this soup never existed. So imagine how happy I was when I remembered it the other day suddenly. I felt like I found a long lost treasure!

 

 

The soup is so easy to make that you will get addicted to it, especially if you have a busy schedule. It is one of the fastest and most delicious lunch dishes. Especially if you use canned tomatoes like me, then you will not spend time to grate the tomatoes either (though, in any case you can use a food processor, more about that below). The fresh basil part is my little addition to my mother’s traditional soup – I love the combination of tomato and fresh basil so much that I try to use them together whenever I can! So if you don’t like basil (is that possible??) or if you don’t have it at home, you can perfectly make the soup without it. In addition to this, you can change use vermicelli instead of orzo if you want a thinner texture. Enjoy your soup!
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Ingredients:

 

Difficulty: ★☆☆ (Easy)
(serves 4)

 

Printable PDF-recipe (no photos)

 

2 cans (each 400 gr.) chopped tomato with juice*
3 tbsp olive oil
4 tbsp orzo (or vermicelli) (in Helsinki, you can find orzo for example in Stockmann and in K-market Kamppi)
1 cup / 2.4 dl. vegetable broth (or chicken broth, if you prefer)
2 tbsp fresh basil, finely chopped
salt to taste

 

*If you can find fresh tomatoes that are juicy and delicious, you can use 3-4 tomatoes instead of canned tomatoes. Just peel them before you process.

 

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1. Put tomatoes with juice in a food processor and process for a minute. If you are using fresh tomatoes, you can grate them or you can chop coarsely and put in the food processor (after peeling), it’s up to you.

 

 

 

 

2. In a medium pan, put olive oil on medium high heat and let it warm for half a minute. Then add tomatoes and orzo, stir for a few seconds.

 

 

 

 

 

3. Add vegetable (or chicken broth), stir frequently and let it boil.

 

 

 

4. Once it starts boiling, add basil, stir and put the heat down to low. Let it simmer for 10 minutes, stirring frequently (or orzo will stick to the base of the pan). At that point, if you want to make the soup thinner, you can add warm water (I added 1 cup of water).

 

 

 

5. When orzo is soft and cooked and the soup simmered for about 10 minutes, season with salt, stir and let it simmer for 1 more minute. Turn the heat off, cover the pan and let the soup rest for at least 5 minutes before serving (but do not wait too long because orzo will keep getting bigger!). Enjoy!