Question: What’s vegetarian, easy and fast to make, apparently better than my gazpacho, only takes 2 steps and only needs 10 basic ingredients?
Answer: Food & Wine’s “Chilled Tomato Soup with Tarragon Crème Fraîche”.
I’m really ready for fall, and thankfully it’s starting to feel like it around here. Nevertheless, it still seems a little early to be making soup (Brian and I have grand plans to spend the entire winter making and eating soups). Luckily, my free September 2009 issue of Food & Wine contained the perfect solution: “Chilled Tomato Soup with Tarragon Crème Fraîche”. The ingredient list is really simple: tomatoes, tomato paste, red wine vinegar, vegetable broth, olive oil, sugar, salt, pepper, crème fraîche and tarragon. Chances are, you already have almost all of those ingredients.
Ultimately, I halved the recipe (which then ended up only getting us through last night because Brian and I both had two servings), omitted the salt and pepper (I like to leave out salt whenever possible, especially since my broth wasn’t low sodium) and substituted sour cream for crème fraîche, because my supermarkets don’t appear to carry it. And what was I going to do with leftover crème fraîche?
Brian and I both loved the soup, possibly even more than the gazpacho I made a few months ago. The flavor is really fresh and I’ll eat anything with tarragon in it. It’s a summer soup and not particularly hearty so I would recommend serving it as a side or getting a good loaf of bread to go with it.
My soup craving is satisfied for the moment…but I’m still looking forward to making “real soup” in the near future.
