Tried, Tested and True: Tomato and Rice Soup with Asparagus

Oh no!

I'm late!

:(

Basically I put the wrong date for Tried, Tested and True into my calendar - I thought I had until Thursday... Ooops... Well, here is my submission anyway - Giz and Psychgrad - I'm sorry it's late!

Tried, Tested and True is a new blog event which is being hosted by Giz and Psychgrad from Equal Opportunities Kitchen. If you haven't checked out their blog, do so. NOW! They are a mother/daughter duo, with cracking writing styles and lovely food. The aim of this event is to showcase the guaranteed crowd pleasers - the dishes that are always appreciated by friends or family.

This month I was at a bit of a loss on what to enter. As I am living off my store cupboard, my choices were limited. Then at the weekend it hit me... SOUP! I love soup - I eat a lot of it - and am used to massive bowls of steaming broth up on Scotland. I have a couple of favourites - one being my thick and hearty garlic and spinach soup. I'm also a huge fan of spicy lentil soup... and of course Scotch broth! But for this round up I decided to post Tomato and Rice Soup with Asparagus. It is a healthy, warming soup, which can be thinned down for summer months, or made almost as thick as a risotto for the winter! As it is coming into Spring, I opted for somewhere in the middle.

The asparagus isn't a constant - but I do usually try to add some extra veg for the vitamins. This was my first purchase of British asparagus this year - how amazing does this look?!

Gorgeous!

No matter what vegetable I use though, my soup is always a hit. Healthy, warming and cheap - I remember the first time I made it at university halls - feeding about 12 of us about 20p each! Ever since then it's always been my standby, my fallback. What I make when I'm feeling ill, or when I'm stressed and really busy. Unexpected visitors? All the ingredients are in the cupboard - and this soup can be ready inside half an hour! Fussy eaters? Everyone like tomato and rice! (Well, just about. And if they don't, there's a chippie on the corner!)

Perfect!

Tomato and Rice Soup with Asparagus

• 1 cup brown rice, soaked for 1 hour in hot water then drained and rinsed.
  
• 10 thick stalks of asparagus
• 500ml stock - I used turkey stock that had been frozen from Christmas... it even had lovely chunks of turkey meat in it... yum!
• 500g passata
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 tsp ground coriander
• 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1 tsp smoked paprika
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Put the stock and the passata into a large saucepan and bring to the boil. Add the drained rice, the paprika, cayenne and coriander, cover and turn to a low simmer.

Meanwhile, snap off the woody part of the asparagus stem and gently peel from below the tip. Chop the stem into rounds - each about 3/4 mm thick - and set aside the tips.

In a frying pan heat a glug of olive oil and fry the asparagus rounds - adding the garlic and some black pepper after a couple of minutes. Fry for another couple of minutes. Roughly chop the turkey meat from the stock and add it to the pan, along with the asparagus tips. Turn the heat off and set aside.

Once the rice is cooked, taste the broth and adjust the seasoning. Add the asparagus/turkey mixture and heat until the tips are al dente.

Serve with hunks of granary bread!

Store Cupboard Cooking Day 9

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