The first snow dropped today! There goes the green, and all color for that matter, for a little to a long while. Luckily the canned, tinned, and preserved fruit and vegetables from the Summer bounty will add some color to your plate if you're sticking to trying to eat most of your foods as they are in season (your seasons can be canned!). Look for brands that use the least amount of preservatives, I prefer the simplest of all: tomatoes and salt. And today I was craving tomatoes due to a little liver heat situation I was experiencing (a TCM - Traditional Chinese Medicine - term for certain symptoms related to the liver such as : red eyes, high blood pressure, headaches, dryness, thirst, and indigestion/food retention). In my case it was the latter symptom, a case of food retention and some sluggishness. It could be partly due to the holiday thump of heavy foods and winter creeping in, or a myraid of other reasons. In any case, I had a tomato bread soup in mind all along and that's what I made, and it was wonderful. And simple. When it comes to tomatoes you don't want to overdo it as they can weaken your calcium absorption and are also detrimental in arthritic cases, but when you need a little kick start, they work. I needed to rev up my engine so to speak and I didn't want any meat but I still wanted some substance.
Ingredients:
1 can of tomatoes
1/2 a white onion
sprig of parsley
1 celery stalk
salt
pepper
paprika
stale or toasted bread chunks
chicken stock
parmesan optional
Instructions: Saute bread in olive oil so it browns lightly then take it out and place to the side. Add more olive oil to the pan. Caramelize onions, add celery sliced up in small moons, add tomatoes, chicken stock, salt, pepper, and paprika. Cook it all down so it melds (taste), then add the bread and let the soup soak into it. Serve in a bowl and grate some parmesan if you so wish and add a bit of fresh parsley on top.
