Full of flavour tomato soup served with a poached egg
Today, I’m recreating Maderian Tomato soup that I had at the lovely Casal Da Penha restaurant in Funchal. It’s a lovely family-run restaurant, nothing fancy, but it serves very good food, the way it should be. The fact that I had to book four days in advance & on arrival there were people being turned away speaks volume for this restaurant.
Confession time: if it had been the first day of the holiday, I would never have ordered the Tomato soup, but this was the last, and I might have eaten & drunk a little too much, and my body was calling out for something soothing and wholesome.
My body was right, and this was an exceptional dish, especially when our lovely waitress asked if I wanted a pouched egg with my soup. I knew I had made a great choice (the inclusion of a poached egg is the norm for this recipe).
I like this recipe as it can multitask. It will make a great dinner party starter, light lunch, or a comforting Monday night healthy dinner.
It’s easy to make and can prepared in advance, it can be made in a large batch & frozen; it ticks all the boxes as a great recipe to be in your repertoire. So go on, give it a go; you will not regret it, after all who does not like homemade tomato soup.
I added chopped chives and blended sun-dried tomatoes on top of mine, but any herbage or fancy oil will chef it up appearance-wise.
Serve with croutons or just some crusty bread.
Before we go into the recipe, here’s a handy tip if you are thinking about serving this at a dinner party and are worried about cooking the poached eggs while your guests are waiting.
Cook the eggs as normal (I usually cook no more than two eggs in the pan). When the white is just firm enough to light out with a slotted spoon without falling apart, transfer it into a bowl of iced water. The eggs will be kept in ice-cold water for hours. Then, when your guest arrives, transfer the eggs into boiling hot water & warm through for a minute. There you have it, stress-free, perfectly cooked poached eggs.
Finally, I used fresh tomato’s but if you would like to use tinned, buy the best you can afford, as it makes such a difference.
After all, the Tomato is the star of the show in this recipe. I hope you enjoy healthy Tomato soup recipe
My website has more recipes like this one, mainly taken from great restaurants & unique dishes, recreated by me (so you know they are not too tricky. Ha-ha)
Madeiran Tomato Soup
Print RecipeIngredients
- Tomatoes 900grm
- 2 white onions
- 4 cloves of Garlic
- Olive oil
- 1 poached egg per bowl of soup
- 600ml Chicken or vegtable stock
- 6 bay leaves
- 5 Tbsp Tomatato puree or paste
- 3 Tbsp of oregano, tyme or parsley -could also asdd basil
- Sea salt & black pepper, season to yourtaste
- Crusty bread or croutons
- Asplash of Sheery Vinegar
- One cooked potato-med (optional) I used to thicken the soup
Instructions
Score an X on the end of the tomato. Place the tomatoes into boiling water for 30 seconds to 1 minute, or until the skin of the tomato begins to curl where you made the X. Place the tomatoes in an ice bath or under cool water until you can handle them. Using your knife or hands, peel the skin from the tomatoes. Discard the skin and set the tomatoes aside.
Quarter the peeled tomatoes and scoop out the majority of the seeds.
Cut the onions into a large dice.
To a large pot over medium heat, add the olive oil. Sauté the onions until soft. When the onions are soft, add in the garlic, half of the fresh herbs and salt. Sauté for 5 minutes. Add the tomatoes, bay leaves, chicken or vegetable stock, tomato puree, sherry vinegar, and cooked peeled potatoes fine dice and season with pepper & salt. Let simmer on a medium heat for 30 minutes. Remove the bay leaves.
Add 50 to 100% of your soup to a blender, depending on your desired consistency. To the blender, add the remaining fresh herbs and season to taste.
To serve, spoon the soup into a bowl and top with a poached egg (see my note about pre-preparing the eggs. Add a slice of crusty bread or croutons.
I served mine with chopped chives & blended sun-dried tomatoes with olive oil and spooned them on top. Feel free to be creative.
There you have it, a twist on tomato soup that is bound to please.
