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Rice and Tomato Soup
Boil to a pulp, in a quart of salted water, a dozen ripe tomatoes which have been peeled and cut up. Strain, place on the stove again, and add 2 tablespoonfuls of butter rubbed into the same quantity of flour. Add salt and sugar to taste, a teaspoonful of onion juice, and a tablespoonful of minced parsley. Cook ten minutes, then stir in a cupful of boiled rice.
A straightforward meatless tomato soup thickened twice over, with flour-and-butter paste and boiled rice. It works best with genuinely ripe fruit, since there is no stock to carry it.
- Tomato quantityA dozen medium tomatoes comes to roughly 3 to 3 1/2 lb; two 28-oz cans of whole tomatoes with their juice will stand in if fresh ones are pale.
- The butter-flour pasteRubbing 2 tablespoons butter into 2 tablespoons flour makes a raw beurre manie. Whisk it in a bit at a time off the boil, then return to a simmer so the flour cooks out over the ten minutes the recipe specifies.
- Onion juiceGrate a small onion on a box grater and press the pulp through a sieve; a teaspoon is a small fraction of what one onion gives, so grate only as much as you need. Grated onion pulp itself will also do.
- Sugar and saltThe sugar is there to correct acidity, not to sweeten. Start with half a teaspoon for the full pot and taste.
- StrainingStraining after the tomatoes collapse removes skin scraps and seeds. Push hard on the pulp with a ladle rather than pouring off only the liquid, or you lose most of the body.
- The riceA cupful of already-boiled rice is stirred in at the end and only heated through. Adding raw rice instead will drink the liquid and turn the soup to porridge.
- Yield and holdingAbout 6 cups, serving four generously. The rice keeps swelling on standing, so thin leftovers with water or milk when reheating.