Today's recipe: Chunky Tomato Soup with Arborio Rice
Speedy Scratch Supper recipe from Copywriters’ Kitchen
Dead on your feet after a long day? Kids/spouse/partner fainting with hunger? Need to turn on your heels for a PTA meeting, evening work—or just want to collapse in bed ASAP?
Time for a Speedy Scratch Supper from Copywriters’ Kitchen.
Whip up delicious Italian comfort food—in minutes.
The following Mediterranean-style recipe is a cross between creamy tomato soup and risotto. Culinary purists may look askance at the mixture of Arborio rice—northern Italy—and tomatoes—southern Italy.
Let it go.
This soup is delicious, ultra-fast to make and—if you’ve stocked your pantry with Frugal Foodie staples—you only have to pick up one ingredient to complete it: heavy cream. And if you don’t want to leave the house—or you’re counting calories—you can use milk.
Chunky Tomato Soup with Arborio Rice
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped fine
1 clove garlic, minced
3/4 cup Arborio rice
1 28-ounce can of Italian tomatoes
1/2-1 cup water
1/2 Knorr’s Vegetable or Chicken Bouillon Cube
Heaping tablespoon Demerara or plain sugar
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon dried basil
1/2 teaspoon thyme
Freshly ground pepper
1/3-1/2 cup heavy cream
1/3-1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
- In a heavy stockpot or Dutch oven, heat oil.
- When oil is hot—you should see heat waves rising, but oil should not smoke—throw in the onions and garlic. Note: About chopping the onion—if Zen-mindful food prep is important to you, chop onion with knife. If you want to move faster, you can chop the onion quickly in a food processor, see photo, below. I use a mini food processor that requires minimal clean up.
- Cook onion and garlic until they soften, about five minutes, adjusting flame to keep onion from browning.
- Add rice, stirring to coat with olive oil and onion mixture, see photo, below.
- Cook rice on low flame—being careful not to brown—for 2-3 minutes.
- Add finely chopped tomatoes to onion and rice mixture. Note: Zen cooks—go ahead and hand chop the tomatoes. Lazy cooks like me use the food processor—no, you don’t have to rinse out the onion bits. Just throw the tomatoes in, whir, and dump them in with the softened onion and rice mixture. See photos, below.
- Season with Knorr’s bouillon cube, oregano, basil, thyme, sugar and pepper.
- Add ½ cup water—you can add more later, as needed.
- Cover pot, bring to simmer, and then lower flame to keep soup on low simmer until rice is tender—but still has bite, about 15 minutes. Add water—or conversely remove lid to let water evaporate—to adjust consistency. Soup should be thick and chunky.
- When rice is cooked, add 1/3 cup cream or milk, stirring to incorporate.
- Sprinkle in 1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese, stirring until melted. Add extra cream, cheese and pepper to taste. Serve with crusty Italian bread. Or for a heartier meal, serve this soup with grilled cheese sandwiches and a salad.
Chopping onion the easy way: Cut onion into eighths, whir in food processor. An inexpensive mini processor is the perfect size and it reduces clean-up time dramatically—just one tiny bowl and blade.
Stir rice into sautéed onions and garlic.
You can hand chop tomatoes fine...
...or whir tomatoes in mini-processor. Note: Save time—no need to rinse processor bowl in between chopping onions and tomatoes.
Soup is thick and risotto-like. If made ahead, you may want to heat and thin with small amount of water.
Serves 6.
