Great soup for a rainy day, warm and tomatoey with a salsa kick. Make up the simple sofrito recipe, spice up the soup by adding half, then place the rest of the sofrito on the table so each diner can add more if they’d like.

Tomato Soup:

• 3 medium (1 lb. 2 oz. or so) cans crushed or diced tomatoes with juice, preferably unsalted
• 8 Cups water
• 1 TB. olive oil
• 1 small (5 oz.) can tomato paste
• 1 medium onion
• 1/2 tsp. GARLIC GRANULES
• 1 TB. sugar or honey
• 1-2 tsp. salt (to taste)
• 2 Cups cooked rice (we’ve used white and brown, both are good, though brown adds a nutty flavor)

Simple Sofrito:

• 1 green bell pepper
• 1 red bell pepper
• 1 banana pepper or 2 jalapeno peppers
• 2 medium onions
• 3 cloves Garlic
• 1 bunch Cilantro, stems removed
• 1 TB. TURKISH OREGANO
• 2 tsp. CUMIN, ground
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. vegetable oil

Pour canned crushed tomatoes, along with their juice, and water into a soup pot, bring to a boil over medium high heat, then reduce to a simmer. While heating the stock, heat olive oil in a pan over medium heat. When the oil is hot, add the minced onion, fry, stirring, until it begins to brown, about 2 minutes. Add the tomato paste, cook another 2 minutes or so, stirring constantly so the tomato paste starts to brown without burning. Add the cooked tomato paste to the soup pot, stirring or whisking to blend and dissolve in the soup. Add GARLIC GRANULES, sugar or honey, and 1 teaspoon salt. The rest of the salt will be added at the end of cooking if desired. Let the soup simmer while making sofrito. The soup only needs about 40 minutes to cook - 20 minutes before adding the sofrito and 20 minutes after.

Prepare the sofrito by removing the cores and seeds from the bell peppers and hot pepper(s) and chopping them. Place in a blender or food processor, peel and chop the onions and garlic, discarding the cores. Add to the blender with the chopped Cilantro, OREGANO, CUMIN, salt and vegetable oil. Pulse until finely pureed - it may take a few minutes. Add 1 Cup of the sofrito to the soup, stir to blend, then taste. This is a good medium spice level, add more if desired. Pour the rest of the sofrito into a small bowl and serve on the table. At this point, add more salt if desired. To serve, place a large spoonful of cooked rice in each bowl and top with hot soup, If the rice was refrigerated, let it come to room temperature while the soup is cooking.

Serves: 8-12.

Prep. time: 10 minutes.

Cooking time: 40 minutes.