My daughter's Tomato Soup

For the last few weeks, my four-and-a-half daughter S. talked to us about her soupe à la tomate. She started the conversation one morning as my husband was taking her to school. She said that she had this super recette and that she wanted to make it. For a few days, she kept talking about her soupe à la tomate... so when my husband went to the market with her, they bought fresh tomatoes and onions to make it. We postponed the actual cooking day because it was never convenient for me to help her make her soupe à la tomate when she was suggesting it. In order to make her accept the fact that we could not make it aujourd'hui, I prompted her about her super recette. "C'est facile (it's easy), she said. "Tu prends les oignons, tu prends les tomates et tu les cuits ensemble et tu les mixes" (you take the onions, the tomatoes and you cook them together and then blend them). "Après, tu mets du sel, du poivre, de la crème, du fromage et des croûtons"(then you add salt, pepper, cream, grated cheese and croutons). Facile, indeed! When we were finally ready to make it, she was in charge of telling me what to do. I was just asking questions to maker her improve her super recette. I made her peal and chop the onions. She was very proud because, unlike me who start crying the minute I chop onion, shallots or even leeks, she did not cry. While we were chopping the onions and garlic, my two-and-a-half son was playing with water in charge of cleaning the tomatoes (they were really clean!!). We talked about sauteing the onions in butter or olive oil (she chose olive oil). She helped cut the tomatoes and then stir them with the onions. I had to convince her that we needed to add a little bit of water to make une soupe. Otherwise, we would have une sauce tomate. From then on, we let her soupe cook on the stove and she helped me puree it with the immersion blender.

The result was really good, ma foi. Much better and much healthier than any other canned soup available around here, that's for sure. We all enjoyed it, with crème fraîche and fromage, évidemment! We did not have croutons but we had fresh bread instead......
As we were preparing the soup and eating it,  S. made sure that I was going to publish it "sur ton blog". It was really important to her that her super recette made it to my blog. She sort of understand what a blog is; she knows I am looking at the daily number of readers (thank you, merci!)... and whenever I am making something, she takes a first bite and tells me whether she likes it or not, giving me, in a way, her OK to publish it or not! This blog has become a family-business... and the most exciting part, I have to say, is to see my children desire to be more and more involved in the experience!  So, here is to S.'s first own dish.  We all hope that you'll enjoy her soupe à la tomate as much as we all did. And of course, S. is already thinking about her next recipe. Stay tune! Bon Appétit!

Ingredients:
- 5 large tomatoes
- 2 onions
- 1 clove or garlic
- Salt, black pepper to taste
- Olive oil or butter

• In a large pot, saute the garlic, onions in olive oil
• Add the tomato chunks and saute for another 5 minutes
• Add water, covering the vegetables
• Cook over low heat for 15-20 minutes
• Blend with an immersion blender
• Add salt and pepper to taste

My Personal Comments:

• I don't like canned tomatoes, that's why we made the soup with fresh tomatoes. Canned tomatoes would work but the taste would be affected.