Tomato and Cinnamon Basil Soup

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Growing plants gives me a great deal of pleasure,there is something so satisfying in seeing them grow. Lack of space is one of the reasons that my interest in plants has been contained to well......container plants. I find that growing my own herbs like mint and basil have dual benefits,in addition to providing an outlet for my green thumb I also get to use these herbs in my cooking .

This past spring I came across a new type of basil at the local Home depot called the cinnamon basil,it seemed to me it was a more fragrant type of basil and I decided to give this one a try.The only use I could find for the basil for quite some time was in my tea,and no, there is no hint of cinnamon in the taste of this basil in case you are wondering,it is just seems more fragrant and a slightly stronger herb than the regular basil

Finally, I decided to experiment with this herb in tomato soup and see how that turns out.The presence of this herb imparted a very unique and subtle flavor to the soup that was pretty good.I have never made tomato soup with regular basil so I cannot compare how the taste differs from that one,but I was pleased with how this soup turned out and plan to make it again

Click here for a printable view of this recipe

Ingredients and method to make the Tomato basil soup

1 leek cut into little pieces (use the white part)
1 inch piece of ginger (grated)
1 tbsp chopped basil (about 5 to 6 small cinnamon basil leaves )
3 cups tomatoes cut into 1/2 inch pieces ( I used campari tomatoes)
1/2 cup fat free half and half
1/4 cup milk
1/8 tsp chili powder ( or according to taste)
2 tbsp olive oil
salt to taste

Heat the olive oil in a large pan,add the cut leek and the ginger and saute for about two minutes.

Add the tomatoes,the basil and the salt and cook until the tomatoes are soft and mushy.

Cool a little and then puree the mixture in blender until smooth.Press the pureed mixture through a sieve.

Pour the milk through the sieve too,so as to extract the maximum of the juice from the pulp.

Add the half and half to the extracted juice,the chili powder and heat gently on low heat.

Serve hot with fresh ground pepper

Serves about 2

Notes:

In case you like a stronger flavor from the basil increase the amount of basil slightly

This is my entry to the No Croutons Required event being hosted by Lisa and Holler

This is my entry to the Grow your own event being hosted by Andrea and Jugalbandi

This is my entry to the Herb Mania-Basil being hosted by Ammalu's Kitchen