Recipe for Spanish style squid and tomato soup
Posted by Fiona Nevile in Fish and Seafood, Starters and Soups | 8 comments
Whole unprepared squid
I picked up a whole squid a couple of days ago. I had not come across this wonder before – just those lovely white open ended envelopes that regurgitate a baby squid when pressed.
This half priced one had skin and an eye! Maybe two, I couldn’t/didn’t want to work out the physiology. But I did venture onto the Internet to learn squid preparation skills. I was so pleased that I did as I was tempted to just slice it up, skin and all. I didn’t know about the stomach, quill or the beak. Yes a squid has a beak!
Generally I think of squid as a starter. Danny makes a mean grilled squid with a lime dressing. This time I wanted to make this into something more substantial, pad out the squid a bit to get more for my money. Surely there must be some sort of squid soup?
I quickly found the answer – a Spanish style squid and tomato soup. I combined several recipes, gave it my own twist, and came up with this. A warming, hearty soup that tastes deeply of seafood – exactly the sort of soup that you might savour in a small exclusive restaurant by the sea. We ate this with crusty bread for supper and added a trip to Spain to our wish list immediately.
I cooked this on the hob but it would work equally well in the slow cooker/crock pot. The long cooking time guarantees that the squid is soft and tasty. An economical recipe that tastes divine.
Spanish style squid and tomato soup (serves four)
Ingredients:
500g of squid
1 medium red onion – chopped
1 tablespoon of olive oil
1 tsp of fresh thyme
Half a tsp of Balsamic vinegar
1 chunky garlic clove chopped very fine/ or 1 teaspoon of garlic granules
400g tin of tomatoes
Water
1 tsp of vegetable stock powder (don’t be tempted to use fish stock)
450g of potatoes
Freshly ground black pepper to taste
Method:
Prepare the squid and chop into rings
Sweat the chopped onion in the olive oil for 10-15 minutes until soft
Add the squid, the tinned tomatoes, the thyme, garlic, vegetable stock powder, Balsamic vinegar and stir well.
Fill the tin from the tomatoes with water and add that to the saucepan.
Bring gently to the boil and simmer (lid on) very low for 3-4 hours until the squid is soft.
Peel and chop the potatoes into small 1 cm cubes, add these to the soup and simmer until soft (about 20 minutes). Then mash the potatoes roughly into the soup.
Add freshly ground black pepper to taste.
Serve in warm bowls with plenty of crusty bread on the side
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Mmmm….. Squid. I’ll have to keep an eye out for some. Soup sounds lovely.
I usually stuff small squid with an olive and breadcrumb filling and bake it in the oven. Very messy until I realised I could pipe the filling into the squid with a wide-bore fitting. The recipe is from a Mary Berry cookbook – when I make it again, I’ll post up my version on my blog.
I do like the sound of your recipes and am particularly looking forward to trying the saffron spaghetti one. Sounds delicious!
Hi Barbara
The saffron spaghetti is very pretty and chic. It’s super with the prawns. Best of luck with your book – it sounds like a great read:)
I have cleaned and cooked a lot of squid in my time and the rule is three minutes or three hours anything in between renders it like rubber. Flashed on a grill with oil garlic and parsley is wonderful for young and tender squid but the bigger ones benefit from the long and slow method.
SNAP!
We are having octopus tonight.. greek style.
onion, garlic, oregano, bay, a LOT of red wine, tomato & octopus… slowcooked until the sauce reduces to VERY thick.. then seasoned with salt, pepper, chilli if you like it & served with a good splash of green olive oil & some lemon wedges & crusty bread.
I believe you can also add the Squid-ink to the soup,turns it black, but tastes great so i have heard! – in fact i think H.F.W has a recipe for it somewhere on his website.
Fiona, not even you can make squid sound inviting to me!
This sounds really delish – I love squid. Coincidentally just about to post my Salt/pepper/chilli recipe but I’ve never made a soup with squid – seems nicely simple too. *applauds* Thanks for another great recipe! 🙂