Tomato fennel soup

Approx. 175 Calories per serving. Recipe makes 2 servings.

I was in the mood for soup and was trying to think of something I could make that would use up the fennel. I enjoy the combination of tomatoes and fennel, and thought I could make a tomato soup with fennel. I was a little worried that I was going to have an issue with the tomato skins (since I used fresh and was too lazy to remove the skins) but they blended nicely and there was no trace of them in the final soup. I also added a few sun dried tomatoes to add a bit more depth of flavor.

While the soup was enjoyable, it tasted a little bit too much like spaghetti sauce to me and I kept thinking of how good it would be poured over a big plate of pasta. While the connection to spaghetti sauce was distracting, the soup still really hit the spot and I ended up eating both servings for dinner (and not grilling the chicken that I planned to eat with the soup).

UPDATE: The next time I made this soup, I didn't add any fennel seeds and I doubled the amount of sun dried tomatoes. I really enjoyed the flavor this way and could taste the fennel and tomato without thinking of spaghetti sauce.

Ingredients

• 1 fennel bulb (approx. 2 cups)
• 1/2 yellow onion
• 2 cups chopped tomatoes
• 3 sun dried tomatoes
• 4 cloves garlic
• 1 tsp fennel seeds
• 1 Tbs olive oil
• 1 cup vegetable stock
• 1 1/2 cup water
• Black pepper, to taste

Directions

1. Remove top from fennel bulb, saving a few leaves for garnish.
2. Remove core and then chop bulb into small pieces.
3. Chop onion, tomatoes and the garlic.
4. Add the olive oil to a sauce pan.
5. Saute the garlic, fennel seeds, sun dried tomatoes, chopped fennel, and onions until slightly tender.
6. Add water and vegetable stock.
7. Boil for 10-15 minutes.
8. Add tomatoes and mix well.
9. Simmer covered for an additional 20-30 minutes.
10. When everything is soft, remove from heat and blend (I used an immersion blender).
11. Serve garnished with a few fennel leaves.