You must try this lovely fresh tomato and basil soup. It's so simple and absolutely delicious. Although, i'm sure some of that deliciousness comes from cooking the soup in sunshine.

Fresh tomato and basil sunshine soup (stove top and solar oven versions)

Serves 8.

{Ingredients}

• 2 onions, chopped. 
• 4 cloves of garlic, finely chopped or crushed.
• 4 tablespoons olive oil (if using a solar oven, due to the longer cooking time, you can switch to an oil with a higher heat tolerance, like rice bran oil).
• 1 kilogram tomatoes, skinned and chopped. 
• 1 tablespoon tomato paste.
• 1/2 cup fresh basil leaves, roughly chopped. 
• 1 litre vegetable stock.

{Stove top method}

Heat the oil in a large saucepan and saute the onions and garlic until the onion is transparent.

Add remaining ingredients, bring to the boil and simmer for at least twenty minutes.

Season to taste with salt and pepper.

{Solar oven method}

Place onion, garlic and olive oil in a dark shallow dish as seen in the image above (I use a cake tin) and place in the solar oven. On a sunny day the onion should be ready in around half an hour. Or if you're pushed for time, instead, quickly saute on the stove top.

Transfer the onion and garlic mix to a large, dark, thin pot. Add remaining ingredients and place in the solar oven with a lid on the pot.

Go for a walk, or do some gardening, or head off to work, and return an hour or five later (thankfully things don't burn in a solar oven), toss in the basil, stir, and cook for a few more minutes. 

Season to taste with salt and pepper and smell the sunshine. Enjoy!

Calling all lovers of solar cooking

Heather and I have started an exciting new project. We're writing a solar oven cookbook and are inviting recipe contributions. We've got recipes being contributed from around the globe.

How about you? Are you a lover of solar cooking? Are you interested in contributing a recipe? Email SunCookBook {at} gmail {dot} com for more information.

Speaking of lovers of solar cooking, check out Dixiebelle's recent solar cooking adventures.

I'll leave you with my favourite photo from a recent solar cooking feast Heather and I had at Fig Tree Community Gardens.

Shared at the Hearth and Soul blog hop and Simple Lives Thursday.