Fiery Tomato Vodka Soup with Chipotle, Lime and Basil

From Gwswiki

This one is for my mother, who loves both vodka and tomatoes, unfortunately whenever I end up making this for her I'll have to tone down the Chipotle as this was very spicy. I personally love the combination of vodka and spicy tomato and I added the basil to smooth out the flavour a bit.

This can be served hot or chilled, though if served chilled I'd suggest blending it to a very smooth consistency and using the lower amount of chipotle.

Yield: 4 Small bowls or 2 Meal Sized Bowls

1 Ingredients
2 Method

Ingredients

Most of these are to taste really

4-5 Ripe Roma Tomatoes
1-2 Chipotles in Adobo (to your personal taste)
Green Onion
Minced Garlic
1-2 Stalks of Celery (Somehow I never got a shot of this, but it's in there, trust me)
4 Cipollini Onions (you could substitute shallots or a small sweet onion instead)
1/2 Cup of Vodka
Juice of 2 Limes
Fresh Basil (Optional)
Red Pepper (Optional)

Method

I was lucky enough to get some very tasty romas from a local greengrocer

Start by boiling a pot of water, then dropping the romas in for about a minute or until the skin is easily peelable. Peel, then chop it roughly. If the tomato has a large core try to remove it the place the tomato and juices aside.

If you've never seen a Cipollini onion before, this is one of the cute little bastards, they're really sweet and quite nice roasted whole. Sometimes hard to find but I really like the flavour so they're going in to the soup today. As mentioned above, swap them for a couple shallots or a small sweet onion if you like.

Quickly sauté both onions, the celery and garlic in a medium to large pot. I'm not sure why they look so burnt in this picture, they really weren't, also I guess I hadn't added the celery yet.

Add tomato, and red pepper if you like then let simmer.

This is a can of Chipotles in Adobo, if you've never had them the aroma when you open the can is amazing. I added two to my soup, but I like things spicy, you may want to stick with one. Chop it roughly and toss it in the simmering soup.

Add a handful of Basil if you're so inclined, and your lime and vodka

Give it a stir every so often until the aroma is filling your house and you want to stick your face in the pot.

Blend using an immersion blender or as pictured to your desired consistency. I like mine a bit chunky, but I also reblended my leftovers to have it chilled as I prefer a finer consistency for chilled soups.