I was in the mood to try something different with macaroni. My kids love macaroni in fishball soup because it’s not spicy and they love fishball. So it’s a winning combination. But today I had beef - not fishball - and I wanted to cook it with macaroni. So keeping in mind that it had to be a non-spicy dish, I set out to try some kind of tomato infused meat soup. The result was surprisingly good! No complaints from my critics and by the end of lunch, the pot was squeaky clean. (Ok…I’m exaggerating…but u get the point! )

Ingredients:
3 cloves of garlic - chopped
1 onion - chopped
1lb beef/mutton - cubed (about 1 -1/2 inch)
1 carrot - cubed (about 1/2 - 1 inch)
1 potato - cubed (about 1/2 - 1 inch)
14oz (1 can) of diced tomatoes
6 cups water
2 tbsp olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
grated parmesan cheese (optional)

Method:

1. In a pot, heat the oil and saute the garlic and half of the chopped onions until soft and slightly browned.
2. Add the meat and fry for about three minutes until it changes colour. 
3. Add the water, the rest of the onions, potatoes and carrot. Bring to a boil.
4. When the meat is tender, the vegetables cooked and liquid slightly reduced, add the can of tomatoes.
5. Bring to a boil again. Leave to boil for 10 minutes.
6. Using a ladle with holes, remove the ingredients which are floating on the surface of the soup. This will consist of onion, tomatoes, some carrots and probably a few stray pieces of potatoes. Put the strained ingredients into a blender and grind. There is no need to add water into the blender when doing this.



7. Pour the pureed ingredients back into the pot. Bring to a boil. Continue to cook for another 5 minutes.
8. Season with salt and pepper.
9. Pour over macaroni which has been boiled til al dente. Sprinkle with parmesan cheese.
10. Serve hot.

Tips:

• Try to avoid removing too much of the potatoes from the soup into the blender. We don’t want the puree to be too creamy.
• If the puree step is too troublesome, then blend the onions instead of chopping. And use tomato juice instead of diced one. BUT, the texture and taste will not be the same.
• I prefer preparing the macaroni separately rather than boiling in the soup directly so that I can prepare the soup in advance and just reheat when it’s time to eat.