Amazing Tomatoes

Tomatoes are very popular in my family. Mom cooks them as a vegetable, not a fruit. When I decided to lose weight, tomato soup becomes one of my best friends. Except eating bananas and drinking water, I would like to recommend my favorite dish. I eat tomato soup when I go back home in Kaohsiung. Before I tell you how to cook, I would like you to read the article from http://www.tomato.org/ .

There are different names of Tomatoes― Tuh-MAY-toh, Tuh-MAH-to― all mean a delicious, nutritious fruit, more widely known as a vegetable. Tomatoes are not a kind of vegetables; they are actually a fruit, a kind of berries. China, United States and Turkey are the top three countries produce tomatoes, more than 125 tons in the world.

Tomatoes are easy to be planted in the garden; therefore, they are most common plants you may find in many U.S families’ garden. People can plant seeds or small tomato plants. Heirloom tomatoes are most popular among home gardeners and organic producers; they seem to resist more disease and produce very tasty, interesting fruits. There are many different tomato plants, red fruit mostly, but also ―yellow, orange, pink, purple, green and white― they are all tomatoes’ varieties.

Some facts for you to know:

※Tomatoes are the state vegetable of New Jersey

※ In Arkansas, it is both the state fruit and state vegetable.

※ In the state of Ohio, tomato juice has been the official beverage since 1965.

※ Joseph Campbell mass produced the first tomato soup in 1897.

※ The first recipe is credited to Maria Parloa for her tomato chowder in the book, the Appledore Cook Book, in 1872.

There are hundreds of tomato recipes for everything from tomato marmalade to fried green tomatoes, and they are good for your health. Tomatoes contain an antioxidant, excellent source of lycopene, which fights free radicals to prevent─ cancer, heart disease and premature aging─ when tomatoes have been cooked such as ketchups and tomato products. What is lycopene? Lycopene ― an antioxidant ― can fights free radicals which can potentially cause cancer, heart disease and premature aging. It commonly exists in tomatoes and carrots; it also can interfere with normal cell growth and activity.

Vocabulary

1. chowder 海鮮雜燴濃湯Chowder is a thick soup containing pieces of sea food.

2. antioxidant抗氧化劑An antioxidant is a substance which slows down the damage that can be caused to other substances by the effects of oxygen. Foods which contain antioxidants are thought to be very good for bodies.

3 free radicals 自由基 atoms that contain one or more unpaired electrons. Free radicals are believed to be a cause of ageing, heart disease, and some cancers.

4. premature 早熟的 mature or ripe before the proper time.

5. marmalade 含有碎果皮的果醬marmalade can mean preserves made with fruit other than citrus. The recipe includes sliced or chopped fruit peel simmered in fruit juice and water until soft; indeed marmalade is sometimes described as jam with fruit peel. Marmalade is often eaten on toast for breakfast.

6. lycopene茄紅素 a red crystalline substance, C₄₀H_56, that is the main pigment of certain fruit, as the tomato and paprika, and is a precursor to carotene in plant biosynthesis.

the Therapy and Taboo of Taiwan’s Medical Vegetables and Fruits .

After reading the article, you must understand how important tomatoes are. Now let me introduce a good book for you, and you can take this book as a nutrition guard book―the Therapy and Taboo of Taiwan’s Medical Vegetables and Fruits .

It contains clear pictures and illustrations. You can easily know the therapy and taboo of vegetables and fruit in Taiwan. I show you some pages which I scanned from the book. Here is the ingredient of the traditional tomato soup from my mom’s family. I eat the soup when I am at home in Kaohsiung.

steps of cooking tomato soup

Here are the steps to cook a pot of delicious tomato soup:

steps of cooking tomato soup

Then, put a sliced onion, carrot, Jew’s-ear, and mushroom.

steps of cooking tomato soup

Cook with tender fire after boiling about ten minutes

Steps of making tomato soup

Put sliced pork, broccoli, celery, and it is ready to serve.
I know that my mom claims that I can eat as much soup as I want, that the calories are not high enough to over daily needs, that the nutrition is in full, but I still dare not eat too much. This pot is my dinner. My dear friends the tomato soup is really a cuisine for dieters. I (a successful dieter), recommend you my family tomato soup which is delicious, which is easy to cook, which makes you feel content after you finish your soup.