Sunday, April 30, 2006

Two Soups: Tomato and Spring Greens

It has been rainy here and I am not complaining - we needed it. Chilly rainy weather says soup to me. I could have posted this recipe a few days ago, but I needed to take a picture of this red stuff... of course!
My favorite tomato soup:
I grow a bunch of tomatoes during our short growing season and freeze them whole. I put them into the pan (skin and all) from the completely frozen state and cook them down with the flavorings. I have a good quality kitchenaid hand mixer (stainless steel arm) with nine powerful settings. I blend this soup smooth. Considering the seeds and the peel is in there, my mixer is pretty powerful and the soup does get smooth.

Saute onion and garlic until softened:
1 medium onion
1 tsp fresh garlic
Then add:
3 lb tomatoes (stemmed and cut into chunks)
1 carrot (diced)
1 tsp salt
Cook for 15 minutes (until all veggies are soft) and puree with a hand mixer right in the pot. Then add the following and simmer for 20 minutes or more (I leave it go on warm for sometimes all day):
2 Tbsp veggie broth powder or bouillon
3 Tbsp tomato paste (depending on the quality of the tomatoes)
2 Tbsp sugar (or a little more to taste... I add 1/4 tsp stevia = to 1/4 cup sugar sweetness because we grew up on the corn syrupy canned tomato concentrate stuff
3 Tbsp rice protein powder and 2 cups water OR use your favorite milk... not soy because tomatoes are acidic and that milk may curdle.
Sprinkle with 1 tbsp dried basil. Taste for salt and pepper.


This soup is taken from the lastest Vegan Feast Newsletter. It is made with spring nettles ( a mild green that doesn't have oxylates like spinach, but needs to be harvested while wearing gloves because nettles will cause your hand to burn... they are called stinging nettles. I searched all over a woodsy area near us and found none, so subbed kale from my freezer and worked well. This concoction is a garlicy, white bean and carrot meal deal. I liked it. I do usually add more liquids to soup recipes because I like my soups on the soupy side.

Bon Appetit' and happy weekend!

My sis is home and doing well and my catty (Tiger/ gray tabby) is still missing. He is an indoor-outdoor cat and we've had him for three years. He's never ran off before, but actually we never really "got" him either - he showed up as a stray.

7 comments:

primaryconsumer said...

Those soups look amazing! My mom grow tomatoes, so I'll have to try this soup when we have an overload of them. I'm glad your sister is doing well. By the way, I didn't get a chance to comment on your last post, but I loved looking at everything. :)

Eat Peace Please said...

Your soups look great, but I'm sad about your kitty. I hope he comes back or is at least in a place where I hope they take as good care of him as you did. Have you set out food and items he likes to entice him back?

Vicki's Vegan Vice said...

Hi Dori: I'm so glad you shared your tomato soup recipe, and find it very interesting that you freeze the entire tomato! I hope your kitty comes home, and I need to back track to find out what's going on with your sister. I always enjoy visiting here. :o)

Dori said...

Hi primaryconsumer.

Leslie, thanks for the kitty concern,. We have his stuff right where he would expect to find stuff.

Vicki - I was kind of amazed at the tomato thing to, but another farmers market vendor shared this with me. I have done it this way for the past two years. If you run warm water over the frozen tomatoes, the skins slip right off and they can be used for soups in which it is not pleasant to have skins.

Vicki's Vegan Vice said...

What a cool tip, Dori! I never seem to have too many tomatoes -- but it'd sure be nice to have them in the winter to throw into a soup. (double nice with the skin just falling off)

Freedom said...

I'm sorry to hear about your cat!
I'm not much of a soup person but that tomato soup looks good even to me!

Harmonia said...

Sorry to hear about your cat! These soups look great!