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.

For the love of mango...

My Mango Salsa (link to recipe)...
Mangoes are 2 / $1 at our grocery store, I couldn't resist. I've tried them plain before but wanted to do more today. I was looking up the recipe for pickled ginger on the food network and then did a search to get some ideas for making something with the mango I bought. I am SO glad I did, the mango salsa and the coconut cilantro rice pilaf was pleasing. I served this with some pan cooked marinated brest of tofu. I will not fear this type of food combination again.

My whole meal...

My rice maker Coconut Cilantro Rice (link to recipe)

and side of brest of tofu, veggie, and salsa.

NOTES: The original recipes I based this meal on contained red onion. All I had was yellow, so I subbed but noticed that I needed the color contrast. I used currants to give that contrast with very flavorful and aesthetic results. I enjoyed this meal. I also sweetened the mango salsa more than food networks original recipe.