New Recipe

The weather here in Southern California feels like winter for the first time in several years. I started craving some good old fashion tomato soup, just like mom served us back on those winter days in Oregon. So rather than try to find one at the market that doesn't have all the preservatives and sugar I decide to make my own.

The problem is in order to get great tasting tomato soup, you need great tasting tomatoes and they aren't in season now. Most store bought ones have little to no flavor of any kind let alone tomato flavor. I thought about that and decided to use some of the small prepackaged cluster tomatoes because they usually taste better this time of year than the hot house ones. Then to deepen and coax as much flavor as I could out of them I roasted them. That will greatly intensify the flavor.

So this is what I came up with. All vegan, and every ingredient has some cancer fighting property. I hope you enjoy this and I hope when you eat it you are transported back to the days of your youth when mom made you soup on those cold winter days.

Roasted Tomato Soup with Roasted Onion

Ingredients:

4 cups fresh tomatoes, quartered and seeded

1 small yellow onion, quartered

1 to 2 cups vegetable broth

2 teaspoons of Bionaturae Organic Tomato Paste

2 tablespoons fresh basil, chopped

2 bigger cloves of garlic

1/2 cup coconut creamer

1/2 teaspoon sea salt

1/2 teaspoon oregano

1/4 teaspoon finely ground white pepper

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 375. Quarter 5 or 6 regular sized tomatoes or 15 to sixteen smaller ones. In the winter I buy the prepackaged containers of the smaller tomatoes at Trader Joe’s (about 4 cups). Take out all the seeds over a small bowl and reserve (I also cut out the white dense stem from the top of the tomatoes) . Quarter 1 small yellow onion and lightly coat with olive oil. Cover a baking sheet with parchment paper and wrap the garlic in tin foil (with a drop or two for olive oil) then put the seeded tomatoes, onions and the garlic on the parchment paper and put into the oven for 15 to 20 minutes or until the onion quarters start to turn color.

Once the tomatoes, garlic and onion are roasted remove from the oven and let them sit. Now take all the seeds and juice that are in the small bowl and put them in a blender and blend on high speed for 1 minute. Take the blend mixture and run it through a fairly fine strainer to remove the seed pulp. Rinse the blender and return the strained liquid back into blender, add 1 cup of vegetable broth and the roasted tomatoes, onion, garlic and 1 tablespoon of the fresh basil. Blend on high speed for 2 to 3 minutes. Be careful when you turn on a blender with hot things. Pour the mixture into a large sauce pan over low heat. Add the sea salt, white pepper, oregano, and 1 teaspoon of the tomato paste and stir into the puree, let simmer for 2 minutes and taste. If you want to get a more vibrant and tangy tomato taste add 1 more teaspoon of tomato paste. I always do this because the flavor is so good. Cover the pan and let this simmer on low heat for 15 minutes, stirring often. At this point you can add more salt if needed, then add the coconut creamer stir well and turn off the heat. This is a fairly thick soup so if you want to make it thinner add a little more broth. Stir in 1 teaspoon finely chopped fresh basil and serve with a big piece of warmed crusty bread.