Tomato Soup

I love a good tomato soup!! Been craving it over the weekend and finally decided to try my hand at making it. However, I've never made it before and had to do some research before making any attempts.

So I found a few different websites and recipes and discovered that most call for canned ingredients. Canned? If I wanted canned soup, I would just buy it pre-made! So I did some more searching and discovered a really inspiring Tomato Soup recipe on the "Your Vegan Mom" blog and decided I'd work with that one!

The really great idea that I saw on her blog was to thicken the soup with potatoes, not just use tomatoes. Potatoes, eh? Combining potatoes and tomatoes sounded strange, but I flew with it. Here are the main ingredients that I used in this recipe:

You know what? Everything is so fresh & simple, and it turned out great!

In order to make this recipe, you will need a medium size soup pot with a lid, and a good blender

I guess the only thing I would add to this that I didn't have on hand was fresh basil. I'd also love to make this soup with roasted garlic instead of fresh. A few cloves of freshly roasted garlic would turn this simple soup into something extravagant. Add about 1/4 tsp of cayenne pepper if you prefer a spicy soup. However you prefer it, please enjoy the recipe below!

Tomato Soup
(serves 2)

INGREDIENTS
1 1/2 tsp earth balance (vegan margarine) or olive oil
3 large tomatoes, diced
1/2 medium red onion
4 garlic cloves
large handful of mini yellow potatoes (or 1 large yellow potato)
2 cups vegetable broth
1 bay leaf
1/2 tsp thyme
*A pinch of saffron or 1/2 turmeric (not necessary)

DIRECTIONS

Add earth balance or olive oil & heat soup pot on low. Once that's hot enough, sautee bay leaf, diced garlic & onion till fragrant. Add potatoes & heat through. After the potatoes are warm to the touch, add the tomatoes. Mix well.

Add vegetable broth and stir well. Keep the heat at LOW. Put the lid on the pot and wait till it starts to boil. Once it starts boiling, add the thyme and a pinch of saffron or turmeric. Let it simmer with the lid on for about 15 - 20 minutes.

After it's done simmering, turn off the heat and transfer the soup to a blender. Blend thoroughly & serve hot plain or over rice.