By Linda Lovely
I adapted this Barefoot Contessa recipe that appeared on the online foodnetwork site. Here's the link to the original recipe. I changed the recipe to make it vegan, e.g. no butter or chicken stock. I also have never used plum tomatoes, just whatever I happen to have--often from my own garden, especially when all the tomatoes seem to ripen at once. I LOVE this soup, and I'm sure it would be one of my vegan heroine's favorites. Hope you'll read BONES TO PICK so you can learn more about Brie Hooker and her friends in my new humorous mystery series.
Brie's Vegan Version Of Tomato Basil Soup
3+ lbs. fresh tomatoes, sliced like an apple (leave skins on)
¼ cup + olive oil
1 Tblsp Kosher
salt
*****
2-3 Tbl olive oil
+2 Tblsp coconut oil (can just use olive oil for all)
2 large onions
chopped
*****
4 small (16 oz)
cans fire-roasted tomatoes with garlic
1 pkg (6 ind.
Cubes) Vegetable Cubes softened in 2 cups water
3 Tbls Agave
4 cups fresh or
handful of dried basil
1 tsp thyme
·
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Toss first 3 ingredients and spread on nonstick cookie sheet. Roast 45 minutes.
·
Put the Vegetable Cubes in two cups of water to
soften.
·
In large stock pot, sauté onions in olive and
coconut oil.
·
Add the fresh roasted tomatoes and all the
juice, then add everything else including the veggie cubes and water. Bring to a
boil
·
Reduce heat and simmer uncovered stirring
occasionally for 40 minutes. If you're in a time crunch you can shorten this time to about 10 minutes--still great.
·
Ladle small batches into food processor and
puree.
Not
a vegan? Add grated or hunks of sharp cheddar cheese to melt in the hot soup.
You can also use chicken bouillon cubes rather than veggie cubes if you’re not
doing vegan.
