Hey there friends & fellow vegans, I hope you had a wonderful weekend! My weekend was pretty uneventful, although I did a new dance workout that was really fun and tiring. I’m a little sore but I regret nothing! I also got thisclose to finishing Emerald Creek so you should expect me to: a) talk about it A LOT and b) post a lot of one pot vegan recipes or vegan sandwiches.
Okay. So. I’ve never really been a fan of tomato soup but I guess that I mean I’ve never been a fan of canned tomato soup because I have tried it twice (at least, edit: this is the second time I’ve made this, I checked. See the first attempt here) in the past twelve months and I didn’t have the same instinctive negative reaction that I used to. So maybe I no longer dislike it, at least to the point that I am now experimenting with it.
My biggest problem with tomato soup has always been that it tastes like eating (drinking if we’re being honest) tomato sauce. Usually sweeter than I want a soup to be with no texter or thickness, basically a booze-free Bloody Mary, except well a Bloody Mary has flavor.
BUT The Hubs loves tomato soup and I’m an excellent wife so I’m working on trying to improve it and I think today’s vegan soup recipe achieves that goal, and then some. I took your basic tomato soup and just added some strategic flavor enhancers such as:
*Gochujang paste
*Caramelized onion
*Roasted bell pepper, ginger & garlic
And to give a little texture and thickness I used fresh tomatoes and crushed tomatoes from a jar, plus about 120 grams of cannellini beans. So, let’s do this!
Kitchen Tools:
*Blender or food processor
*Baking mat
*Stock pot
*Chopping board
*Kitchen knife
Ingredients:
*Onions – 350g
*Garlic – 20g
*Ginger – 12g
*Gochujang – 15g (more if you like it spicy)
*Fresh tomatoes – 300g
*Crushed tomatoes – 230g
*Red bell pepper – 55g
*Cannellini beans – 70g
*Light coconut milk – 100ml
*Water or Vegan broth – 700g
Instructions:
*Preheat oven to 185C/350F.
*Place ginger, garlic and red bell pepper on a baking mat evenly spread apart and cook for 15 minutes. The garlic might need more time so check it and if your red bell peppers cook too quickly, remove them since they don’t need to be hot right now.
*Start with your onions. Chop or slice them and add them to a stock pot over medium-high heat. When the onions start to stick to the pot, add a few tablespoons of water or vegan broth to the pot. If you’re going for an oil free vegan recipe reduce the heat to medium and cover, stirring frequently. This will caramelize the onions but it will take about 5 minutes longer than if you add fat. Stir regularly and when onions are caramelized, you can start building the soup.
*Add fresh tomatoes, garlic and ginger to the pot and stir.
*When the tomatoes have started to break down, add gochujang to the pot and stir until it’s dissolved. I only used 15 grams because my husband is off the spice for a while so feel free to add more, depending on your spice tolerance.
*Stir in crushed tomatoes and more liquid but not too much because we still need to make it smooth. Add in seasoning as needed here, including salt and black pepper, thyme, basil and oregano.
*Remove from heat and let cool about 10 to 15 minutes before adding to a blender or food processor. Add beans to the mix and pulse before running it on medium or high speed until smooth. You might need to scrape the sides throughout and blend it again.
*Return to medium heat and add water/broth and coconut milk, stirring as it comes to a boil and then reduce to a simmer. Taste for flavor and simmer 5 to 10 minutes.
*Garnish (optional) with red chili flakes and chili oil
*Serve with bread or biscuits, naan or pita bread, or nothing at all.
**Note: You may have noticed that I rarely offer up weights & measurements for ingredients and that is because my food tracker app, Cronometer, sometimes doesn’t have the exact brand of the food so I have to do the math to make the calories fit but these above should approximate 2 servings of vegan tomato soup.**
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The Spicy Spatula 
Whatcha think?