Vegan Tomato Soup

Tis the season for soup!! Here is another great soup recipe to try from our very own Nichole G :)

Vegan Tomato Soup

Ingredients:

4 tomatoes

 ½ cup sun dried tomatoes (soak for 30 mins)

 ½ cup macadamia nuts

 1 tsp sea salt

 ¼ cup fresh basil

1 tsp black pepper

 2 garlic cloves

4 cups hot water (or 3 cups hot water, 1 cup veg broth)

Put all ingredients in a blender blend until smooth.

Winter Delight Soup from Jen B

So this week has been a week of introductions and today's contribution comes from our regular contributor Jen B!  So you have now met all of our regular contributors Super Dave, Kate S, Nichole G and last but not least Jen B.  We will be adding a profile for Nichole and Jen hopefully within the month so you can hear a little about who they are and their thoughts on food and health.  Don't forget to  follow our blog (see sidebar) and to leave comments  - its encouraging to see you all droping by and hearing your feedback!

Winter Delight

Ingredients

1                                 Large white onion, grated

1                                 Granny smith apple, grated

6                                 Carrots, shredded

2 TBSP                     Butter

1                                 Large squash, cubed & roasted

1 BOX                       Vegetable stock

2 TBSP                     Sugar

1 TBSP                     Ginger

1/2 Tsp                     Salt

1/2 Tsp                     Cinnamon

1/2 Tsp                     Cayenne

1 C                           Cream

Directions

Heat pot @ med-high heat

Add butter, melt

Add onion, apple, carrots & 1/2 of stock

Stir, cook 10 mins

Add squash, broth, ginger, salt, cinnamon, sugar & cayenne

Bring to boil & boil for 10 mins

Simmer on med-low heat for 10 mins

Remove from heat

Put in a blender & blend or blend using a hand blender until smooth

Return soup to pot, med-high heat

Add cream, stir & warm

Enjoy!

Squash needs to be roasted before hand in the oven at 400 for about 15 mins

I usually toss the cubed squash in a bowl with olive oil, salt & pepper before I put it on a pan to roast

You can switch squash with pumpkin, if you want J

Homemade Hamburger Soup

Now when you think of health food, hamburger soup may not be the first thing that pops into your head but by my definition of 'health food' (whole, real foods) I think we can make it fit.  For you veteran cooks this may be old hat but I figured for those young GB folks that have recently moved out on their own - this may provide some inspiration.  Especially when they see how easy making soup from scratch can be.

Homemade Hamburger Soup

1 onion (med to large) diced

2-3 cloves of garlic crushed and minced

1 tbsp olive oil

Start to saute the onion and garlic over med heat until the onions are translucent and begin to brown

Add and brown

1 lb extra lean ground beef

Now normally (especially if using anything other than extra lean beef) you would drain the beef but I keep all the juices in the pot to help flavour the soup stock.

I then add virtually any and all veggies that I may have around.  This last soup I added

2 carrots diced

2 celery stocks diced

1 green pepper diced

1 red pepper diced

3 Roma tomatoes roughly cut

(get creative at this point!! I often add black beans as well but didn't have them on hand this time. If you have a favourite ingredient add a comment at the bottom of this post and share your inspirations!)

I saute all the veggies in the hamburger mixture starting with 'hardest' veggies and working my way up to the softest.  Usually its a minute or two between adding the next textured veggie.  This isn't mandatory, I just make this a practice so that my carrots are equally cooked with my peppers ext.

Next I fill the pot with water and calculate how much 

Beef Bullion (For my pot I use two containers but read the directions on your bullion)

And lastly I add seasonings!

This last part is really by taste so I hesitate to give measurements and such but I ALWAYS taste the soup broth after adding the bullion.  From there you can gauge if you will even need to add salt (usually not...)  As a side note try to find a bullion that is not just salt and food colouring ;) I have found a condensed gelatin bullion that is not as salty as others I have tried and adds some nice flavour.

Anyway back to spices...

For this soup I added oregano and rosemary with a pinch of sage as well as shake or two of my Montreal steak rub (Epicure has some great spice mixes that do not have any preservatives)

Good Luck!

I just realized that I didn't take a picture of the finished soup :( It was awesome though!