Roasted Tomato Basil Soup

It's Memorial day weekend and it's freezing out! So this Shabbat I made 
roasted tomato basil soup, thanks to the amazing site allthecooks.com, it's light, it's vegetarian and it's full of basil, which my husband loves. 

First time I made this recipe we had two vegetarians coming over and I needed a quick fix for my staple chicken soup so I searched high and low (if you can do that on the internet) for a non-dairy tomato soup. Luckily allthecooks came to the rescue, although there's a mention for adding two tablespoons butter but I skip it instead of using parve margarine. And I should mention the first time I made this recipe, it took me hours because I didn't own a food mill and I used a blender and strainer, I went out and bought a food mill days later. My advice use a food mill.


INGREDIENTS:
3 pound Ripe plum tomatoes, cut in half
¼ cup Plus 2 TB. Good olive oil
1 tablespoon Kosher salt
1 ½ teaspoon Freshly ground pepper
2 cup Chopped yellow onions (2 onions)
6 clove Minced garlic
2 tablespoon Unsalted butter
¼ teaspoon Crushed red pepper flakes
1 can Tomatoes with juice (28 oz.)
4 cup Fresh basil leaves
1 teaspoon Fresh thyme leaves
1 quart Chicken stock or water

First step is to preheat oven to 400°F and slice in half 3 pounds of plum tomatoes, make sure that they are nice and ripe. I try to avoid the hard tomatoes as they won't cook up so well. 

Once they are sliced, throw in 1/4 cup of oil olive, 1 tablespoon of salt (recipe calls for kosher salt, I used seat salt) and 1.5 teaspoons of pepper- mix well and place in a single layer on a baking sheet and cook for 45 minutes. I pour in any extra of the oil mixture. Don't use your favorite baking sheet as the tomatoes sometimes overcook and leave a sticky crust that takes a while to clean off the sheet.

While the tomatoes are cooking in the oven, throw 2 cups of chopped onions (two medium sized onions) into an 8 qt stock pot. Add 2 tablespoons of oil, butter(which I skip and it tastes the same), 1/4 teaspoon of crushed red pepper flakes and 6 cloves of minced garlic (have only pre minced? Use this conversion)- cook for 10 minutes on a medium-high fire or until onions start to brown. 

 Once the onions, garlic, and pepper are all cooked up and smelling incredible. Add the canned whole plum tomatoes (28 oz), 4 cups of fresh basil (packed tightly-the more basil the better, unless that's not your thing), 1 teaspoon thyme (I used dried, didn't have enough 'time' to get fresh) and 1 quart chicken stock (I mixed water with 1 tablespoon parve Osem chicken stock). 

 By now your tomatoes should be all done in the oven. You'll be adding them to the stock pot, they should have a nice wrinkled skin. 

  Add the oven roasted tomatoes, including the liquid on the baking sheet. Bring to a boil and simmer uncovered for 40 minutes.

After 40 minutes, get your food mill out or blender/strainer system. Place it on top of a another stock pot, can be smaller than the 8 quart. 

Blend to your hearts delight, I used the finest blade as I don't like chunky soup. You'll be left with a lot of pulp, which you can always turn into a tomato sauce or compost or toss in the trash.... this week since I running low on time, I opted for the trash. 


The finished product is a slightly zesty, tomato and basil infused thick broth... which I can't locate the picture of but trust me it's good. I cook the end result for about 20-30 more minutes on simmer to thicken it up a bit and it always tastes incredible the next day. Since I make my own garlic croutons with leftover challah bread, I throw in a few pieces for the ultimate soup. Best part, it can be served hot or cold. 

Enjoy!

Vegetarian Black Beans aka Veg Feijoada

Ok, I'm late on this... in belated honor of mother's day I'm going to post my mother's vegetarian version of Brazilian black bean recipe which I love and have been dying to copy. It took a while but I broke my mother down and finally got her to reveal the recipe ... she may kill me for blogging this so if you don't hear from me.... 

My mother gave me a ton of things for the wedding, one of which happened to be a pressure cooker or "presto" as my mother loves to call it in her native tongue of Brazilian Portuguese. Typically, Feijoada is made with pork products so this is why I adore my mom's innovative ways in the kitchen by creating a veg version.

One thing I've realized is opening and closing this pressure cooker is the worst experience ever, since the lid has to be slid into the pot which is accomplished after a lot of cursing and force... I may not be doing this correctly. 

First take a cup of black beans and soak overnight.... they've turn a lovely shape of purple- toss anything that doesn't absorb water and looks like a rock as it may be a rock. 

 Sorry for the flash... I'm new to this whole 'taking pictures as you cook' thing

Then take your pressure cooker, hopefully you don't have to battle with the lid and drop the beans inside with water filled up to about 3'' from the top. Place one bay leaf (dried or fresh), whole garlic clove, pinch of salt and a drop of oil. 

 

That white stuff in the pot is coconut oil, which congeals when cold and we try to use instead of oil for a healthier option.

Make sure the pressure cooker rubber seal is properly in place and lock the lid. Place on to high fire for about twenty minutes. Gently shake the pot to ensure that the water hasn't dried out otherwise your black beans will be blackened beans and those taste terrible since I did burn them the first time I made them.  

To open, place the pressure cooker directly from the fire into the sink and run cold water over the lid. Touch the toggle piece at the top to see if it's safe to open, if there's still smoke coming from the toggle, don't open. If no smoke or heat, then slowly open it up as there will be a lot of steam. 

Transfer the beans to another pot and remove the now cooked onion and bay leaf and garlic if you can find it, it usually melts. Add 3 tablespoons tomato puree, salt to taste, 1 tablespoon Osem parve (vegetarian) chicken powder, and a drop of vinegar. Boil without lid until it becomes creamy. 

Once cooked up to the texture of your desire (some people prefer it heavier and some more watered) serve over rice or with a salad... we chose rice that night. 

Shopping list:

Black beans

Whole onion 

Bay leaf

Garlic clove

Vinegar 

Tomato puree

Oil

Salt

Osem chicken powder