Spiced Tomato Soup

At this month's soup group, the host of the evening served up this phenomenal soup. It is absolutely perfect for the winter. When I first tasted it, I couldn't believe it was vegan. It was so creamy and flavorful because of the coconut cream and the warm spices. I finally tracked down the recipe from 101 Cookbooks, which is my new favorite cooking site. I basically stuck to the recipe, but I added less water and the entire can of coconut milk.
I also decided to use some of the cooked tomatoes that I had frozen way back from tomato season. (I can't believe it's already time to use up all of my frozen tomatoes and sauces even though Summer feels a long way away from now.)The funny thing is I don't label my containers when preserving so I very well could have added some strange salsa mixture that I had frozen at some point. As I was dumping it in, I noticed some chopped garlic and perhaps rosemary in the tomato mixture. Oh well. It was delicious anyway.

Tomato Soup

4 tablespoons coconut oil
1 large yellow onion, diced
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 tablespoon curry powder
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon ground cumin
2 (28 ounce) cans of fire roasted whole tomatoes
1 (14 ounce) can coconut milk

In a large pot over medium heat cook the onion and salt in the coconut oil until softened for about 10 minutes.

Add the curry powder, coriander, and cumin and cook until you can really smell the spices for about 1 minute or so. Make sure to keep stirring while the spices are toasting so they don't burn.

Then add the cans of tomatoes plus their juices and about 3 cups of water. (I used one can of tomatoes and then one frozen container of diced tomatoes preserved from the farm.)

Simmer for 30 minutes and then puree. Add the can of coconut milk (reserve some of the creamy part at the top for a garnish) and bring the soup back up to a simmer to serve.

I served the soup with homemade croutons, fresh basil, and coconut cream. At soup group, we had the soup garnished with homemade paneer, fresh oregano, and lemons. Both versions are delicous. (The picture up top doesn't look so great since all the toppings sank as soon as I put them in. This is a lesson for the next soup post I suppose.)

Homemade Croutons

4 slices spelt flour bread (preferably stale)
olive oil
oregano
salt and pepper

Cube the bread and place in a baking dish. Generously drizzle some olive oil over the bread cubes and then sprinkle some oregano, salt, and pepper over them.

Bake at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes or until the edges are golden brown and the cubes are toasty.