In an attempt to highlight the bounty of tomatoes and herbs from Kathy's garden, we planned a night of Bruschetta, and Homemade Garden Tomato Soup.
Kathy was kind enough to bring most of the ingredients right from her garden (YES!). She only requested I make ricotta cheese, (or "some ricotta cheese vegan thing-y", as she calls it), which, I could gladly oblige.
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| This one came out really well. I was pleased! |
My new favorite method for making vegan ricotta is actually a mix of the Tofu Ricotta AND the Cashew Ricotta recipes from Veganomicon. The texture of the tofu is a perfect base, and the pureed cashews, lemon juice and olive oil add just the right creaminess. I also like to add nutritional yeast to taste, which gives the ricotta that extra nutty, cheese-like flavor. The addition of nutritional yeast is only in the TOFU Ricotta recipe, and not in the Cashew version. I like to live large and add it anyway.
And now for the soup: I think Kathy harvested every plum tomato she had! So we went to work washing and scoring the bottoms with a little "x", then dropping them into a pot of boiling water. About 20 seconds later, we plunged them into a giant bowl of ice water and started peeling! I must say, this task is much more fast and painless with two rather than one! :) And boy was it worth it.
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| No fancy recipe, just taste as you go! |
GARDEN FRESH TOMATO SOUP
Half a large onion, diced
2-3 cloves, chopped garlic
3 pounds plum tomatoes, peeled and chopped
Olive oil
Vegetable Stock
Fresh Rosemary and Oregano
Salt and Fresh Ground Pepper, to taste
Sautee onions and garlic for 5 mintues until tender.
Add tomatoes and stir well.
Simmer for about 20 minutes, and puree in a blender to dseired consistancy.
A stick blender would have come in really handy here. I'll get one of those someday... We decided to leave the soup with a bit of texture instead of pureeing it totally smooth - mostly because it was molten hot, and we were too hungry to wait for it to cool and safely blend it all the way.
Place 1 large spoonful of cashew ricotta in the middle of your soup bowl, then ladle in the garden fresh tomato goodness...DELICIOUS! ^_^
Yum, I'd love a garden full of tomatoes! I love your idea of mixing the cashew & tofu ricottas too, I'll be trying that!
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