Tomato Basil Garlic Soup
Once upon a time, I used to work at a little Italian restaurant called Cravings in Qualicum Beach. Everything was made from scratch — sauces, breads, desserts, the pasta — the works. One of my favourite recipes was what we referred to as TBG — or Tomato Basil Garlic soup. It’s the perfect thing to ward off those germs everyone is passing around the office (go garlic!), but make sure if you’re cooking it for a date you’re both partaking. Even better — it’s dairy-free, wheat-free, gluten-free, soy-free, vegetarian, vegan, egg-free, sugar-free and no cholesterol! It’s magic everyone can eat it soup ; )
It only takes about 5 minutes to put everything in a pot and it can be ready in a matter of minutes if you’re using fresh/canned tomatoes.
Ingredients: *note that you need to check your ingredients very carefully if you’re using soup stock. Often, commercial stocks have sugar and many have gluten. You can just leave the stock out and use water. If you do, you can up the amount of salt, pepper and basil a little bit.
- 1 cube/packet of bouillon (veggie or chicken or beef all work) + 1 c water (or you can use liquid soup stock instead) *if you’re on a reduced salt diet, use a low sodium broth or just leave it out entirely and add a bit more onion and garlic to the recipe!
- fresh garlic
- tomatoes (frozen, canned or fresh) the volume of tomatoes will determine how big your soup gets. For every 4–5 cups or so of tomatoes you use — double the other ingredients.
- basil (fresh is ideal, but you can use dried or a spoon of pesto if need be)
- onion
- fresh cracked/black pepper (if you like)
- garnish of choice (if you like it pretty!)
- ‘magic wand’ blender (or a blender that can handle hot liquids)
STEP 1 Get out a soup/stock pot and put in your tomatoes (this keeps well and freezes fantastically so don’t try to make a mini batch), half an onion cut into large pieces, 3–5 cloves of garlic (depending on your tastebuds), a tablespoon of dried basil or a small handful of fresh leaves (if you’re using pesto don’t put this in yet), a sprinkle of black pepper, your bouillon cube & water (or your 1 cup of soup stock).
STEP 2 Bring your pot to a boil. If you are in a hurry, turn it up higher and stir it often while it boils. If you’ve got some time to let the flavours blend together, then bring it to a boil and turn it down to low to simmer for as long as you need it to. All of these ingredients can be eaten raw, and you’re going to blend it — so you’re really cooking it for flavour and texture! Stir in your pesto once the other ingredients have cooked down a bit.
STEP 3 When you’re ready to eat your soup, just use your ‘magic wand’ blender to blend it all together. Remember, if you’re using a regular blender you may need to let your soup cool before blending it — and use hot mitts! Heat is sneaky… It reheats nicely so you can always cook it ahead, let it cool and then reheat when it’s time to serve it.
STEP 4 Serve it up! I put a little goat cheese and pesto drizzle on mine — but top it with whatever you like or just put it in a bowl. Enjoy!
xo Crystal
Originally published at wellthyliving.ca on August 23, 2014.
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