Sunday, April 24, 2011

We heart tomatoes

My oldest and I are tomato fanatics. We love them, we love anything made with them. To me a good summer tomato tastes and smells like sunshine. So when we rolled down to the local farmers market which has just started for the season and found that the tomato stand where I buy my canning tomatoes was actually open—well we paid too much for some yummy greenhouse tomatoes. I gave my boys the choice, tomato gratin or tomato soup. They chose soup. It is a good soup.

Now unfortunately I did not take a picture of the tomatoes before I skinned them. I meant to. See I was going to make the soup on Sunday, but that Saturday night I was making pasta. As my water was boiling I spied the tomatoes and; as I try to do as much as I can, I saw a way to conserve water. I popped the tomatoes quickly into the boiling water before my pasta, then did a homer simpson doh! I forgot to take a picture. So yes you can skin and peel the tomatoes the night or even two nights before and they will keep just fine in the fridge till you are ready to make soup.

tomatoes, onions, garlic, oil, salt, and pepper

thinly slice the onions and garlic

saute until soft and then add salt, pepper, red pepper flakes, and cook a minute more

then add tomatoes, a bit of cumin and sugar, and some lemon juice

cook over medium heat breaking up the tomatoes with your spoon

add about 2 cups of veggie stock, note I also make this ahead and freeze for later

once tomatoes are broken down a bit, turn off the heat and add a cup of 'milk' like product
I recommend cream, but I use coconut milk for my husband

allow soup to cool and then blend in the pot

salt to taste and bring back up to heat before serving

enjoy!

With this soup I also pulled out some frozen bread dough that I made a while ago. I always make a double batch and freeze one for later.

thawed and ready to rise

punched down after 3 hours

folded like a letter, like julia taught me

then shaped how I want for the final rise

off to the cooker


I also made a quick salad to complete the 'it may have snowed yesterday, but we can pretend it is almost summer' meal.

arugula, fennel, olives, croutons, and green onions with a oil/vinegar/mustard vinaigrette

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