Fall, a favourite season for chefs and culinarians alike.
It’s the time of year marked with golden fields of wheat and flamboyantly coloured trees; when all the summer’s bounty is harvested and brought in from the gardens and fields. Of course, on a good year, this can also mean boxes of surplus vegetables.
So what does one do with heaps of extra tomatoes? Well, one makes a soup of course.
And fresh fall tomatoes are perfect for it, packed with energy and mineral nutrition. These garden fresh vegetables have spent all summer labouring to collect minerals and build up nutrient stores, and come fall, they dump all that goodness into their fruit; producing a delicious and nutritionally dense bit of natural goodness just for you.
Good recipes are made even better with good ingredients. And the best garden fresh ingredients are only at their best for a short season each year. For a humble dish, like this tomato soup, garden fresh ingredients can truly make it something special; rich, creamy and loaded with savory umami flavours, this soup can warm the soul on the darkest fall days.
Ingredients
5 lbs of tomatoes
500 ml cream
250 white wine
1 L of white stock (chicken, veal, beef, pork, turkey, beast – anything but vegetable)
1 fresh fall onion
1 bulb fresh fall garlic
1 tbls of marmite (optional)
1 fresh chili pepper (optional)
1 dried bay leaf
3 sprigs fresh thyme
½ tsp Anise seeds
1 squeeze of lemon
Salt & Pepper to taste
Directions
1. Dice the onions and garlic. Coarsely chop the tomatoes. Place in bowls and set aside.
2. Mix onions and Anise seeds with a little bit of oil salt and pepper in a thick bottomed pot. Gently sweat the mixture on low heat for about 20 minutes.
3. Taste the mixture – the onion mixture should have both sweet and savory aroma with a soft mouth feel, there should be no browning. This is crucial, it must not be skipped, and should be repeated after every step.
4. Add the garlic and sweat for another 5 minutes.
5. Add the tomatoes, thyme, spicy pepper, bay leaf, and Marmite to the onion garlic mixture and cook for another 5 minutes
6. Add the white wine and cook (turn heat up to medium high) until the smell of alcohol is gone
7. Add the stock and reduce by 1/3 – if you have been tasting the mixture you should have a good idea by now what you need to do to balance the flavors, season the soup accordingly.
8. Add the cream and let simmer for 5 minutes
9. Transfer the mixture to a blender, blend well until smooth and then pour the soup into a serving bowl.
10. Garnish with a drizzle of Cold Pressed Canola Oil.
11. Serve hot, preferably with a grilled cheese sandwich.
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