Plant-Based Roasted Red Pepper & Tomato Soup

This recipe is 100% vegan and full to the brim with antioxidants, vitamins, and minerals. In addition to the loads of veggies included in the soup, I add coconut milk and nutritional yeast to give it that creaminess that is so difficult to achieve in vegan cooking. I know soup isn't something everybody wants in the summer, but it's difficult to resist when the produce is so fresh, local, and cheap! By purchasing local food, one is supporting their local economy, tasting richer flavours, ingesting more nutrients, and of course decreasing their carbon footprint. Eat local, eat sustainable!

Roasting both the tomatoes and the red peppers is the trick to really maximizing these flavours. Be sure to peel the blackened red pepper skin off, but there's no need to remove the tomato skin. 

I like to let everything stew in the pot with the spices for 10-15 minutes before I blend it to let the flavours combine. Here I've used a food processor to blend the vegetables, but an immersion blender is a much more convenient tool. 

The very last step is to add the salt, nutritional yeast, and coconut milk. These final ingredients truly are the finishing touches. Serve with some shredded basil on top and a slice of garlic bread! 

Remember, eating local is eating more sustainably. Everything you buy not only has a price tag attached to it, but also a distance it has travelled to get to you. By supporting your local economy you can decrease your carbon footprint significantly, therefore having less of an impact on our precious environment. Eating local is one of the cornerstones of a sustainable lifestyle, so next time you are in the grocery store perhaps grab the tomatoes that are from a city near you rather than the ones shipped from across the globe.

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*serves 4

Ingredients:

2 red peppers

8 tomatoes on the vine

2 tbsp olive oil

1 yellow onion

2 medium carrots

6 garlic cloves

1 28 oz tin diced tomatoes

1 tbsp Italian Seasoning

1 tsp black pepper

1/2 tsp chili flakes

1 tsp paprika

2 tsp salt

2 cups vegetable stock

1/4 cup nutritional yeast

1 cup coconut milk

Wash the tomatoes and red peppers. Slice the red peppers into quarters, taking the seeds out, and slice the tomatoes in half. Line a pan with parchment paper and lay the red pepper slices with the skin facing up, and the tomatoes with the insides facing up. Broil for 8-10 minutes, until the red pepper skin has mostly blackened. Take out form oven and allow to cool for 5-10 minutes and once cool peel the skin off the red peppers.

While the tomatoes and red peppers are broiling, dice the carrots into small pieces, dice the onion, crush the garlic, and measure out the spices. In a large pot, heat olive oil over medium heat. Add the carrots and onions to the pot and sauté for 5 minutes. Add the garlic, chili flakes, Italian seasoning, paprika, and sauté for another 5 minutes. Now you can toss the tomatoes and roasted red peppers in along with the vegetable stock and the tin of tomatoes. Allow the soup to simmer for 10-15 minutes with the lid on.

After the soup has simmered and the carrots are soft, turn the heat off and use an immersion blender or transfer to a food processor and blend until smooth. If using a food processor, transfer the soup back to the pot. Keep the soup warm over low heat and stir in the salt, pepper, nutritional yeast, and coconut milk. Taste and alter the seasonings how you wish. Enjoy!!