rants & recipes

Sick house here - luckily, not too bad though and already getting better by day 2 of sniffling - still, though, I wanted something hot and soupy, so I made a pot of tomato cream soup today. Turned out pretty good, though I will make some adjustments next time.

Ingredients:

• 1 small onion, sliced
• 3-4 cloves garlic, diced
• handful of sun-dried tomatoes
• olive oil
• 28 ounce can of crushed tomatoes (mine had basil)
• about 1 1/2 cup pizza sauce
• dash soy sauce
• 3 cups water
• 2 vegetable broth cubes
• 1/4 cup vegan margarine
• scant 1/4 tub of tofutti cream cheese
• 1 cup unsweetened mimic cream

Instructions:

1. Sautee onion, garlic and dried tomatoes in some olive oil.
2. Put canned tomatoes, pizza sauce, soy sauce, water, vegetable cubes and margarine in a stock pot. Add cooked onion, garlic and tomatoes.
3. Heat to a boil and allow to simmer for about 20 minutes.
4. Turn off heat, blend with an immersion blender.
5. Add cream and cream cheese, continue to blend until smooth.
6. Serve hot.

Notes:

• Next time,  I will decrease the mimic cream - mimic cream has a flavor that I don't really like and 1 cup is too much, in this recipe. I'll probably go for 1/3 cup and make up the difference with broth.
• I will probably decrease the cream cheese a bit, too.
• I may add some cooked potato for thickener, and experiment with adding a sort of roux, as many recipes online call for flour.
• With a few tweaks, this could definitely become a go-to meal for sick soup. And no chickens have to die.