Tomato Vegetable Soup - The Hearty Kind

Winter time is a great time to make Hearty Tomato Vegetable Soup. Soup is food for the soul. And though it’s satisfying and comforting all year round, it’s especially welcomed on a cold day.

This Hearty Tomato Veggie Soup is one of the most nutritious and delicious vegetarian veggie soups you can make. Alter the vegetables, depending on what you have on hand, and make your own favorite vegetable soup creation.

What makes this soup more nutritious than any other soup you’ve likely had is that it is living. Therefore the colors remain vibrant while the soup is also bursting with real all natural flavors. These flavors are truly all natural, unlike the excitotoxins found in the “natural flavorings” additives found in most processed vegetable soups from your grocer’s shelf.

Hearty Tomato Vegetable Soup

Preparation time: 30 minutes

Serves 4

Plan ahead preparation: Bring all vegetables used in the soup to room temperature before assembling the soup. Soak ¼ cup sun dried tomatoes and 1 pitted date for 1 hour in ½ cup purified water. Dissolve 1 tablespoon brown rice miso in 1 cup purified water.

The following ingredients are for the soup base:

3 very ripe roma tomatoes chunked
2/3 cup red pepper chunked
½ cup celery chunked
½ cup fresh basil
2 large cloves garlic minced
Juice of 1 small lemon
1 small sweet onion chunked
½ teaspoon herbemare (sea salt and herb product found at health food store)
1 tablespoon olive oil

Place all the above ingredients for soup base in your food processor with the S blade in place. Add the sun dried tomatoes and date with soaking water. Puree, gradually add the miso broth and continue to puree until smooth. Pour into a small pot with lid that will hold 1 ½ quarts. Taste and adjust flavors to your liking.

The following are ingredients to add to the soup broth:

Slice one peeled medium carrot into very thin rounds
½ cup zucchini sliced Julianne style
½ cup yellow squash sliced Julianne style
¼ cup green pepper diced
¼ cup yellow pepper diced

I use my mandolin to slice the carrot as well as the zucchini and yellow squash. The zucchini and squash are cut into approximately 1 to 1 ½ inch slices and have the appearance of noodles.

Gently stir vegetables into the vegetable broth to complete your Hearty Tomato Vegetable Soup. Enjoy!

Inspired by the Thick & Chunky Vegetable Soup recipe in the Jan/Feb issue of Back To The Garden at www.hacres.com