Easy Vegan Tomato Soup (Isa's Grandma's Recipe)
When I went vegan eight years ago, my family had a few concerns. Questions like "What can you eat now?", "Is this just a phase?" and "I do understand this, but it's a bit extreme, isn't it?" became a constant topic when we visited. Over time, however, everyone got used to it – from aunts to cousins. But especially my grandma, who is usually responsible for the culinary part of our get-togethers, figured out pretty quickly which of her recipes happened to have been vegan anyway and which ones could be veganized super simply. Nowadays, she also takes great pleasure in going around the supermarket and buys all the products with the tag "vegan" written on them, which is why her fridge is more than generously filled when I visi her.
Luckily, my grandma's recipe repertoire is huge, so we've already found a pretty good selection of recipes that she cooks when I'm there. I've already published a few of them on the blog: for her sour lentils, she simply swaps butter for vegetable oil, and for her smoked lentil soup she just adds plant-based sausages. Her recipes for Swabian potato salad, "Zemmadle", and beetroot salad are still to come, I promise!
My grandma's tomato soup is also a recipe where almost nothing needs to be changed. The drizzle of heavy cream at the end is optional. You can replace it with a plant-based alternativ, but the soup will also taste great without it. The most challenging part of the recipe is finding good, flavorful tomatoes because that is the essential thing in this soup. Here's a tip from my grandma: smell the tomatoes! If they smell intense, you are good to go!
Easy Vegan Tomato Soup (Isa's Grandma's Recipe)
Ingredients
Ingredients:
- 1 kg (2.25 lb) round or beefsteak tomatoes
- 1 red bell pepper
- 1 small chili pepper
- 2 garlic cloves
- 2 onions
- 3 tbsp (1.5 oz) tomato paste
- 5 g (0.25 oz) fresh basil
- vegetable stock
- salt
- pepper
- neutral vegetable oil for frying
- fresh oregano and lovage (optional)
For serving:
- vegan cooking cream
Instructions
Wash and chop the tomatoes, bell pepper, and chili pepper into small pieces. Remove the seeds from the chili pepper if necessary. Peel and also chop the garlic and onions into small pieces.
Heat vegetable oil in a large pot over medium heat. First, sauté the garlic, onion, and chili for 3–4 minutes until the onion pieces are translucent. Then add the chopped tomatoes, bell pepper, tomato paste, fresh basil, and also fresh oregano and lovage if desired, and fry everything for 8–10 minutes.
Cover the fried ingredients with vegetable stock and simmer the vegetables for approx. 60 minutes over low heat. If everything thickens too much, add more stock.
Blend the soup until smooth and season with salt and pepper to taste. Here too, add more vegetable stock as needed until the desired consistency is reached. Serve the tomato soup with vegan cream.
