Vegan sun-dried tomato soup

Another cold day, another soup.

In this wintry weather, there's nothing I like more than homemade tomato soup with a grilled cheese sandwich on the side.

This is one of my go-to recipes for lazy days. I usually just use fresh tomatoes and chicken stock, but I decided to keep this one vegan, use plain water for liquids and add flavor units with sun-dried tomatoes.

Here's how to make this soup.


INGREDIENTS (4 people):
- 10 medium tomatoes on the vine, diced
- 1 onion, finely diced
- 3 cloves of garlic, grated or finely diced
- 1/2 cup sun-dried tomatoes (or you can make your own oven-dried, click here for a recipe), sliced
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 2 tsps sugar, not pictured
- 3 to 4 cups of water or broth, not pictured
- salt and pepper to taste, not pictured


RECIPE:
- in a deep pot, fry the diced onions and garlic in the olive oil on medium heat until translucent (2 to 3 minutes), then add the dried and fresh tomatoes and cover with water (or broth)

- bring to a boil over high heat, lower the heat and simmer until the tomatoes are cooked (about 20 minutes)

- turn off the heat and blend with a stick blender until smooth. Add a little water or broth if you like a lighter consistency

Note: if you want a very smooth soup, I recommend peeling and seeding the fresh tomatoes before adding them to the pot. 
- serve hot alongside a grilled cheese sandwich or sprinkled with roasted chickpeas for a totally vegan meal
- enjoy!

Oven-dried tomatoes

There is literally nothing simpler than making oven-dried tomatoes. And the good thing is that for about 5 bucks, you'll have a ton more than a can of store-bought sun-dried tomatoes :)
Those tomatoes are so versatile! You can use them in salads, as a base for a tomato sauce, chopped up in pasta, on a pizza, or if you're like me just as a snack...

The only drawback is the cooking time: it will take about 5 hours in the oven and a few more to cool down, but you do this once and you're set for a couple of months!

Here's a golden tip for you: set up your tomatoes in the morning and forget about them while you clean your house, vacuum, laundry, etc... Kill two birds with one stone ;)


INGREDIENTS:
- tomatoes (however many you want, of whatever species you want: I used about 2 lbs of Roma)
- salt, pepper
- extra virgin olive oil


RECIPE:
- turn on your oven on the lowest setting (about 200F on mine)
- line a cooking sheet with aluminum foil (parchment paper would be fine too), place the tomatoes on the sheet, spaced evenly (try not to pack them too close to one another, they need to dry), cut side up

- sprinkle with a little salt and pepper and drizzle olive oil

- put the tomatoes in the oven and forget about them for about 5 hours (but do check on them every once in a while to make sure things are going well, but do not turn them)
- after 5 hours, turn off your oven and leave another 3 hours in the closed oven; the tomatoes are now shrivelled and packed with concentrated tomato-flavor!

- when the tomatoes are at room temperature, put them in a jar and cover with extra virgin olive oil

- store in the fridge and use at your convenience :)
- enjoy!