In these dark January days as I trudge towards spring I long to taste summer in a bowl. This Thai Tomato Soup coaxes earthy summer sweetness from tinned tomatoes and hints at exotic lands where the warm winds lift your hair.
Under the ground, deep in the earth among the roots of the trees, the little root children were fast asleep all winter long. They didn’t feel the biting wind, the cold snow or the stinging hailstorms. They slept peacefully in their warm burrows. They were dreaming wonderful dreams, of the sunshine in which they had played all through the summer.
When at last winter came to an end, and the sun began to melt the snow, Mother Earth came along with her candle to wake them up.
-Sibylle von Olfer
A pile of freshly aired eiderdowns, soft as snow, blanketed our childhood winters. The New England wind blew through our unheated third floor apartment and we three girls entered a state of cozy known only to bears in dens and mice in straw piles.
In the frosty mornings our mother fed us hearty breakfasts at the dining-room table where our exhaled laughter steamed the air between bites of thick pancakes and sips of strong coffee. We’d walk off to our respective schools wearing our Salvation Army coats ready to slay the many dragons young children slay in their school days.
Arriving home in late afternoon as the sun slanted winter pink in the drifting snow we became again the root children (our true selves) snuggled in our burrow.
Mother Earth and my flaxen haired sister woke me in March each year on my birthday with lit candles, a song and the promise of winter’s end.
Zucchini Leek Soup is equally delicious served hot or cold making it the perfect soup for perfidious spring weather.
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This soup is rich and yet delicate in flavor and comes together a snap for an easy yet sophisticated lunch. Serve it with slices of toasted bread or as i do with crackers or oven toasted roti. Topped with oven roasted cherry tomatoes it looks as bright as it tastes. This recipe can be easily doubled.
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 pint cherry tomatoes halved
- 1 whole onion diced
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- 1 28 oz can ground tomatoes
- 1 1/2 cups veggie broth
- 3 leaves Kaffir lime, (optional) finely shredded
- 1 inch lemongrass stalk finely sliced
- 1 cup fresh basil leaves torn into small pieces
- 1/4 cup non-dairy milk
- pinch salt and pepper to taste
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Heat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Place the cherry tomatoes cut side down on a lightly oiled cookie sheet. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and pop in the heated oven for 20-25 minutes.
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Sauté the diced onion in olive oil over low heat until soft and transparent. Add the garlic to the pan and stir a few times.
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Pour the ground tinned tomatoes into the pan with the onions and garlic. Add veggie broth, Kaffir lime leaf and lemongrass and simmer over low heat 20 minutes.
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Simmer over medium for 20 minutes. Stir in 3/4 of the basil and bring back to a simmer for 10 minutes. Stir in warmed non-dairy milk. Remove from heat.
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Fill each warmed bowl with soup and grind some fresh black pepper over the top. Garnish with roasted cherry tomatoes and reserved basil.
Such a beautiful blog Johanne!
Well done!
Thank you Katrina, that means a lot!
What you do with words, let alone food is just beautiful x
Liza thank you for your kind words, it was a leap for someone as private as me.
This is great! I can not wait to see what’s next and of course to try this recipe!
Thanks Kimberlina,. I’ll definitely include some raw recipes too!
gorgeous! SO glad to see it up. I was just bragging about you to my houseguest and your talents!
You bragging about me? That’s amazing. When I cook I smell lemon blossoms from you and Rick.
So delicious and magical
Shucks Miss Livy, I’m blushing! You being a mermaid and all.
Is this the tomato soup you made for Jamie and I?
Your cooking, and company are to die for.
Earthy, rustic, and yet oh so elegant.
I am blessed to have known you, then and now.
Your writing takes me back to many happy hours spent sharing that cozy closeness that you describe with such sparkling clarity that it achieves time travel.
Bless you.❤
What I made for you and Jaime was a tad different but along the same lines. You certainly were part of our cozy burrow. xox
I’m salivating. Gorgeous writing … sumptuous photo /soup. The blog-post itself is a feast. Bravo!!!!
All it’s missing is a toasted bagel. xox
Gorgeous post! I will try this recipe.
Beautiful blog by a beautiful woman. Any chance of some metric units as we only use pint glasses for beers and prawns in the UK?
Hanne, thank you babe. That is a good suggestion and I will definitely implement it as I don’t have any recipes for prawns or beer.
Congratulations on your maiden post! Each roasted tomato holds all the golden promise of a sun, a feast for the eyes for me up here at the tail end of the long, sunless polar night.
Thank you for transporting me back to that oval kitchen table, where on weekday mornings we ate our old-fashioned farmers’ breakfasts before rushing off to school (on weekends only were we permitted sugary cereals for breakfast). At this same kitchen table she laid out sewing patterns, and we did our homework. We fashioned Christmas-tree decorations out of salty dough and painted them, and ate dinner, sometimes each of us eating with a book propped up in front of her plate – occasionally one of us would break the easy silence by reading a choice passage aloud. At this beat-up Indian-throw-covered table we argued, laughed, worried, cried, shared successes and failures and hopes and fears, and never imagined it would end.
At that table our children (her grandchildren) painted and glued and glittered the many crafts that she oh so patiently set up with craft supplies scavenged from yard sales and garbage piles left by RISD students.
There we ate holiday dinners, and welcome home meals.
And we never imagined it would end.
P.S. And shooed generation after generation of cats from the table.
Johanne, I am lifted, transported and embraced by the creative visions and gentle memories you are sharing on your BEAUTIFUL blog. Thank you for a loving tomato soup recipe. I can’t wait for more!
It is your voice cheering me on I’ll listen for in the anxious still of the night.
Great pictures! They’re so inviting. 🙂
Thank you Ella!