The Creamiest Tomato Soup (that’s also vegan and gluten-free – astonishingly!)

There is nothing more comforting than a bowl of steaming tomato soup on a wet and miserable day. And whilst we are now in to the summer months in England, Mother Nature clearly didn’t get the memo!
I wanted to replicate that old classic tomato soup that we all know and love from Mr Heinz. It’s creamy and smooth, and very ‘tomatoey’ but also on the sweeter side.




As I try not to consume too many animal fats, I wanted to find an alternative to cream. Having recently enjoyed a delicious cashew cream dessert from a local deli I immediately knew that cashew nuts were going to be my new favourite super ingredient (sorry coconut, we had some good times together, but it’s time to move on).

Makes 4 starter-sized bowls

 

Ingredients:

1kg vine tomatoes (I used a mixture of larger vine tomatoes as well as piccolo for their sweetness)
2 medium carrots, diced
3-4 cloves of garlic
1tsp olive oil
8 – 10 raisins (for sweetness)
60g raw cashews
250ml vegetable stock (1 tsp of this bouillon from Marigold mixed with boiling water is a great vegan alternative to fresh stock) 

Salt and pepper to taste

 

Method:

Preheat oven to 160C/gas mark 4. Halve any larger tomatoes and place in a baking tray with the carrot and smaller tomatoes. Season with salt and pepper, drizzle with olive oil and bake in the oven for 30-40 minutes. After that time, the tomatoes should be soft but not caramelised. Add the cashews, garlic and raisins. Bake for a further 10-15 minutes, until the cashew nuts are golden. 

Heat the stock until just warm. Ladle half the ingredients in to a mixer (I used my Nutribullet – yet again!) and mix with half of the stock until smooth. Empty the soup to a container or pan and blend the other half of the mixture with the rest of the stock. I use the remaining stock to deglaze the roating tin to achieve maximum flavour potential. Either heat the soup through and eat immediately or store in the fridge for up to four days.

To make soups extra special – or just a little more exciting – I like to top them with flavoursome ingredients. Here, I fried field mushrooms with black kale and garlic and also included some roasted cashews.

Now, my husband enjoys dunking a great hunk of crusty bread, which doesn’t exactly follow the gluten-free trend, but then again I’m not sure he has cottoned on that this soup is fit for even the strictest of vegans (shhhhh)!