Quick and Easy Tomato Soup

Quick and Easy Tomato Soup

We are expecting a storm this weekend in Toronto.  Of course, it is timed to coincide with the end of the Christmas holiday from school, so we will likely be going back to school on roads that are barely passable.  The school board that is my employer will not close schools in the event of a storm.  That means even if parents wisely choose to keep their children home, teachers must brave the rotten conditions and try to make it to school.   Last year a teacher in my province was killed on her way to work on a day when commons sense would have suggested that the schools be closed, and now that teacher's union, not my own, but I support the motion, is asking the school board to let safety decide whether or not schools are open.

This is the view across the road from my front window.

I saw an interesting recipe for tomato soup the other day, and I decided to alter it to make it my own.  Soup is nice on a day like today.   I can barely see to the back of my yard from my window right now.   We are expecting freezing rain later in the day - a treacherous addition to the snow we are now receiving.

This is the view from my back door.  Lucky we fed the squirrels before the weather became bad! 

You will need a large soup pot for this soup.

Place the following ingredients into your pot:
2 x 28 oz cans of crushed tomatoes
2 skinned and seeded roasted red peppers OR one jar of roasted red peppers packed in water
2 litres vegetable broth
2 medium potatoes
black pepper to taste
dried basil to taste
any other herbs you might like

Bring these ingredients to a hard boil, and boil for about five minutes, then turn the heat down and simmer the pot for about twenty minutes.

Add two cups of white kidney beans that have been soaked and boiled OR one can of white kidney beans that have been well-rinsed.

Using an immersion blender, completely blend all of the ingredients in the pot until you have a thick soup.  The potatoes don't add any taste to this soup, but they help thicken it nicely.  The beans add a good deal of protein, so the soup alone is a complete meal.

Serve it warm with crackers or a nice loaf of bread: it's the perfect thing on a snowy day.

Great soup, easy recipe - and it's downright vegan!