This vegan tomato basil soup is delicious any time of year. Serve it hot in the winter or cold in the summer. Easy to make with just a few simple ingredients, this soup is full of flavour and oil free for my fat-free vegan peeps!
Soups are definitely not just for cold weather! Although I started this blog just last January, I’ve been waiting for summer to post this recipe as it’s when tomatoes are at their sweet, juicy peak and basil is growing like a weed in the garden.
This tomato basil soup is uber cheap to make if you’ve got just about everything growing in your garden already. And if you don’t have a garden, remember that tomatoes and basil grow great in pots so get yourself a couple and give it a try next season! (I actually live in an apartment and have a small container garden on the roof of my building).
Since my husband is Spanish, he makes gazpacho pretty much weekly during the summer. That gave me two ideas for this vegan tomato basil soup recipe. The first is that tomato soups are great not only served hot but cold too. You can put this soup in the fridge for a couple of hours to chill before serving if you want.
The second is the addition of apple. I don’t recall having seen too many English-language gazpacho recipes calling for apple, but it’s not at all unusual in Spain. The apple adds a bit of extra sweetness and is especially good if your tomatoes are not quite at their sweet peak yet.
If you’re making this recipe in the winter, I would recommend using canned tomatoes rather than fresh. First, imported tomatoes have no flavour and a lot of food miles. Second, they’re more expensive in the winter, duh.
Either way you choose to serve it: hot or cold, with fresh or canned tomatoes, this vegan tomato basil soup is easy to make and absolutely delicious! You can choose to finish your soup with a drizzle of cashew or soy cream. Be sure to serve it with crusty bread for mopping up all the last drops!
Want more soups? Try these:
Vegan Tomato Basil Soup
Ingredients
- 1 small onion chopped - $0.10
- 2 cloves of garlic chopped - $0.06
- 8 large tomatoes chopped - $1.73
- 1 sweet apple chopped - $0.59
- ½ packed cup (20 grams) fresh basil roughly chopped (reserve a few leaves for garnish) - $1.75
- 1 teaspoon salt - $0.03
- 1 teaspoon red wine vinegar - $0.04
- A few grinds of pepper - $0.04
- ½ cup (75 grams) raw cashews soaked overnight - $1.15
- ½ cup (120 ml) water - $0.00
- ⅛ teaspoon salt - $0.01
Instructions
- Heat a medium pot over medium high heat and add a splash of water, the onion and garlic. Sautee until soft. Add the tomatoes and apple. You can choose to peel the fruit beforehand if you want a smoother soup, it’s up to you.
- Cover the pot and reduce the heat to medium-low. Simmer until the tomatoes and apple are soft and falling apart. The time depends on how ripe they are - from 10 minutes for very ripe tomatoes to 20 minutes for not so ripe ripe.
- Remove the pot from the heat and add the basil, 1 teaspoon of salt, vinegar and pepper. Blend until smooth with an immersion blender or carefully transfer the soup to a regular blender.
- Make the cashew cream by blending the cashews, water and ⅛ teaspoon of salt in a small food processor. I like to make it a bit in advance and chill it in the fridge for a bit.
- You can serve the soup straight away and hot or chill it in the fridge for several hours. Serve the soup with the cashew cream drizzled and swirled on top and a few basil leaves for garnish.
Notes
Nutrition
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