Creamy Tomato Soup in a Homemade Bread Bowl!

I am definitely a Fall and Winter person. I love feeling all snuggly in a hoodie and throwing on lots of cozy layers. So even though it hit 95 here in Denver today, I couldn’t get my mind off of making some soup in a bread bowl! My garden has been overflowing with ripe Roma tomatoes, so a creamy tomato soup just seemed right.

For the bread bowl, I just used this recipe from my previous French Bread post, except this time around I used 1/2 whole wheat flour and 1/2 all-purpose. Still quite nice and fluffy. I let the dough rise twice–once right after it was mixed and then after I shaped them into boules. I recommend re-shaping them once again after they have risen because they tend to widen a bit as they rise. You want all the seams in the dough to be on the bottom (kind of like when you turn the ugly side of the Christmas tree toward the wall where no one will see it).

The tomato soup is a staple for me, especially when I’m looking for something quick that I can whip together in a few minutes. For a super fast and painless meal, use canned, diced tomatoes (though, of course, the flavor isn’t the same!) I soaked about 1/2 cup of raw cashews in water for about an hour to make the cream for the soup. In a large stock pot, I sauteed some olive oil, lots of minced garlic and chopped onion for a few minutes until the onion became translucent. I added chopped, fresh roma and beefsteak tomatoes and let simmer until the flavors mix and everything starts getting soupy. This soup has to be really thick otherwise when you pour it into the bread bowl, it will immediately just soak in and everything will get mushy. No good. To thicken the soup up, I added some cashew cream that was quickly made by processing the soaked raw cashews with a bit of water until you get a thick consistency. Since I like my soups thick and creamy, I threw everything back into the blender and whirred it all up until very smooth. I may have added a bit too much cashew cream, hence the reason why my soup is more orange than red! Still very savory. Fresh basil paired well with this.

When you make this, be sure to bring your appetite! Or just make your boules smaller 🙂 Since my beloved is spending the week in Michigan, I have an abundance of food and no one to eat it. I might try freezing the leftover boule and then thawing/re-heating when I’m ready to use it as a bread bowl again. We shall see how that goes.

My Friday night was spent whipping this together, watching American Pickers and falling asleep with a book in hand. When did I get so old? My energy was completely absent today and I am blaming this on forgetting to make some coffee. Terrible how I’ve become so dependent on it and I’m only a week into Fall semester…! Tomorrow is this month’s garden work day at the community garden…got to get to sleep so I can be a weed-pulling fiend! Goodnight all! Happy weekend! 🙂

Roasted Butternut Squash & Carrot Soup

Happy Friday everyone! Another week gone, another week closer to school beginning (the library will be much less rowdy once the kids have something to occupy their time!) I have three butternut squash that have been staring at me from the dark corners of my kitchen counter for a week…and now there’s two. It’s always a daunting task to get the squash ready to go and cook because it’s such a pain to cut! I’ve made this soup before by chopping (and fighting with) the squash before roasting, but I recently read this great article on butternut squash that said that roasting the squash when just cut in half keeps more of the flavor in! How brilliant. If you want to learn more about this great, versatile squash, I do highly recommend the article. Onto the recipe!

Yum! Loving the smooth, lightly sweet texture of this thick soup.

Roasted Butternut Squash & Carrot Soup

• 1 butternut squash, cut in half lengthwise
• A couple handfuls of baby carrots, cut in half lengthwise
• Canola oil
• Garlic powder
• Onion powder
• Salt/Pepper
• Vegetable stock (low sodium so you can control the taste of your dish!) 🙂

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Prepare your vegetables by rubbing them (or tossing them) with some canola oil (a few tablespoons should be fine) and your favorite spices! When coated well, place veggies on a roasting pan or baking sheet and pop into the oven…for awhile. Be sure to watch the carrots since they will probably be done before the squash. My squash took about 45+ minutes to get nice and soft. Just poke at them every so often until a fork can easily pierce their flesh (how morbid!)

Get thee to the blender! Place the nicely roasted veggies in the blender and slowly add vegetable stock until desired consistency (thick and smooth!) Taste! Good? EAT.

Notes:

• I definitely would like to make an even CREAMIER version of this (if that’s even possible) using cashew milk…I’m just so fascinated by the many uses of soaked raw nuts!
• Roast some other tasty root vegetables with the butternut squash in order to get richer flavors (i.e. elephant garlic, squash, sweet potatoes, etc)
• For a sweet instead of savory soup, use cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and a couple tablespoons of your favorite sweetener (agave nectar, maple syrup, etc).

So much to be looking forward to this weekend! Tomorrow is a trip to the zoo with my dear sister and then off to the Colorado Dragon Boat Festival. I really hope it’s as amazing as it sounds! I’ll be taking lots of pictures, of course. Hope everyone has a great weekend!