Whether you are looking to adopt a nutrient-dense, plant-based diet or are just trying to find healthier alternatives to some of your favorite dishes, we have great recipes on our site to suit your tastes! Some of our recipes can look a little intimidating, though. That’s why we created a weekly segment called RecipEASY — to make healthy eating easier. We (Kate and Kayla) make a recipe from our site and break it down to give you helpful tips and modifications. Since neither of us are professional chefs, we are always looking for ways to simplify healthy recipes!
This week we made…
Roasted Red Pepper & Tomato Soup
A rainy day called for soup, and our roasted red pepper and tomato soup seemed to fit the bill (even though Kate and I aren’t big fans of tomatoes).
Our shopping list was comprised of carrots, onion, garlic, carrot juice, fire roasted tomatoes, roasted red peppers, tomato basil garlic seasoning, red pepper flakes, black pepper, cashews, and vegetable stock. You can find the exact measurements here, but because we only had a small pot we cut the recipe in half. We found all these ingredients at our local grocery store except for tomato basil garlic seasoning (we probably spent 10 minutes scouring the spices aisle for it!). Since we already had basil in our makeshift office pantry, we bought a salt-free garlic and herb seasoning blend as a substitute.
After chopping the carrots, onion, and garlic, we tossed them in our pot with some of the vegetable stock to saute for 10 minutes. It was the perfect amount of time for us to finish chopping and measuring the rest of the ingredients. When the timer went off, we threw everything (except for the cashews) into the pot to simmer for 30 minutes.
Almost every coworker who walked through the kitchen asked what we were making — the soup smelled amazing!
When the 30 minutes were up (and one of our coworkers had finished using the blender for his green smoothie), we poured our soup in the blender, added the cashews, and blended until it reached a smooth consistency.
Even with our spice substitution, it tasted delicious! The roasted red pepper and tomato soup didn’t need any extra sort of flavoring or common additives like salt, butter, or oil. It makes us wonder why people think they need to use so much salt when there are so many healthy options for seasoning!
