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…
Spicy Tomato Soup
We were in the mood for tomato soup so we decided to create our own healthier version! Since it snowed where Healthy Food Now is based and finally feels like real winter, we thought it was appropriate to stick with soups for our RecipEASY this week. Not to mention January is National Soup Month!
Because we didn’t previously have a tomato soup in our database, Kate and I set out to create our own version that follows our nutrition guidelines. We bought plum tomatoes, tomato paste, garlic, celery, onion, fresh basil, oregano, no-salt seasoning, red pepper flakes, vegetable juice, vegetable stock, and almond milk. Find the full list of measurements here.
The first thing we did was chop the veggies: tomatoes, celery, onion, and garlic. After that, it was fairly simple. We put the chopped veggies along with the vegetable stock, tomato paste, almond milk, fresh basil, oregano, and red pepper flakes into a soup pot. After we brought the pot to a boil, we let it simmer for about 15-20 minutes.
When we’d waited long enough, we let the soup sit for about 5 minutes so we weren’t putting boiling liquid into our blender. We pulsed the soup in the blender until it was a smooth consistency.
Then came the real test: the taste test!
It definitely had a kick to it! For me (who doesn’t eat a whole lot of spicy food), it was a little too spicy. I would probably have halved (or maybe even quartered) the amount of red pepper flakes we put it. On the other hand, Kate loved it. So this recipe is for all you spice lovers out there!
We felt like the soup was missing something, so we played around with adding no-salt seasoning. We also happened to have vegetable juice leftover from last week’s soup, which we added to make it a little thicker and more tomato-y.
From our other few taste testers, we got a seal of approval!
Try this recipe for yourself and let us know how we could improve it! Share in the comments below.
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