The Funky Kitchen

If we played a little bit of word association and I said tomato soup, what would you think of?

Campbell’s? Gazpacho? Grilled cheese? Velvety goodness?

Julie Albert and Lisa Gnat‘s tomato soup, from their cookbook Bite Me is full of velvety goodness, as well as a whole lot of tasty vegetables. And, even better, it is topped with grilled cheese croutons! This is just one of the fabulous recipes from their book, which happens to be one of the most unabashedly fun cookbooks I have seen in a long time. It is seriously worth a look.

When I think of tomato soup, I hope for it to be everything that this tomato soup is: flavorful, intense and smooth. Roasting the tomatoes brings out so much more of their flavor. And then, in a twist of the classical pairing of tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches, the sandwich gets cut up into little croutons and sprinkled over the soup.

What an awesome, healthful dinner.  With a little dollop of sour cream as the cherry on the sundae, this soup is a pretty serious reminder that with a little bit of effort, what you can make on your own can often be so much better than what you can buy at the store.

Roasted Tomato Soup with Grilled Cheese Croutons

(adapted from Julie Albert and Lisa Gnat’s Bite Me, Tomato Soup with Grilled Cheese Croutons)

2 – 795 mL cans whole tomatoes

4 Tbsp olive oil

1/2 tsp kosher salt

1/2 tsp fresh cracked pepper

1 small yellow onion (or half of a large one, like I used), diced

12 baby carrots (original recipe calls for 2 medium carrots), diced

2 celery stalks, diced

1 clove of garlic, minced

2 Tbsp flour

2 Cups water

1 bay leaf

2 tsp brown sugar

2 Tbsp basil

4 slices of bread

2 Tbsp butter

cheddar cheese (depending on how much cheese you like in a grilled cheese sandwich)

• Set the oven to 425° F, and allow to come to temperature.
• Strain the tomatoes, giving each a good squeeze to release the juice inside. Reserve the juices from the tomatoes.
• Place the dried tomatoes in a oven safe dish, drizzle with half to the olive oil and season with half each of the pepper and kosher salt.
• Roast the tomatoes in the preheated oven for 15 minutes.
• Meanwhile, in a soup pot, saute the onion, carrots, celery and garlic in the olive oil until softened and beginning to take on color.
• Add the flour to the pot, stirring to coat the vegetables and cook the flour through evenly.
• To the pot, add: the roasted tomatoes, tomato juices, water, bay leaf, brown sugar (it will help to calm the acidity of the tomatoes), and remaining pepper and salt.
• Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer and allow to cook for half an hour, stirring occasionally to prevent sticking.
• Discard bay leaf and puree until smooth and velvety. Stir in basil.
• Using the bread, butter and cheddar cheese make two grilled cheese sandwiches. When done, place them on a cutting board and chop them into 1×1 inch pieces.
• Ladle hot, hearty, scrumptious soup into bowls, and top with grilled cheese croutons.
• Enjoy!

I left the grilled cheese sandwiches in the pan a little bit longer than I normally would, figuring that the extra crispness would help them stand up to being partially immersed in soup. Taking into account my aversion to toast, though, they were probably grilled to a pretty normal degree. I’d like, next time, to figure out a way to get the grilled cheese croutons to have more crouton crunchiness. Any suggestions? Maybe I should bake them in the oven…

What is that shiny new piece of kitchen hardware in the pictures you ask? That is my lovely new Peasant Chef’s Knife from Lee Valley. It is so nicely balanced, and isn’t too heavy. It fits my hand just right. Thanks again Mister, you sure know how to tug at a girl’s heart strings.

I am not anti-snack.

Especially at this time of year, studying for and writing final exams, I am very pro-snack. I’ve been too busy reading to get around to cooking much of anything, and a little nibble here and there helps to curb the boredom of reading about nucleic acid synthesis for days on end. Sometimes you don’t want to stop and eat a large meal that will take away from precious time with the textbooks.

A girl cannot subsist on Hint of Lime Tostitos and salsa alone, though, so I made myself a new snack.

Roasted chickpeas are one of my favorite snacks, and the recipe is a standard from the way back then days of high school and veganism. It is as simple as taking a can of chickpeas, seasonings of your choice and a drizzle of olive oil, and letting them roast away in the oven. When they are done you have a lovely, healthy, crunchy snack that is oh so edible on its own, but also goes well on salads or in pasta sauces.

With roasted chickpeas you can go as simple or complex as you want; roasting them with only salt as seasoning, or roasting them with combinations of flavors. This time, I made one of my favorite seasoning combinations, but feel free to make it your own and experiment.

On the topic of chickpeas: they are high in protein, calcium, folate and magnesium, among other things. Research by Pittway, Robertson and Ball suggests that chickpeas also aid in lowering cholesterol. Not only are roasted chickpeas a tasty snack, but they are good for you. That made teenage vegan Dana happy, but it should make the anti-snackers out in the world happy too!

Everyone wins! Hurray for snacking! Vive le goûter!

Roasted Chickpeas

(adapted from Roasted Chichers in Robin Robertson’s Vegan Planet)

1-18 oz can of chickpeas

1 Tbsp olive oil

1 tsp lemon pepper

1 tsp dill

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp paprika

• Set oven to 375° F.
• Open the can of chickpeas, empty it into a colander, and rinse thoroughly. The water the chickpeas are packed in has all kinds of dissolved solids in it and doesn’t taste very good, nor does it have a nice texture. I rinse until the chickpeas shine in the light, when they come out of the can they will be rather matte.
• Place the rinsed chickpeas in a resealable bag, and add olive oil, stirring to coat.
• Add lemon pepper, dill, garlic powder and paprika to the bag.
• Seal the bag, and shake until the seasonings are evenly distributed among the chickpeas.

• Pour the seasoned chickpeas onto a baking sheet, and shake the sheet until the chickpeas are in a single layer.
• Place the baking sheet in the hot oven, and bake until the chickpeas are browned and crunchy (~25 minutes). Stir the chickpeas about halfway through cooking, to help prevent sticking.

The mister agrees that roasted chickpeas are a tasty snack!