Tomato Bisque Soup

More soup! This time one of my favorites, tomato bisque.
I based my recipe, on this.

Ingredients:

• 3 tbsp. butter
• ½ onion
• ½ cup carrots, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic
• 3 tbsp. flour
• 2.5 cups broth (or water with 1 tbsp/cup)
• 3.5 cups tomatoes, chopped, peeled
• 1 tsp. Dried parsley
• 1 bay leaf
• ½ cup heavy cream (I didnt have heavy cream or enough milk, so I combined 1/4 cup milk and 1.5 tbsp. butter)
• 1 tsp. salt
• Black pepper
• 1 tsp. brown sugar
• 10 fresh basil leaves

Directions:

1. Boil water and add whole tomatoes. boil until skin starts to crack. Then remove from heat. Allow to cool then peel and chop. Make sure to conserve the juice.
2. Heat butter in large pot over medium.
3. Add onions, carrots, and garlic. Cook, covered, until soft, which takes about 8 minutes. Make sture to stir occasionally.
4. Stir in flour, and cook for 3 minutes.
5. Add broth and tomatoes and bring to a boil. Stirring constantly.
6. Add in spices.
7. Lower the heat and simmer for 30 minutes.
8. Remove from heat, and allow to cool.
9. Remove bay leaf, and puree in blender until smooth.
10. Whisk in heavy cream and salt. Pepper to taste.
11. Garnish with basil, cilantro, cheese, and so on.

Serve hot and enjoy!

PS. It had a rich tomato taste. If you like it to be creamy add more heavy cream.

Pumpkin Soup

This is a very easy recipe to make and it is soo good! I adapted the recipe from here.

Ingredients

• 2 tbsp. olive oil
• 1 onion chopped
• 1 cup chopped carrots
• 1 cup any additional vegetables (butternut squash or so on)
• 1 cup canned pumpkin puree
• 4 cups vegetable or chicken broth
• 1 tbsp. lemon juice
• salt to taste
• pepper to taste
• 1/2 tsp. dried cilantro
• 2 tsps. olive oil
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1/8 tsp. paprika
• 1 tsp. cumin

Directions:

1. Heat up olive oil in pot. Add onions and cook until translucent. 
2. Add remaining vegetables and cook until soft. Around 5 minutes.
3. Stir in pumpkin puree.
4. Add remaining ingredients. 
5. Bring to a simmer and then reduce heat to low. Cook for about 40 minutes. 
6. Allow to cool and puree on a blender.
7. Add sour cream as a garnish if you would like!

I love this soup. It tastes like your normal vegetable soup, and very easy to make!

Black Bean Soup

One of the best things to break your fast on is soup!

I adapted this recipes from here.

Ingredients:

• 1 T olive oil
• 4 garlic cloves, chopped
• 3/4 cup chopped carrots
• 1 cup diced onion
• 1 29 oz. can of black beans
• 2 cups of water with 2 tbsp. soy sauce (a substitution for the beef broth)
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp black pepper
• 1/2 tsp. chili powder
• 1/2 tsp. cumin
• 1/2 tsp. dry oregano leaves
• 1 bay leaf.

So my soup turned out a bit salt (I like salty, so it worked out). In order to avoid saltiness you can rinse the beans very well and just overall cut down on the salt. 

Also, this is more of a thick soup. :-)

Directions:

1. Warm up a pot on the stove. Once warm add the olive oil. Then add the carrots, onions, and garlic. Saute for 4-5 minutes.
2. Throw in the black beans and beef broth. (I also added a bit of this chili pepper/tomato mix my mom made).
3. Stir and add all the spices.
4. Leave uncovered and simmer for 20-25 minutes. Add water if the mixture becomes thick.  It is finished when carrots are tender.
5. Let cool. Remove bay leaf and puree in blender. 

Top the soup with cilantro, basil, cheese, sour cream and so on..

Enjoy :-)

Anyone have any other soup recipes I should try out?