tomatoes — Blog — uprooted kitchen blog

My palette was in the mood for some sort of alfredo sauce this week, but all the vegan cashew pasta sauces that I've tried are too heavy for me. So, I decided to cut that richness with fresh tomatoes. Yes, I’m aware that there are many recipes like this floating around on the interwebs, but this one is the best! I used fresh tomatoes from our hook-up in Eastern Washington, so the flavor can't be beat. Also, if you’re looking for a way to use up an overstock of tomatoes, this is one way to do it.

You can use the sauce on any type of pasta. It would also make a great sauce for lasagna (you wouldn't even need a vegan ricotta substitute).

Ingredients:

1 cup cashews (soaked, rinsed, and drained)

1 cup cold water

2 1/2 lbs fresh tomatoes

3 cloves garlic

2 small bunches basil

salt and pepper to taste

Cover the cashews with about an inch of cold water and soak for at least an hour, then rinse and drain them. Combine the cashews with one cup cold water in the blender and blend until smooth. Roughly chop the tomatoes and add to the blender along with the garlic and basil. (Note: you can use more tomatoes if you want a thinner or more tomatoey sauce.) Salt and pepper to taste; I used 3 teaspoons salt and 20 grinds of pepper. After everything is blended thoroughly, pour the sauce into a pan and simmer for about 20 minutes or until it has reduced and thickened up a bit.

The oldest trick in the parent book is sneaking vegetables into foods and your kids being none-the-wiser. They love it, they ask for seconds, and you secretly give yourself a high-five on the way back to the kitchen. Some daring parents will even reveal the supposedly disliked/repulsive ingredients after their kid is on their third helping and it's already packed for their lunch for the next day. "Guess what you just ate...and liked!" (That would be me.) Sometimes it backfires, sometimes it does not, and sometimes it just gets them to eat the above-mentioned four portions (which I'll take!).

This soup is one of those recipes that you can hide at least two other vegetables within. Technically, this is a tomato, red pepper, squash soup but I simply titled it Tomato Soup in case a child or husband sees the recipe pop up somewhere (you're welcome!). I prefer using squash for this soup (kabocha, butternut, or any other rich, sweet squash) but this time I used a pumpkin because we had leftover from a pumpkin stout my husband was making.

Ingredients:

2lbs tomatoes (fresh or canned)

1lb red sweet peppers

2lbs (or roughly 2 cups after it's cooked) squash (kabocha or butternut are best)

10 fresh sage leaves (or basil or cilantro)

salt and pepper to taste

To bake squash: cut in half, deseed, add about 1/2 inch water to pan, and bake for about 1 hour or until cooked through. This time around I discovered a new way of cooking my cucurbitaceae. I deseeded it, cubed it, put it in our cast iron dutch oven, added about 1/2 inch water, put the lid on and baked it for 45 minutes to an hour.

Deseed peppers and slice. Slice tomatoes. Combine tomatoes, peppers, squash (I left the peel on but you can determine how much effort you want to put forth), and sage in blender until desired consistency. You'll probably have to blend in batches. Pour blended mixture into a stockpot, simmer for about 20-30 minutes, and salt and pepper to taste.

Sometimes soups can be less than filling for me, so I often fortify mine with any grains or beans I have around. Suggestions are rice, quinoa, buckwheat, black beans, or garbanzo beans.

Pimento peppers from Alvarez Farms. These are my favorite peppers!