Hot and Sour Soup with Shitake Mushrooms

Awesome soup for winter. It is usually made with rice wine vinegar but I prefer using lime to give it a nice citrus taste

You will need:

250g fresh shitake mushrooms, roughly chopped
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, crushed (not necessary)
1 inch fresh ginger, finely grated (about 2 tsp)
1/4 tsp dried chilli (this is enough to give it a bite, just)
Juice of 1 small lime/ 2tbsp lime juice (or rice wine vinegar)
Red and yellow peppers, julienned
400g whole kernel corn
50 ml soy sauce/1 tbsp miso paste
1 tbsp vegan powdered ‘chicken’ stock (available from Fresh Earth)
1 tbsp cornstarch
6 cups water (plus a bit more to mix the cornstarch)
1tbsp sunflower or ½ tsp sesame oil
Seasoning to taste

Method:

Sauté the onions, garlic, ginger and dried chilli in oil.
Add mushrooms and peppers and cook for a few minutes.
Add corn, water, lime juice, miso paste/soy sauce and stock powder. Bring to boil.
Mix cornstarch to a smooth paste and add to soup while stirring. Allow to cook for a few more minutes.
Season to taste

Variations:

Add tofu.
Add more hot with chilli oil, hot pepper sauce or peri-peri sauce.
For a more Thai flavour add lime leaves, coriander leaves, basil leaves and lemon grass.

Roasted tomato and basil soup

We first had this at a local Italian restaurant and were both floored by how delicious it was. We had to try it for ourselves.

What you will need:

250g cherry or other small tomatoes
1/2 onion
2 cloves garlic
Olive oil
1 handful fresh basil
1 can whole peeled tomatoes
1 small can tomato paste
Water or good vegetable stock
Salt and pepper to taste

Method:

Preheat oven to 180 deg C

Peel onion and cut in half leaving some of the root intact. Slice one half lengthwise into 1 cm wide wedges. Chop the other half as finely as possible and put aside.

Put onion wedges and cherry tomatoes with a little olive oil and seasoning into oven and roast until the tomato skins have split, the juices are flowing and the onions start blackening around the edges.

When the tomatoes are done roasting, sauté the finely chopped onions and garlic in a little more olive oil.

Separate the cherry tomatoes from the sauce and onions and blend the sauce and onions together with the whole-peeled tomatoes. (We blend the onions so that they are disguised for little ones that have decided they don’t like onions but the soup is quite chunky so you can leave them whole)

Mash the roasted tomatoes up a bit

Add blend with tomato paste and water/stock to the sautéed onions and garlic and bring to boil. Add basil, seasoning and cherry tomatoes to soup and let it simmer for a few minutes.

Serve with nice chunky Italian bread, vegan basil pesto (make it yourself, just leave the cheese out) and Olive paste.

Variations:

This is nice with different herbs (like origanum or marjoram) or with added roasted peppers. If it needs it, a pinch of sugar and a bit of vinegar (red wine, balsamic or apple cider) can be added.