This is best made using a Nutribullet (the one in the link is the one we use and it’s an affiliate link), and there are options in this recipe, depending on taste. One option is sugar (or sugar substitute or honey); some tomatoes really need a bit of sweet to cut the acid. Additionally, those of you chefs out there will always want to add this or subtract that and go ahead. Right now it’s summertime and the tomato crop is plentiful and at its cheapest.
Ingredients (as always, as organic as possible)
2 lbs Fresh Tomatoes (the varieties are unlimited)
¼ – ½ Cup Carrot
¼ Cup Onion
1 – 2 Stalks Celery (with leaves) or ¼ – ½ Cup Zucchini
1 Tablespoon Honey (or sugar substitute, to cut the acid)
¼ Cup Red Bell Pepper or ¼ Cup Sweet Green Pepper
½ Cup Coconut Milk Powder
½ Cup Water (optional depending on how thick you like it)
2 tsp Organic Worcestershire Sauce
Pinch of Basil (or more if you like, 5 or 6 leaves of fresh)
Butter (from a quarter teaspoon to a tablespoon, really your option) or 1 -2 tsp Butter Buds
Salt & Pepper to taste (I used a teaspoon of Celtic Sea Salt)
Optional:
Mix and match your tomatoes. Use your favorites. Green striped are tangy. Brandywine are full of flavor. Black tomatoes have less acid. And cherry tomatoes and plumb tomatoes are tangy and flavorful. When it’s summer, you can play with this for weeks.
Using white, or green, or yellow, or orange tomatoes always makes the color of your soup interesting.
Directions
Chop up a few things, remove any blemishes from the tomatoes and the area around the stem. Add them all to your NutriBullet (or to a blender with a very “high” setting . . . some call it “extracting”).
The bulk of the tomatoes will not allow you to put all these ingredients in at the same time, so once your blender or NutriBullet is full, run it to blend up the ingredients to make room for the rest.
It’s best to peel the carrot. Yes, we know that there’s a lot of nutrition in the outer edge, but it’s also bitter.
I have the NutriBullet Rx (which actually cooks the soup) but we no longer use it to cook. This can cause the blades to burn out and you have to replace them every 5-6 months. Once we stopped, we’ve not yet had to replace the blades.
Update Sumer 2021
Since I’ve been making this for a long time, this summer I wanted to try something new.
These are the things I’ve added to the recipe (after scouring the internet for variations).
- Take another pound of tiny tomatoes and chop them up in a food processor and add them. (It’s delightful)
- Habanero Pepper: use a whole one, or just a half, but first scrape out the seeds.
- Lemon or Lime Zest: You can add this when done cooking, and just stir it in.
- Garlic: I tend to be careful with garlic around tomato sauces. Too much and it starts to taste like marinara sauce.
- Shallots: instead of onions.
- Scallions: Don’t blend these in your Nutribullet. Chop them up and just add while it’s on the stove.
- Ginger: Just about a tablespoon.
- Mushrooms: Your choice here, from oyster, to maitake, to shitake . . . it’s up to you. And everything works out best if you sauté the mushrooms in a little butter, with the ginger and the garlic.
- Shrimp: I found one recipe that used an entire pound of shrimp. I think the name of this has to be changed if you’re doing that.
- Roasted Red Bell Peppers: Like the scallions, cut these into smaller pieces and add to the pot on the stove, or toss into the blender. Your choice.
- Fresh Herbs: Besides basil, you can sprinkle, your favorites before serving: cilantro, mint, dill.
- Black Pearl Rice (Forbidden Rice, it’s also called): Serve the bisque over the rice.
And for the most flavorful tomatoes, try the tiny ones. There are quite a few of them on the market this time of year. They really make a great dish.