A delicious pairing with a grilled cheeeeeeeeeeze.
I'm going to spare you the typical long back story intro that too many online recipes have.
It's simple- I saw a TikTok of a girl saying "Sometimes you just have to have a grilled cheese". She was right, I needed a grilled cheese for dinner. What better pair with? HOMEMADE TOMATO SOUP (or a can of Campbells, I don't judge, it's a classic)
Scroll farther down for the visual step by step
Tools Needed (suggested, you use what you have that works similarly, or makes less of a mess!):
Cutting board and knife
Oven sheet pan
Tongs
Large pot
Hand blender (aka immersion blender, or a true blender/vitamix)
Frying pan
Bowl and spoon!
A leftover container because this makes A LOT
Ingredients:
Soup:
Avocado Oil (or cooking oil of your choice)
4 Large steak tomatoes
1 semi-large sweet potato
~1 cup of Tri-colored Cauliflower (can be regular, I just like to be extra)
An entire bag of Garlic (add more or less, that's your journey)
1 red and 1 orange bell pepper (I like to believe they taste different, we all know they don't)
1 zucchini
1/2 cup of butternut squash (I got the pre-cut zig zags as they cook faster and take up less volume of space on the pan)
1 container of Trader Joes Mirepoix mix.
1 cup of water (to lightly thin the soup, can be a stock of choice)
Optional 1/4 cup of Coconut milk
Grilled Cheese:
Vegan Cheddar cheese (or a vegan cheese you prefer, the Trader Joes cheddar was pleasantly surprising!)
Sourdough (or bread of your choice, ciabatta would be pretty yummy too)
Vegan butter for the pan
Steps:
Preheat your oven to 450
Wash, cut, prepare your veggies on a sheet pan
Toss in cooking oil, and flakey salt.
Roast until the veggies start to brown up on the edges, but before your garlic burns (will be bitter if they burn badly)
Start to soften mirepoix in a pot, preferably when you take the veggies out to cool slightly
Combine mirepoix and roasted veggies to blend
Return to heat, add the water and coconut milk, season to taste
Cook up your grilled cheese and serve!
I got all of the ingredients at Trader Joes, if you are one of the unfortunate people without one close by, I think most of these items can be swapped for similar alternatives!
For reference what I ended up using, and you will be able to tell in the following photos, was mainly a handful of the cauliflower, a sprinkle of the butternut squash and one sweet potato. I did use that whole bag of garlic, garlic is a personal journey, I respect that. Use more or less, do your thing.
Cut them about similar to these sizes, drizzle the cooking oil of your choice, I use Avocado oil, and some flakey sea sat, toss and put into an oven at 450 degrees.
The timing is really up to your oven's power- I literally fully showered and did dishes while mine cooked, and took them out when they started looking like this.
While you let them cool off just slightly, put your mirepoix mix into a pot, sauté them until they begin to soften.
As these start to cook down, don't be scared to multitask and prepare your grilled cheeses, or even start to cook them on the pan. Once they soften enough, grab your tongs and toss your veggies into the same pot
Grab your hand blender! (honestly if you have a great blender or Vitamix, I wish I was you, I either need one or a new hand blender desperately. But feel free to throw the mirepoix and roasted veggies into the blender if that's your vibe)
Blend until smooth, or if you're struggling like me with a 5 year old hand blender, it'll be rustic
This will absolutely need to be thinned out, I added about a cup of water (use a stock if you want a bit more umami) and then I splashed roughly a quarter cup of coconut milk to add a bit of creaminess. Its not enough to really taste it, but there is a gorgeous sweetness to the soup from all of the veggies. Add heat if you'd like!!!, I almost put chili crisps in mine, might actually try that with my next day lunch left overs.
I tried the vegan cheddar slices from Trader Joes, and was actually quite impressed with the taste! I also utilized the Good and Gather Target brand Plant based butter on the pan, also nice.
Toast and cover to your toast and melt preference, cut, plate and enjoy!
My boyfriend Matt topped his soup with our Grazia EVOO, and some pepper and more flakey salt.
BON APPETITE!
BONUS:
It always helps to have a great sous chef!
Comments