I had chicken stock in my crockpot and it was time to either make something out of it, or figure out how to store it. Being lazy efficient, and having butter and creamy kefir cheese (think cream cheese, but the kind that won’t keep my lactose intolerant toddler up screaming all night…), I decided to try a new use-it-up kind of recipe. I am kind of shocked by how delicious it was, so I’m writing it down so I can try to duplicate it again. This is also an easily vegan-friendly cream of tomato soup recipe, because although I used chicken stock I think any kind of stock would be just great.

Dairy-Free Vegan Crockpot Tomato Soup

Ingredients:

Stock of your choice (2 quarts or so)

Tomato Sauce (a quart-ish)

1-2 cups of cooked chickpeas (one can would be fine)

2-3 medium carrots, roughly chopped (I cut them into about 4 pieces)

1 medium onion, quartered

1-3 cloves garlic (I used 3, because garlic is delicious)

salt to taste

(a little sweetener, if it tastes too tomato-ey; mine didn’t, but yours might–go easy on that!)

Method:

Put everything into the crockpot, cook for a few hours until everything is fairly soft, then use an immersion blender to puree the soup. If you don’t have an immersion blender (one of those gadgets that seems ridiculous until you have one, and then it seems fantastic!), you could do a little at a time in a regular blender or food processor.

You could dress it up to serve with any number of things: bacon crumbles, grated cheese, sour cream, chives or other chopped fresh herbs, a little wine mixed in, some roasted red peppers, etc. Use your imagination! Obviously, if you add cheese or bacon to it, it would no longer be vegan, so choose accoutrements according to your conscience. 🙂 Or enjoy it, as we did, as simple comfort food for a cold, Clevelandey kind of Friday evening.