Color Me Vegan Soup Review

Wow, my computer has been "broke" for the last 2 months, and I haven't had the money to fix it. I am way behind on blogging some of the fun things I have been up to. Here is a post that I was literally in the middle of when my computer started having issues.

I recently checked out a copy of Color Me Vegan at my local library. I tried out a couple of recipes tonight, both of them soups, and I can tell you right now that I will definitely be buying this book in the near future. AMAZING! I am all about emphasizing simple vegan dishes based on whole foods, and this book accomplishes this flawlessly while following a whimsical color-sorted scheme. It was fun to read.

The first recipe that caught my eye was for edamame...soup? I am a fan of edamame, but never had I ever imagined putting it in soup! I just had to try this, and lo-and-behold I happened to have all of the ingredients already. It pays to have a well-stocked vegan kitchen!

This recipe was extremely easy and also very cheap to make. Thanks to Trader Joe's, Hy-Vee, and potatoes from my grandpa's garden! I do not normally buy vegetable stock, since it is way cheaper to use boullion, but Hy-Vee was having a pretty good sale so I stocked up. It's kind of a luxury item for me.

I am not going to give away the recipe since it is from a cookbook that I did not write, but basically everything gets boiled in a pot with some simple seasonings. Then it meets its fate in the Vita-Mix.

To serve, the recipe suggests drizzling with toasted sesame oil. Normally I would avoid adding even the tiniest iota of unnecessary fat to any recipe, but sesame oil has an incredible flavor and really perked up this soup. It may sound gross, but eating this soup really reminded me of sushi. Here it is served up with some gluten-free crackers. Yes, I really need to figure out this food photography thing. And get some prettier dishes.

The next soup I made was the Roasted Red Pepper and Carrot Soup. I made it on the same night too. I guess I was just super excited to try out new recipes and felt that it was also a good time to stock my freezer with frozen meals for future use. Once again, my winning kitchen supplied everything I needed for this soup.

I am stoked that Hy-Vee has it's own brand of organic unsweetened soy milk now! I don't like to drink soy milk of any kind because it tastes like ass (I prefer almond milk), but it is great to cook with IF you can find it unsweetened. Trader Joe's has it too, but Hy-Vee is a lot closer to my job and house. Also, I do NOT buy roasted red peppers anywhere but Dollar Tree. Why? Because they are $1! Go find them anywhere else and gasp at the price. Total rip-off.

So this soup recipe has pretty much the same technique. Toss everything in a pot (except the soy milk) and boil.

Then toss it all in the Vita-Mix and add a splash of soy milk. I served it with some extra thyme and gluten free crackers. Yum! This soup had a totally unique flavor. It didn't really taste like any of its components. Odd, but delicious. I will definitely be making both of these soups again!