Creamy Tomato Soup

Hello all!

Its been a crazy few weeks in my life so I haven't been posting anything, sorry! I'm going to try and be better about that...try!

Last week during yet another snow storm I decided I needed some comfort food and looked up a few different tomato soup recipes. This is a compilation of a few and I was out of a few things so I had to MacGyver a few things but over all it ended up being pretty good! It's on the spicier side as opposed to the creamy, souper (see what I did there??) sweet side but you, like me, can adjust the recipe to your hearts content. If it comes out good, let me know!!

Creamy Tomato Soup
Makes a big, comforting pot!

1/2 cup of oil (I used grapeseed)
1 pound of cherry tomatoes, diced
1 onion, chopped
1 bell pepper, any color BUT green
4-5 cloves of garlic
1 cup of sun dried tomatoes, chopped
1 TBS dried parsley
1 TBS dried basil
1/2 TBS dried oregano
1 TBS sea salt
1 tsp pepper
1/2 cup of tapioca starch
5 cups chicken broth
1 28oz can of tomatoes
1 6oz can of tomato paste*
2 cups of coconut milk

In a large pot, heat oil over medium heat, add cherry tomatoes, onion, garlic and pepper until soft and onion pieces are translucent.
Add sun-dried tomatoes, parsley, basil, oregano, salt and pepper. Cook for another 2-3 minutes.
In a separate bowl, combine the tapioca starch and 1 cup of the chicken broth and whisk until smooth with no lumps. Pour into pot and combine.
Add the rest of the chicken broth slowly, stirring to make sure you don't get any lumps.
Add the diced tomatoes and tomato paste. Turn up the heat and simmer until soup thickens but does not boil.
Reduce heat and add coconut milk, stir to combine.
Technically speaking the soup is ready to eat but if you want it to be more creamy you can either use an immersion blender or blend the soup in a blender in batches.

Full disclosure - I was not happy with the flavor when I first made the soup. I adjusted and tasted and adjusted and tasted some more before I was happy (I added all of those adjustments to the recipe) but the flavor bloomed so much after sitting in the fridge over the next few days! It is also a nice base to springboard other meals off of...I have added ground meat and zucchini noodles (that was dinner last night!) and baked sweet potato for an even creamier, sweeter soup! Use your imagination!

*I didn't have any tomato paste so after googling (that's a word right?) a substitution I reduced another can of tomatoes and added that!