Delicious Homemade Tomato Basil Soup with Caribbean Flavor

This homemade tomato basil soup has all the usual ingredients – tomatoes, garlic, onions, and basil. But, with a herb garden like mine, it’s sinful not to add in fresh, delicious Caribbean herbs like culantro, cilantro, and more.

Trust me, the soup is just as delicious and even more flavorful.

 

Ingredients for this homemade tomato basil soup

Have you seen What’s in my garden (Feb 2020)? There, I give you a little tour of my herb garden. You’ll see my culantro, cilantro and basil plants.

I used a couple leaves in this soup.

As for tomatoes, I used roma tomatoes here.

In the Caribbean, you’ll get fresh roma tomatoes year-round; but they are more abundant in the earlier part of the year.

In a couple weeks, my own tomato plant should be giving me all the organic tomatoes I need. Until then, I used what I got from the market.

In this soup, I added freshly grated coconut – not coconut milk or coconut cream.

Usually, I purchase brown coconuts in the farmers’ market, remove the coconut meat and freeze the pieces! They stay really well in the freezer and only take a couple minutes to defrost in warm water.

The meat adds a nice chunky texture to the soup.

If you prefer a thinner, less chunky consistency, you can strain the coconut bits and use the coconut milk only. (Also, check out how I make coconut milk… it’s so easy and the milk tastes much better than the canned stuff).

All the other ingredients are the usual ones – olive oil, onions, garlic, salt, pepper, oregano, and cheese. I also add sugar to the soup to reduce the acidic taste of the tomatoes.

Here are the ingredients I used.

 

Making homemade tomato basil soup

To start, wash and cut your roma tomatoes lengthways. Mix in olive oil, salt, pepper and peeled garlic. Lay the tomatoes and garlic out on a sheet pan. Broil for 40 minutes.

While the tomatoes are in the oven, chopped your coconut meat. Add to the blender with a quarter cup of water and blend on high for a minute or two. Set aside. If you want a thinner soup with less texture, strain the coconut milk.

In a small pot, add olive oil and sliced onions. Allow the onions to caramelize.

Next, add the broiled tomatoes, garlic, onions and coconut milk to the blender. Blend for two to three minutes.

Add herbs and blend for another minute.

Add the blended ingredients to a larger pot and mix in one cup of water or vegetable broth (if you want a thinner soup, use two cups). Allow the soup to come to a boil.

Then, stir in your sugar, oregano, and cheese. Pepper, chopped chives, and parsley can be added at this point too.

Serve hot with garnish and extra cheese.

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Soup Recipe

 

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