Silky Tomato Soup with Spinach Coulis: Cool & Delicious for Souper (Soup, Salad & Sammie) Sundays

Uh-oh, we are just into June and I am already breaking out the cold soups that I usually reserve for the hotter months. It's been a bit humid here, but not bad, it's just that I keep finding cold soups that sound delicious and that I want to try. This Silky Tomato Soup with Spinach Coulis is from "Jacques Pepin: Fast Food My Way"--a book full of quick and easy recipes. It's a great, healthy soup to make in the morning, chill, and then bring it out for a light lunch or starter for an easy dinner on the grill.

Pepin says, "The refreshing summer soup, a silky blend of raw tomato flavored with garlic and oil, is almost a liquid salad. It's excellent on its own, but when garnished with a simple spinach coulis, or puree, it is sublime. The spinach puree is an excellent addition to sandwiches or soups and is great as a dressing for cold poached fish or as a sauce for pasta."

Silky Summer Tomato Soup with Spinach Coulis

"Jacques Pepin: Fast Food My Way"

(Serves 4)

Tomato Soup:

3 lbs ripe tomatoes

1 sweet onion (about 4 oz), such as Vidalia, cut into 1-inch pieces

2 large garlic cloves

1/4 jalapeno pepper (or less depending on your tolerance), seeded & cut into 1/2-inch pieces

3/4 tsp salt

2 Tbsp good olive oil

1/4 tsp (or less if desired) Tabasco sauce

Spinach Coulis:

About 3 cups (loosely packed) spinach leaves

1/4 cup oil (a mixture of canola & olive oil)

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 cup water

For the tomato soup:

Cut the tomatoes into 2- to 3-inch chunks. Finely puree the tomatoes, onion, garlic, jalapeno, salt, and olive oil in a blender or food processor. Push the puree through a food mill fitted with the fine screen, then add enough Tabasco to the soup to suit your taste. (You should have about 6 cups of soup.) Refrigerate until cool.

For the spinach coulis:

Pick out and discard any damaged leaves and seal the leaves in a plastic bag. Place the bag in a microwave onion and microwave the spinach on high for 1 1/2 minutes.

Transfer the spinach to a blender. Add the oil, salt, and water and process for about 1 minute, stopping the machine once or twice to push any pieces of spinach clinging to the sides down into the mixture. When it's smooth, transfer the spinach puree to a bottle or jar, cover tightly, and refrigerate.

To serve, ladle out about 1 1/2 cups soup per person. Garnish each bowl with 1 to 2 tablespoons of spinach coulis.

Note: The spinach coulis can be made up to a week ahead and refrigerated.

Notes/Results: An easy and delicious cold soup with lots of flavor and bright color. I used some local North Shore tomatoes (about 8 total) and a sweet Maui onion for the tomato soup base and some baby spinach for the puree. The recipe said to put it through a food mill, which I don't have so I started straining the soup with a sieve, and then decided that it was processed enough in the food processor and left it un-strained to give it more texture. I served the soup with some grilled bread. This is a tasty and healthy soup, I will make it again.

Now lets take a look into the Souper Sunday kitchen and see who is here this week:

Here with a recipe that isn't a Tortilla Soup (for her best tortilla soup quest), is girlichef with Mark Bittman's Soup with Poached Eggs and Greens. girlichef says, "I was looking for a tasty...and quick!!...soup for Spring that I hadn't yet tried and had the ingredients for on-hand. This soup isn't heavy or overwhelming and it's a fabulous way to pack in those vitamins from those tender Spring greens while getting protein from perfectly poached eggs...two of my favorite things."

Graziana of Erbe in Cucina is back with a thick and savory vegan Toor Dal with Aromatic Herbs to share. Made with pigeon peas (toor) and lots of herbs and spices like cumin seeds, cinnamon, cardamom, ginger, cilantro and mint, Graziana served it as part of an Indian dinner.

My friend Kat from Our Adventures in Japan has been having some cold soup weather this month. She says, "The weather last Friday was so hot that I wanted something that didn't involve standing by the stove, maybe even something "cool" for dinner. I had a lot of veggies in my refridge and decided to try my hand at something new...Gazpacho." The result? Kat says, "Even if the texture was "thick", I liked this, a great way to get in a LOT of veggies and keep cool."

Kim from Stirring the Pot was cooking up a storm with Rocco DiSpirito's new cookbook and made his Cheddar Cheese and "Potato" Soup. She says, "Rocco's "potato" soup relies on cauliflower instead of potato to make a creamy, cheesy-based soup that is low calorie. Cauliflower, milk, onion, and garlic are pureed to make a hearty and thick soup. Reduced-fat cheese is added to give it a cheesy consistency. A huge bowl of this "potato" soup comes in at only 190 calories. I found that I didn't really miss the real potato in this soup. I liked this recipe and ate it for lunch most of this week."

Thick and Creamy Tomato Soup was on the menu for Zibi at Fresh Slowcooking. She says, "An easy tomato soup made with fresh Roma tomatoes and homegrown basil. No tomato peeling, no cream and no bread required. Once the soup is cooked, it needs to be puréed and garnished with a sprinkle cayenne pepper and chives. We loved it. The flavour was rich and the texture was thick and creamy. When I garnished the leftovers, I added some crumbled feta on top too and we enjoyed the soup even more. The feta adds a nice salty bite."

So nice to welcome Carla from RecipeAddict to Souper Sundays this week. Carla made a Vietnamese Beef Noodle Soup with Asian Greens and says, "I have been craving a light soup/noodle bowl for a while now. Seeing that the heat of summer has come down upon us two-fold, I didn't want a heavy, creamy soup. I saw this recipe for Vietnamese Beef-Noodle Soup with Asian Greens in the April Cooking Light Magazine and knew I had to make it. This was everything I had been craving in a light soup. I could just drink the broth straight up without even adding the beef and noodles, it was that good!"

We have Janet from The Taste Space here again this week with a Zucchini and Apple Salad with a Lemon Hazelnut Sauce (Taratorlu Kabak). Janet says, "The winner in this recipe is the lemon hazelnut sauce. It is deliciously creamy with the roasted hazelnuts ground to a thick paste with garlic, and then infused with fresh lemon juice and olive oil. It was added to baked zucchini and apples and then sprinkled with chopped hazelnuts."

Natashya from Living in the Kitchen with Puppies made a New Potato and Asparagus Salad this week and says, "This is an easy to make salad that is perfect for grill season. Wonderful new potatoes and spring asparagus in lemony union. I made it extra "grilly" (I declare this a word) by grilling the asparagus. By which I of course mean washing, trimming, oiling and seasoning and then handing off to the hubby at the fire. Hard worker, that man."

Spencer from Live2EatEat2Live is branching out into salads this week with this Ku Gua (Bitter Melon) Salad. He says, "After searching the internet, I came across this website that provided excellent direction for preparing and using raw bitter melon in a salad:I choose to use the “osmosis” method to prepare the ku gua. I didn’t use fish sauce in the dressing (just sesame oil, rice vinegar, salt, and sugar). I also did not add onions to the salad (just bitter melon and grape tomatoes)."

Christine from Fresh Local and Best made a gorgeous Pomelo Salad with Shrimp and Chicken (Goi Buoi Tom Thit) and says, "When I think of Vietnamese food, I think of fresh herbs, crisp shredded vegetables and small tender chunks of meat woven together with bright savory umami flavors. This is a salad demonstrates the versatility of Vietnamese cuisine, which incorporates citrus, carrots, jicama, shrimp and chicken among other fresh ingredients. If you can't find pomelo, pink grapefruit is an excellent substitute."

Tigerfish from Tezcape-An Escape to Food has a sandwich to share this week, this unique Otah-Egg Sandwich with Fillers of Fish and Eggs. She says, about otah (spicy fish cake cooked in banana leaves), "You can eat them straight from the banana leaves; as a side-dish to steamed rice or as a filler in your bread. Versatile, yeah? Tone down the spice by adding some hard-boiled eggs - mash Otak-Otak and Hard-Boiled Eggs to create a kid-friendly sandwich filler. Might be a good introductory way to season your kids' palates to spice."

Reeni from Cinnamon Spice & Everything Nice has taken meatballs to a new level with her Barbecue Meatball Sandwiches with Onions and Cole Slaw. Reeni says, "A homemade brown sugar barbecue sauce recipe with tender meatballs that can be made into sandwiches, eaten with buttered noodles, rice or potatoes. My favorite way of eating these is on a hard roll with cole slaw piled generously on top. The cole slaw is cold, milky and crunchy while the meatballs are warm, soft and richly-flavored. A recipe for success. They make a delicious, melt-in-your mouth combo. Finger-licking good comfort food."

There we go--some terrific dishes again this week. Mahalo to all who joined in. If you have a soup, salad, or sandwich that you would like to share, just click on the Souper Sunday logo on the side bar for all of the details.

Have a great week!