Roasted Heirloom Tomato Soup (Always Paleo)

Autumn has arrived in the northern hemisphere, which can only mean one thing! It’s SOUP SEASON! Enjoy this Roasted Heirloom Tomato Soup – an experiment to see if tomato soup is tastier when roasted pre-pot. Spoiler alert: it is. 

It feels like just yesterday days stretched long into the night and sleep was hard to come by. Not because of anything other than the number of adventures there were to fit into the endless summer days. Is there such thing as too much sunshine?

With rapidly shortening days and a dark winter looming over the horizon, I don’t think so.

The summer adventure checklist took us surfing in Oregon, shuttling mountain bikes in Squamish, documenting life on film, creating our first “Zine,” photographing Shibari art outdoors in the nature, and so much more.

With days and weekends filled to the brim to take full advantage of endless sunshine, the beginning of autumn feels like a refreshing sigh into slower rhythm. At least, that was the plan until I caught my first virus of the season. My coffee-addicted hustle shifted overnight into a forced tea-infused surrender. 

Fitting, because I would say that one word that represents any change of season – but especially autumn – is surrender. Seasons are one of the few things that humans haven’t managed to control, and there’s a whole lot of wonderful about that. I wonder if seasons feel so good to lean into because it’s a connection to nature that we can’t escape. While many people today are more disconnected, spending more time indoors, the seasons change no matter where we find ourselves. We don’t have to take off our shoes to feel dewy grass beneath our feet, nor do we have to step into a place of mindfulness to feel that connection to nature. The impact is direct and inescapable. 

If you’ve made it this far in the text, thanks for being here! Recipe posts are usually few and far between because I’m not sure what to write with them. On one hand, I strive to communicate prolific ideas and thought prompts. On the other hand, everyone knows that all you want is the recipe when you click on that dang recipe post. 

That being said, my tomato soup experiment coincided with getting sick – leading my brain down a thought-lined road. As much as I don’t like being sick, it created a feeling of spaciousness I haven’t felt in a long time. My schedule has been packed to the brim, and I’ve reached a point where I can’t take on more work. Instead, I have to replace the work that doesn’t fully light me up with the creative opportunities that set my soul on fire. 

Some would say it’s a good problem to have, though I have struggled to carve out time to focus on the work at the core of my genius zone – paleo recipe development paired with food photography, philosophical writing, and life coaching. 

When your health takes a dip, it’s always a wake-up call (at least for me). 

The obvious message is an emphasis that I’ve been neglecting my physical body. This time, it’s a combination of: under-nourishing my body (as much as I love food and move my body, it’s amazing how bad I am at putting food in my mouth); living in a dysregulated nervous system cycle; and not managing emotional stressors well. 

Beneath the layers of obviousness, however, is an intuitive knowing that my life is out of alignment. 

“There must be another way,” has been on repeat in my mind like a broken cassette. There is, and the only way to the other side is to sit in the discomfort of unhappiness, instead of running (or flying away). 

Mmmm, autumn – a good time for breaking patterns, it seems. 

If you’ve been with me for a while, you’ll have seen that I like to jump on planes fairly regularly. The pattern I lived while in Sweden looked something like this: live there for 3-6 months at a time. Get depressed, feeling stuck hitting my head against walls and ceilings. Fly away – return to the US or Italy. Come back to Sweden, re-energized with inspiration and ideas and energy. Go back to doing the same thing I had been doing before. Repeat, repeat, repeat. 

I never sat still enough to work through the unhappiness. 

My biggest lesson right now is to fully feel the discomfort of misalignment, and find solutions that bring me to the other side. Where I wake up ecstatic to start each day, because I’m doing what I love, living a life worth writing (a book) about, and orchestrating beautiful balance. 

If you’re feeling under the weather, I invite you to approach it in a similar way. What intuitive hits have you been ignoring that are showing up in physical form? 

Now, without further ado…. enjoy this Roasted Heirloom Tomato Soup! 

Roasted Heirloom Tomato Soup

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Serves: 6-8 Prep Time: 20 minutes Cooking Time: 1 hour 1 hour

Nutrition facts: 200 calories 20 grams fat

Rating: 4.8/5

( 8 voted )

Ingredients

2 lb heirloom tomatoes
4 rainbow carrots
5-6 whole cloves of garlic, peeled
3 TBSP avocado oil 
salt and pepper, to taste
1/2 cup 4th & Heart ghee
1 red onion, chopped
32 oz. Kettle & Fire chicken broth
1/4 c. fresh basil leaves (divided)
1 TBSP fresh thyme
1 tsp dried oregano

Garnish Ideas
Stir in a spoonful of coconut cream
Fresh basil and/or thyme leaves
Sunflower seeds (for a little crunch)

Instructions

Preheat oven to 400°F. Prepare baking sheet with parchment paper. Chop tomatoes and carrots into smaller pieces (as pictured - I quartered carrots and cut larger tomatoes in half) and arrange on the sheet. Drizzle with avocado oil, and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Use your hands to mix to coat veggies. 

 

Roast for 20 minutes. Add whole garlic cloves. Roast for another 10 minutes. Remove and set aside. 

 

Melt ghee in a large pot over medium/medium-high heat. Add onions and sauté until they begin to brown. 

 

Add chicken broth, oregano, thyme, and half the basil to the onions. Add roasted vegetables and garlic to the pot, stirring to combine. 

 

Bring soup to a boil before reducing to simmer uncovered for 20-30 minutes. 

 

Remove the soup from the heat and let cool, until you feel comfortable adding to a blender. (An immersion blender is a great option, too). Add remaining fresh basil leaves. Purée until smooth, or your desired consistency. 

 

Taste, and adjust seasoning to your liking. 

 

Serve in bowls and garnish with your favorite toppings.