Vegan Tomato Bisque with Avocado Pesto Cream

This creamy vegan tomato bisque is made with ripe summer tomatoes blended with dairy-free milk and topped with a dollop of garlicky avocado pesto.

Happy Labor Day! Also, happy Day 1 of VeganMoFo!

I’ve signed on as a participant for my first time ever, and while I can’t make any promises, I’m hoping to post ever day this month. Yes, every one of September’s 30 days. The folks over at Vegan MoFo suggest posting every weekday, but I’m all about a challenge, so I’m shooting for every day. I’ve actually got a bit of a backlog in my archives at this point. I go through periods where I rack up what I consider “little” posts – snacks, desserts, smoothies. I generally like to spread these types of posts out, but often the response I get from them is just as good as from what I consider a superstar dinner post. So, I’ll be sharing more of those posts this month, as well as as much additional material as I can come up with.

Let the Vegan MoFo fun begin, starting with a perfectly seasonally appropriate post. The tomatoes in my garden are just starting to ripen at a rate I can barely keep up with. Tomato soup is my answer!

The base for this recipe is a super simple tomato soup, made just a bit creamy with non-dairy milk. It’s the avocado-pesto cream that makes it special. Basil is another thing I’ve got springing forth in abundance in my backyard, and basil is something I never have a problem putting to good use, especially when there’s room for pesto in the fridge. This year I planted a lot, since this was the first year I planted a vegetable garden, so my basil wasn’t confined to pots. I should have more than enough pesto to get me through to next summer, which means I hopefully can share pesto recipes regularly until then.

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Vegan Tomato Bisque with Avocado Pesto Cream

This creamy vegan tomato bisque is made with ripe summer tomatoes blended with dairy-free milk and topped with a dollop of garlicky avocado pesto.

Course Soup

Prep Time 10 minutes

Cook Time 35 minutes

Total Time 45 minutes

Servings 4

Author Alissa

Ingredients

For the Tomato Bisque

• 2 tbsp. olive oil
• 1 medium onion diced
• 6 cups diced tomatoes seeded
• 2 cups unflavored soy or almond milk
• 2 tbsp. nutritional yeast
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. pepper

For the Avocado Pesto Cream

• 1 ripe avocado pitted and peeled
• juice of 1 lemon
• 2 tbsp. pesto
• 1/4 tsp. salt

Instructions

Make the Tomato Bisque

1. Heat olive oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add onion and sauté until softened, about 5 minutes.
2. Add tomatoes and cover. Cook about 10 minutes.
3. Uncover tomatoes and cook until reduced to about 2 cups, about 25 minutes, stirring occasionally.
4. Add milk, salt, pepper and nutritional yeast. Stir to blend
5. Transfer to food processor and process until smooth. Do this in batches if needed.
6. Return to burner and cook just until heated throughout.

Make the Avocado Pesto Cream

1. Place all ingredients in food processor and blend until smooth.

Serve

1. Divide soup into bowls and top with a generous amount of avocado pesto cream.

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