Veggies

Leave it to David Chang to come up with this unusually delicious tomato soup.  He is such a creative chef, always dreaming up new mouthwatering recipes.  One of these days I’ll make it to New York, sit at the bar of his famous Momofuku restaurant and slurp up spicy miso ramen with smoked chicken and poached egg.   Until that day comes, I’ll have to be content with preparing my own renditions of David Chang’s recipes.  So, with that in mind, and a dining room table covered with baskets of fruit from the garden, including one full of tomatoes, this recipe was perfect.

 I’m so lucky to have the best “Big Beef” tomatoes growing in the garden. John spends a lot of time looking after the plants making sure they are watered early in the morning and applying regular supplements of organic fertilizer.  You just can’t buy tomatoes like these at any store that I know of.  This recipe calls for 5 tomatoes. Hmm.  I used 2 pounds (about 6 medium) and there was enough soup for just two servings, not four as the recipe states.  I did use all of the onion, oregano and vinegar the recipe calls for.  If you want to make enough soup to serve four, double the recipe.

Though the sautéed onions are not included in the title of the recipe, they may be the star of the dish, second only to the vine ripened tomatoes.  After a slow sauté in olive oil with the olives and oregano, red wine and sherry vinegar are added.  The mixture is set aside until the soup is served, then placed on top of the soup with the other garnishes (cucumbers, grape/cherry tomatoes, feta).  The vinegar adds a zing to the sweet onion and savory olives.  I could eat the sautéed, herbed onions and olives alone.  They are that good.

Tomato Soup with Feta, Olives & Cucumbers 

Adapted from David Chang/Food & Wine Magazine

Serves 2

Ingredients

3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

1 small red onion, thinly sliced

1/4 cup pitted Nicoise olives (I used assorted olives I had on hand)

2 tablespoons fresh oregano leaves

3 tablespoons red wine vinegar

1 tablespoon sherry vinegar

kosher salt

1/2 small Kirby or Keiki cucumber, thinly sliced

3 teaspoons honey

2 pounds ripe tomatoes, chopped

freshly ground black pepper

2 ounces cherry tomatoes

1/4 cup feta cheese, crumbled

baby greens for garnish

Preparation

In a  medium saucepan, heat 3 tablespoons olive oil.  Add the onion, olives and oregano and cook over moderately low heat, stirring until the onion is softened, about 7 minutes.  Remove from the heat and stir in both vinegars.  Season with kosher salt.  Cool to room temperature.

In a small bowl, toss cucumber slices with 1 teaspoon honey and season with salt.

In a blender, puree the chopped tomatoes with 2 teaspoons of honey and season generously with salt and pepper.  Pureeing tomatoes may cause quite a bit of air bubbles that will often make the sauce appear pink or orange in color.  I gently heated the pureed tomatoes for a few minutes, stirring the mixture often, then transferred the pan to an ice bath until cooled.  This step will transform the sauce into a gorgeous bowl of tomato soup.  You could also prepare the tomatoes in advance and store in the refrigerator for a few hours so that the air bubbles have time to settle down.

Pour the soup into shallow bowls.  Top with the onion-olive mixture, cherry tomatoes, cucumber slices, feta and a few grinds of pepper.  Garnish with baby greens if desired.