Roasted Garlic and Green Tomato soup

Ingredients:
This recipe serves four, but can be easily halved or doubled.

• 1kg of green tomatoes of any type
• 1 head of garlic
• 2 medium onions, diced
• 200g of spinach, shredded (or another green of your choice, such as kale or chard)
• 1 can of coconut milk (or 1/2 a cup of dairy cream or dairy free alternative)
• 1 cup of stock (we used a mixture of vegetable stock and mushroom stock)
• 1-2 tbsp fresh thyme (or other herb of your choice, dried also works!)
• 1 heaped tbsp of miso paste
• 1-2 teaspoons of sugar (or to taste)
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Oil or butter for frying
• (Optional) To serve, crusty bread
• (Optional) To serve, toasted soy sauce seasoned seeds
• (Optional) To serve, crispy onion bits, fresh herbs, a drizzle of olive oil or other toppings of your choosing

Method

• Wash and de-stem your tomatoes, if they are large, cut them in half and place them skin facing up on an oven safe dish. If they are small, leave them whole. Drizzle with a bit of olive oil, salt and pepper
• Take an entire head of garlic, remove the outermost papery layers but leave the cloves attached to the base. Slice off the very top of the garlic head, so each clove is a little bit exposed. Place on a small square of aluminum foil and drizzle with olive oil, before wrapping and placing on the oven dish with the tomatoes.
• Place the tomatoes and garlic in a pre-heated oven and roast at 180 degrees for 30 minutes, or until soft and caramelized.
• Meanwhile, fry your onions in a heavy bottomed soup pot for 5 minutes, until golden.
• Add your shredded spinach (or other greens), 1 cup of stock, 1 can of coconut milk, fresh thyme and simmer gently until the spinach is cooked and the flavours are starting to meld, together. Remove from the heat until the tomatoes are ready.
• Once the tomatoes are cooked, add them to your soup pot. Squeeze the roasted garlic out of its skins and add that as well (be careful, it will be hot, you might want to let it cool first). Add the miso paste and sugar and blend with an immersion blender (or transfer to a blender) until smooth and creamy.
• Taste and adjust seasoning. The soup is meant to be zingy, but you can add additional sugar, a teaspoon at a time until the flavour suits your palette. Season with salt and black pepper to taste.
• (Optional) For the seeds, pour any amount into a small frying pan and toast them on a medium-high heat, until they start to change colour and pop. Once done, season with a splash of soy sauce and remove from the heat. We love pumpkin seeds, but any seed or nut can work great!
• Serve hot, with crusty bread and toppings of your choice (such as seeds, crispy onion bits, fresh herbs or a drizzle of olive oil) and enjoy!