Fall into Soup

Roasted Cherry Tomato Soup

It's Fall in Ontario and the weather has shifted to cold and grey days where all you want to do is curl up with a hot bowl of soup and watch all the new shows on TV.  Grab those sweaters, throws and curl up on the couch with this bowl of Roasted Cherry Tomato Soup. 

I added a boost of flavour using new Herbamare Bouillon Cubes provided by A. Vogel Canada.  

I created this quick recipe for the Herbamare Broth Challenge and you can follow along fellow food bloggers recipes on social media using the hashtag #howdoyouherbamare

RECIPE

1/2 pint cherry tomatoes

2 roma tomatoes

1 clove garlic

1 tsp dried basil

1 tbsp. olive oil

1 tbsp tomato paste

1 Herbamare® Bouillon Cube

4 cups of water

salt and pepper

smoked salt (optional)

Flat leaf parsley sprigs for garnish

Packaged Garlic croutons or make your own

DIRECTIONS

Using a cookie sheet spread the washed cherry tomatoes on a parchment lined sheet.  Cut the roma tomatoes into quarters and add to the pan.  Pour the olive oil over the tomatoes and crush the garlic and add it to the tomatoes.  Add salt and pepper to taste.  Add a pinch of smoked salt if you have some or you can also add smoked paprika.   Mix the tomatoes to coat everything and then roast in the oven at 400ºF until they are soft and just starting to char about 20 minutes or so depending on your oven.  When done remove and blend with a stick blender or you can add it to a blender.  I used a stick blender.  

In a separate saucepan/pot add the 4 cups of water and the Herbamare bouillon cube, tomato paste and bring to a boil.  Add the pureed tomato mixture and dried basil and/or fresh parsley and continue to simmer on medium for about 15 minutes.

Pour into a serving bowl and top with croutons and parsley sprig.  You can also grate parmesan cheese on top or add sour cream if you like.  Serves 2-4

Grab a spoon and hit the couch and turn on your favourite TV show and enjoy!

Don't forget to share the recipe with your friends and family if you like it.  And take a selfie with your soup and hashtag #howdoyouherbamare if you like it.

For more info about other A. Vogel Canada products go to their website: http://www.avogel.ca

*Disclaimer:  Herbamare samples were provided for this recipe but the recipe is my own and all other ingredients were purchased by me and the opinions are my own.  Photos are also taken by me.

15 Reasons why you should try Xyla!

XYLA HOLIDAY MENU LUNCH

I was invited to the beautiful Toca Restaurant at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in downtown Toronto for a special Healthy Holiday Lunch presented by Xyla® an "un-sugar" sugar replacement that is made from 100% Xylitol. It looks, tastes, cooks and bakes just like sugar.

It has so many benefits that it's hard not to take notice and consider it as a reason to ditch all of the other sugars you normally use.

Here are some of the benefits of using Xyla® (Xylitol)

1. 40% less calories than sugar.
2. 75% less carbs than sugar.
3. Alkaline enhancing
4. Anti-aging properties
5. Aids in weight loss
6. Maintains hormonal balance
7. Slows steady release of energy 
8. Increases absorption of B vitamins and calcium
9. Inhibits plaque and dental cavities up to 80%
10. Diabetic friendly
11. Low- glycemic
12. Natural insulin stabilizer
13. Diminishes sugar and carbohydrate cravings
14. 100% Sustainable
15. No GMO's and not derived from corn or manufactured in China.

The great chefs at Toca created a Healthy Holiday Menu that used Xyla® instead of sugar in the recipes.  Xyla can be used the same way as sugar but there might need to be adjustments to make it work the same way as it doesn't caramelize exactly the same way.

This is the menu of the food we sampled.  I can tell you that each dish was amazing and you don't even notice that anything is different.  I especially loved their sticky toffee pudding.  We were given copies of the recipes so I hope to try some of them this holiday season.

Starters

• Banana Bread French Toast accompanied with fresh berries
• Eggplant Caponata with sweet and sour sauce and pine nuts

Mains (1)

• Tacchino Turkey, chestnut and mushroom stuffing, medley of potato and cranberry sauce
• Organic Salmon vegetable teriyaki

Dessert

• Dolce Sticky Toffee Pudding, sour cream gelato and chai anglaise

I am not a big fan of products like Aspartame or Stevia because they are either chemicals or they just don't taste good or really aren't great products but I think Xyla is a great alternative to sugar.  

Xyla is made from 100% naturally source xylitol – it goes through a natural steam ion exchange process to extract the xylitol from the birch wood pulp  ( similar to how when a popcorn kernel is heated and goes pop) and aspartame is a chemical.

Other products available as seen in the photo above were gum, mints, mouthwash and toothpaste, jam, xyla packets for coffee or tea and sauces.  I was given a few products to sample so I hope that I can get used to them and adopt them and replace some of the things I normally use.

For more info check out their website at  www.xylitolcanada.com or www.xylabrands.com

Disclaimer*  Lunch and a few product samples were provided gratis but the opinions of the products provided are mine.  I was not compensated for this post. 

Lamesa's gives Filipino food a new spin.

What:     Fall/Winter menu Media Dinner
Where:  Lamesa Filipino Kitchen (669 Queen Street West) 

When:   September 28, 2015

Twitter: @LamesaTO // Event Hashtag: #kamayanTO
Instagram: http://instagram.com/lamesato
FB: https://www.facebook.com/LamesaFilipinoKitchen

I was invited with fellow food media people to try out Lamesa's new modern Filipino food menu.  After a recent Toronto Star article about the journalists unpleasant view of some Filipino food owner Lester Sabilano wanted to show people what elevated modern Filipino food could be.  Food is executed by the very talented Daniel Cancino who is classically French trained.

Dinner included:

Ø  Welcome cocktail: Boracay Breezy - dark rum, coconut rum, banana liqueur, house made peach liqueur, macerated strawberry syrup

Ø  Chef Daniel's take on the classic Ensaladang Talong, or roasted eggplant salad. He combines roasted eggplant, a common vegetable side in Filipino cuisine, with eggplant caponata, crème fraîche, salted egg, puffed wild rice and sweet soy. This dish was selected by Zagat Toronto as one the best dishes of 2015. 

Ø  Tuna Kinilaw-  a Filipino style ceviche made with albacore tuna, a coconut calamansi vinaigrette, fresh chilies, and coconut guacomole served with shrimp chips.

Ø  Beef cheek sinigang is traditionally a sour broth dish, often made with pork or shrimp, that includes vegetables such as radish, bok choy, eggplant, and long beans.  Most home cooks admit to using flavour packets to achieve the correct flavour. Chef Daniel has created his interpretation of this classic dish using local vegetables such as radishes, mustard greens and tomatoes and he's created the sour broth using only tamarind and citrus; No flavour packets required!

Ø  Dessert:  Ube leche flan- a Spanish style custard made with sweet purple yam served with puffed wild rice and apple tapioca.

My favourite dishes were the Tuna Kinalaw but if you know me you will know that I love tuna with avocado and citrus so this had my name on it.  The Lumpia were also great little crunchy meat filled bites.  The Beef Bulalo short rib and bone marrow in a broth had the most amazing aroma of star anise and the meat just melted.  

The mind blowing dish of the night was the dessert though.  It was Ube Leche Flan a smooth purple creamy consistency with Green apple tapioca, ground cherry, concord grape jelly, fig and puffed rice. 

Lamesa has reached out to Filipino artist and Sabilano wants Lamesa to be an ART HUB for the Filipino Community.


Our lovely host Mary Luz Meja gave us all some in house made ketchup to take home.  I had a lovely evening with some food blogger friends and some new ones too.

Drop into Lamesa soon and try some of their great dishes and spread the word.

                 

Chef Daniel Cancino

Mary Luz Meja