So I said in my first post of this series that I would be talking about tools, tips, and ingredients – time to make good on that and move away from ingredients for a moment to a quick post about some of the tools you’ll find indispensable for cooking up great vegan food.

The one thing you’re definitely going to want is something to blend things – pestos, soups, “cheeses”, sauces, smoothies, hummus, pizza dough… it’s amazing how often you’ll want to puree something.  I highly recommend a good basic food processor, and a high speed blender (more about that later).  But one of the lesser known items is an immersion blender.

I wasn’t sure about this gift from an ex – turned out he was smarter than I was! :)

An immersion blender is the best tool out there for pureeing soups – and if you’re anything like me, you loooove soups.  And particularly, I love pureed soups.  There’s really nothing to using an immersion blender.  Once you have your soup base cooked, instead of needing to pour it, usually in multiple batches, into a regular blender, probably making a mess in the process, with an immersion blender you can puree the soup right in your cooking pot.  Just remove from stove, insert into soup, turn on, and go!  Mine even has speed settings, so you can puree more or less smoothly, depending on taste and the particular recipe.  The one important thing to note is to try and always turn on and off while below the surface of the liquid.  Otherwise you run the risk of spattering hot soup everywhere.

Recipe

Just one recipe for you today – my favoritest favorite soup.  I’ve been making this one for years: Sweet Potato, Carrot, Apple, and Red Lentil Soup.

A few changes to both veganize and enhance:

• Use vegan butter instead of butter
• Instead of 4 cups veggie broth use: 2 cups veggie broth, 1 cup apple cider, and 1 cup water
• Don’t waste time peeling your potatoes or apples – unnecessary, and you lose lots of valuable nutrients!
• Use vegan yogurt or sour cream for garnish if you desire; I usually just leave it off

Enjoy!!