Creamy Tomato Leek Fennel Soup Made with Canned Tomatoes and Some of Your Stash of Frozen Pesto
Soup season continues with this velvety-textured tomato soup made chunky with an abundance of diced fennel, celery, onion, leek and tomatoes. It’s packed with flavor from your favorite pesto and both stewed and fire roasted canned tomatoes. A 
warming bowl of fragrant Creamy Tomato Leek Fennel Soup gets much of its creaminess from coconut milk, a good source of protein, vitamins, minerals and quality fat.
Go for canned tomatoes
Except during those few months of the year when fresh tomatoes are at their height of taste and color, 99% of the time canned tomatoes have the best tomato flavor.
Tomatoes bred and grown for canning have thinner skins, lots
of juice, deep color and are picked at the peak of ripeness for the best flavor. They are said to go from picked to peeled to processed in less than six hours, so that they retain their flavor and nutritional value.
The acidity level of canned tomatoes varies from can to can. Naturally creamy and slightly sweet coconut milk provides balance for that acidity without the need for added sugar, honey or another sweetener.
As tomatoes are on the Environmental Working Group’s Dirty Dozen List, choose organic tomatoes packed in BPA-free cans whenever possible. I’ve used Muir Glen organic tomatoes in preparing batch after batch of Creamy Tomato Leek Fennel Soup.
Fresh fennel
Most often associated with Italian cooking, fennel is easily available and at its best from the fall through early spring.
Crunchy and slightly sweet when raw, the fennel bulb becomes almost creamy and loses its licorice-like flavor when cooked.
When used as a garnish, the whole or coarsely chopped fronds impart a light, fresh licorice-like flavor. An alternative garnish for those who aren’t drawn to that flavor might be fresh parsley and/or thinly sliced scallions or chives.
Creamy Tomato Leek Fennel Soup with Coconut Cream and Pesto
A warming bowl of delightfully fragrant Creamy Tomato Leek Fennel Soup is wonderfully filling and satisfying. This velvety-textured tomato soup is made chunky with lots of diced fennel, celery, onion, leek and tomatoes. It’s packed with flavor from pesto and both stewed and fire roasted canned tomatoes.
- If you have frozen your summer pesto, now is a great time to defrost some for stirring into this Creamy Tomato Leek Fennel Soup. Both my Garlic Scape Pesto and Basil Pesto have been a tasty addition.
Vegetarian, gluten-free, and easily made dairy-free.
Inspired by and adapted from a recipe from The Daily Soup Cookbook.
Makes 15+ cups Printer-Friendly Recipe
Active Time 1 hour 15 minutes
Total Time about 1 hour 45 minutes
Ingredients
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 tablespoons butter (or all olive oil)
2 cups ½” diced yellow onion (1 large)
2 ½ cups ½” diced fennel bulb (about a 1 pound fennel bulb with stalks and fronds)
2 cups ½” quartered leeks
1 ½ cups ½” diced celery
2 medium cloves garlic, pressed or minced
2 14.5-ounce cans stewed tomatoes (without added sugar)
2 teaspoons dried thyme leaves
2 Turkish bay leaves
1 ½ teaspoons sea salt
1 teaspoon whole fennel seeds
Dozen twists freshly ground pepper
½ teaspoon Aleppo pepper or other pepper flakes
6 cups unsalted homemade vegetable stock (or low-sodium packaged stock), divided
1 can full fat coconut milk, refrigerated so that the cream separates from the liquid
1 14.5-ounce can diced fire roasted tomatoes
½ cup pesto
Garnish
Coarsely chopped fennel fronds and or whole fennel fronds
Instructions
- Add the oil to a large soup pot over medium heat. When hot,
add the butter. When melted stir in the diced onion. Cover the pot and lower the heat to medium low. Cook 7 minutes. - Uncover the pot and raise the heat to medium-high. Stir in the diced fennel, leek, celery and pressed or minced garlic. Cook about 20-25 minutes until the vegetables are golden brown. Stir occasionally in the beginning, then more frequently as the vegetables begin to color.
- While the vegetables are cooking, either dice the stewed tomatoes (which come in
thick slices) by hand or in the food processor using the pulse button - When the vegetables are golden brown, stir in the thyme, bay leaves, fennel seeds, salt, pepper and Aleppo pepper flakes to coat them.
- Add the diced stewed tomatoes with their liquid, 5 ½ cups of the vegetable stock, and the clear coconut liquid, reserving the cream. When the soup comes to a boil, reduce the heat to medium-low, partially cover the pot and simmer for 30
minutes. - Mix in the reserved coconut cream. Simmer another 2 minutes.
- Remove the bay leaves. In a blender, purée 3-4 cups of the soup until smooth. Return the purée to the pot. Add the additional ½ cup vegetable stock to the blender. Blend just to clean the sides of the blender jar. Then pour this mixture into the pot.
- Add the can of diced tomatoes to the soup. When hot, stir in the pesto.
- Serve Creamy Tomato Leek Fennel Soup garnished with coarsely chopped and/or whole fennel fronds.