Cozy Tomato Spinach Soup

Wintertime is a nice time to cozy up and eat soups, making you feel all warm inside. This soup is delicious! It has a rich tomato flavor with a touch of parmesan – although the cheese is optional. Fresh spinach adds a wonderful texture and quinoa macaroni makes it healthy and fun!

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 cup sweet onion, chopped
½ teaspoon garlic, fresh minced
¼ teaspoon oregano flakes
¼ teaspoon basil
¼ teaspoon thyme
2 teaspoons salt
dash pepper
3 tablespoons red wine of choice or substitute*
6 cups water
2 cups crushed tomatoes, canned** or homemade
2 cups marinara sauce
2 tablespoons tomato paste or homemade
¼ cup quinoa macaroni noodles or macaroni of choice
4 cups fresh baby spinach, cleaned
1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
2 tablespoons palm sugar*** or sugar of choice
2 tablespoons Parmesan cheese, powdered or grated
4 tablespoons Optional, parmesan cheese, shredded

In soup pot, sauté onions in oil until tender, add garlic half way thru cooking. Add seasonings.
Add red wine, allow pot to simmer for three minutes.
Add crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, marinara sauce and water.
Bring to a boil and add macaroni. Lower to a simmer, stirring well so macaroni doesn’t stick. Simmer until macaroni is tender, about 10 minutes. Stir occasionally.
Add spinach and continue to cook until wilted, about 5 minutes.
Stir in vinegar and sugar and parmesan cheese.

Optional: Serve in bowls and sprinkle a small amount of shredded parmesan cheese on top.

Serves: 4-6

Cooking time: 35 minutes

* Red Wine Substitute: Non-alcoholic red wine, red wine vinegar or grape juice, or Alcohol Burn-off Chart: http://homecooking.about.com/library/archive/blalcohol12.htm

**Cans BPA free: Foods in steel cans coated with a baked on oleoresinous C-enamel that does not contain the endocrine disrupter chemical, bisphenol-A (BPA). Oleoresin is a non-toxic mixture of an oil and a resin extracted from various plants such as pine or balsam fir.

***Palm sugar is made from the sap of a sugar palm tree (also called date palm). Coconut sugar comes from the buds of coconut tree flowers. They are two different types of sugars, but sometimes you can find a combination of both. Both are natural sweeteners that come from trees and are collected as sap — like North American maple syrup. The sap is then boiled in enormous vats to create either a sugar paste (sold in jars or tins) or rock-like chunks of sugar also known as “jaggery.” (Jaggery can be made from cane sugar as well – it just means the solid, rock-like form of sugar.) I use both palm and coconut sugar in my kitchen. It’s packaged in bags and looks like brown sugar.

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of
Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.

Kimberly M.

11:38AM PDT on Mar 19, 2012

Yum!

send a green star

Donna H.

10:14AM PDT on Mar 13, 2012

Sounds great! Thanks for posting.

William and Kat D.

7:41AM PDT on Mar 11, 2012

I agree about the Palm Sugar Destroying Rain Forest to get it.
It's the same with Palm Oil, Pizza Hut uses this!!!!! I use Olive Oil.
From what I read Palm is not Healthy!

Carole R.

10:38AM PST on Mar 5, 2012

Thanks for sharing the recipe.

Sarah M.

4:39AM PST on Mar 5, 2012

I've had the privilege of enjoying first-hand wonderful dishes from the HeartMath kitchen. I'm looking forward to trying this one!!- Thanks for sharing it.

Michaela S.

12:39AM PST on Mar 5, 2012

Sounds nice but make sure to leave the parmesan out if you are vegetarian because it is made with animal rennet.

11:48AM PST on Mar 4, 2012

Yummy, but I would NEVER use palm sugar--it's production is destroying rainforests.

Carolyn D.

5:07PM PST on Feb 28, 2012

Yum...Sounds great. I will try it as it starts to get cooler.

Pat L.

10:40PM PST on Feb 27, 2012

This soup has all my favorite things in it, and I can pick low acid tomato products which I need to use and avoid the higher acid. I'm going to make a batch of this lovely sounding soup this week. Now I'll email myself the recipe. Thanks.

heather g.

11:10PM PST on Feb 22, 2012

One can make oneself snug and cozy on a cold day - perhaps curling up in front of a fire ~ but the heading of this article refers to cozy soup ?