Roasted Fair Trade Tomato & Quinoa Soup

You gotta love recipes that are quick and easy, but still healthy. We turned this roasted veggie soup recipe into a Fair Trade recipe by using Fair Trade USA certified tomatoes and Alter Eco quinoa. The quinoa makes this soup pretty hearty so you could have cornbread or other bread on the side and make it a meal! The recipe calls for a whole head of garlic, which gives the soup a wonderful aroma and full flavor. You can season with salt and cracked pepper and garnish with avocado, but the garlic and roasted brown veggies gives a ton of flavor so you don’t really need salt if you want to skip it.

If you can’t find fair trade tomatoes, that’s okay, but you really should try to find Alter Eco quinoa. They are a terrific fair trade company, with a very impressive commitment to sustainability, preserving heirloom varieties and building thriving cooperatives of farmers. Check out their website (alterecofoods.com) for more info about their work and look for their other amazing products next time you’re at the store. Their chocolate truffles are a particularly yummy treat!

Ingredients

• fresh fair trade tomatoes (approximately 3 lbs)
• 1-2 onions
• 1 head of garlic cloves
• 2 tbsp fair trade olive oil
• 1-2 cups of chicken or vegetable stock
• 1 cup cooked fair trade quinoa

Directions

1. Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. Chop the tomatoes in half and the onions into quarters and place on a roasting tray. You can use a mix of cherry, roma, heirloom or whatever kind of fair trade tomatoes you can find.
3. Add the cloves of garlic, leaving the skins on, to the tray along with the oil.
4. Toss everything together and roast for 45mins – 1 hour until everything is soft and lightly browned. (You may have to turn the heat up to 400 for the last part if vegetables aren’t browning).
5. Push the roasted garlic cloves out of their skins and discard the skins.
6. Add all the vegetables to a blender along with the stock (use as much as you need to make the soup as smooth or chunky as you want)
7. Mix in the cooked quinoa, season with salt and cracked pepper, and serve with avocado or other garnish. Enjoy!