Roasted Tomato Soup

Roasted Tomato Soup

Sweet, slightly smoky, silky smooth roasted tomato soup flavoured with roasted garlic and dry basil.

Sometimes the best meals are those that are unplanned, as was the case with this roasted tomato soup.

It came about when one of my children switched up (or down, depending which way you look at it) the fridge thermostat one evening without me noticing, come the next morning almost all of what was in the fridge was near frozen. Thankfully that was only milk and tomatoes. (We have another refrigerator where the thermostat  is not so easily reached by little hands)

Almost frozen tomatoes quickly become roasted tomatoes along with some garlic which, if you haven’t ever roasted before you surely must. The garlic becomes all sweet and mellow once roasted.

You know what herb works really well with tomatoes? yep – basil, I used 1 tablespoon dry but if you are using fresh you will need 3 tablespoons.

I made this soup with children in mind, but if you like heat you can always add a few crushed chilli flakes or chopped fresh chilli when sautéing the onion. Tomatoes – garlic-basil-chilli = A great Italian combination of few but effective ingredients.

This roasted tomato soup reminds me of the canned type I used to eat often as a kid except it’s just that bit healthier i.e. minus the tin. You can make it more healthier by replacing the stock cube with your own homemade stock. I used a chicken stock cube because that’s what I prefer but you can use vegetable too to make this soup vegetarian. I would avoid lamb or beef stock cubes as they are too strong flavoured and would mask the sweet tomato flavour.

What I most love besides the flavour, is the creamy, silky smooth texture of this soup and no you don’t need cream or butter, just a high-powered blender.

Ingredients

• 1kg tomatoes
• 4 large garlic cloves with skin
• 2 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil plus extra for drizzling
• 1 onion, roughly chopped
• small pinch salt
• 1 tablespoon dry basil (or 3 tablespoon fresh)
• ½ tablespoon tomato paste
• 1 veg or chicken stock cube
• ½ teaspoon ground black pepper
• 625ml hot water

Instructions

1. Pre-heat oven to gas mark 7 / 220c / 425F. Wash and pat dry tomatoes. Place in roasting tin with garlic and drizzle lightly with olive oil, place on shelf at the top of the oven and roast for 30-40 minutes, turn the tomatoes and garlic half-way through cooking. Once cooked remove from oven, take out the garlic and allow the tomatoes to cool until you’re able to handle the tomatoes, then remove their slightly charred skins.
2. Whilst you are waiting for the tomatoes to cool,remove skins from garlic then chop. In a deep cooking pot. warm oil over low-medium heat add onion and small pinch salt, saute until translucent and softened.
3. Turn off the heat and then prepare your tomatoes, remove skins and chop roughly.
4. Turn on the heat again to the pot add garlic, dry basil, tomato paste, black pepper, sauté for another minute before adding tomatoes, stock cube, water and any juices from the roasting pan. Allow the soup to come up to a light simmer, cover pot, turn down the heat and cook for 25 minutes. Pour hot soup into a high powered blender and blend until smooth or transfer soup to a non metallic bowl and blend with a hand blender. Transfer soup back to the pot and heat through if necessary. Serve warm with your favourite bread, grilled cheese or top with croutons.

Notes

Summary

Article Name

Roasted Tomato Soup