Roasted Tomato Soup: Flavourful, Fresh & Simple

Lately it has been feeling like autumn is coming - the temperatures are cooling off, the days are shortening and there are faint hints of colours on the trees starting. (For those of you still enjoying your summer, not to worry - This is all happening North of the 60th parallel)

On rainy days in particular, I prefer soup or warm meal, to a salad or smoothie. But I find making soup from scratch can sometimes be intensive, requiring lots of veggie chopping, and boiling, and waiting... It can produce some pretty delicious soup though (carrot and ginger soup).

Recently I discovered roasted veggie soup - so simple to make with only 10 minutes of work TOTAL (+ some roasting time). That's about as long as it might take to heat up a can of soup by using the stove!

What makes this so quick is that the roasting only requires you chop veggies in half. Really though, If you are short on prep time you could even leave them whole (and bake for longer). It is so simple, and can be modified with whatever veggies you feel like (e.g. carrots, cauliflower etc.). In this case I had a beautiful plant of basil, and some firm (not quite ripe) tomatoes and it made one of the most flavourful tomato soups ever.

I made this as a single serving, but it is very easy to adjust the quantities to feed as many as you want.

Ingredients (for one serving):

• 4 tomatoes (or vegetable of your choice)
• 1-2 cloves of garlic (optional)
• Salt
• Pepper
• Dried oregano leaves
• Fresh basil
• Olive oil

Tools:

• Cutting board
• Knife
• Roasting pan / cookie sheet lined with tin foil
• Use of an oven
• Blender or Nutribullet Single serving blender (use large cup and blending blade)

1. Turn your oven on - set the temperature at 400 degrees Fahrenheit (200 Celsius)
2. Cut your tomatoes in half (and remove the stem part if you want)
3. Place cut tomatoes skin side down (cut sides up) on the baking sheet
4. Place garlic (with skin still on) on the baking
5. Drizzle everything with olive oil making sure to lightly cover the top of the tomatoes and garlic
6. Sprinkle everything generously with salt, pepper, and dried oregano.
7. Once prepped, place cookie sheet in oven for 30-40 minutes.

When ready, the tomatoes will be soft with slightly browned tops (see photo). If not quite soft or brown, then leave them in the oven a few more minutes. Keep an eye on them so they don't burn.

Once the tomatoes are roasted, the soup is quick to make.

1. Remove baking tray from the oven.
2. Put the freshly roasted tomatoes in your (Nutribullet) blender. (Be careful they're hot!)
3. Remove the skin from the garlic and put in the blender too. (also quite hot!)
4. Add fresh basil leaves (if you don't have fresh basil, just skip this, it will still taste very good)
5. Screw on the lid and turn on blender until everything is well blended (about 20-30 seconds).
6. Pour in a bowl, grab a spoon and enjoy.

Try it - you'll never want to make canned soup again.


Tips:

• Make sure to be careful not to burn yourself when handling the cooked veggies. In particular, the liquid in hot tomatoes is scalding, so use a spoon to put it carefully in the blender. Allowing veggies to cool for a couple of minutes before handling is suggested.
• If you like garlic, roast a few more cloves, they are great to add to dressings. The strong garlic flavour really mellows once roasted. Keeps in the fridge until ready to use.
• Try this with other veggies - use the same technique with salt, pepper and oil and then just remove them from the oven once they are soft and cooked.
• When leaving tomatoes whole for roasting, they will need to cook in the oven for longer - about 45 minutes or more depending on size.