Roasted Tomato and Red Pepper Soup
This is a soup that brings out the best from the tomatoes and is enhanced by the sweet peppers. The flavours are easy to enjoy and it's a popular dish with children as well as adults.
Tweaked from a recipe by the New Covent Garden Soup Company
- Prep Time: 15 mins
- Cook Time: 1 hour
- Total Time: 1 hour 15 mins
- Yield: 6 1x
- Category: Soup
- Method: Hob
- Cuisine: British
Ingredients
Scale
For the soup -
- 6 (ish) red peppers, halved and deseeded
- 10(ish) ripe tomatoes, halved
- A few glugs of extra virgin olive oil
- salt and freshly ground pepper
- 1 small bunch fresh basil - save a little to garnish
- 1 medium onion, chopped
- 1 garlic clove, finely chopped or grated
- 900ml (1 1/2 pints) vegetable stock - I use powdered stock and boiling water
To garnish -
- A few small dollops of pesto - loosened with extra olive oil
- A handful of croutons
- Freshly grated Parmesan
You will also need -
2 or 3 shallow baking trays and enough tin foil to cover them
A stick blender (or a jug blender)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 190ºC/170ºC Fan/375ºF (gas mark 5).
- Place the red peppers on one (or two) of the baking trays. Fill the remaining space on the trays with the tomatoes. They will all shrink a bit in the oven so you can squeeze them in.
- Drizzle a little olive oil over the peppers and tomatoes and give them all a good seasoning of salt and pepper. Bake for 40 mins to 1 hour until the peppers are soft and slightly collapsed and the tomatoes are very soft.
- While the peppers and tomatoes are cooking, heat a little oil in a large pan (big enough to hold the finished soup). Cook the onion and garlic very gently without colouring.
- Add the cooked peppers and tomatoes as well as all the delicious juices from the trays. If you are careful at the this point, you may get away with simply removing the tin foil and having no washing up to do - a bonus.
- Add about two-thirds of the stock and most of the basil leaves to the pan. Using a hand-held blender, purée the contents of the pan until smooth. Now add the additional stock until you have your chosen consistency.
- Serve the soup piping hot just as it is, or garnished with a swirl of pesto, a few croutons and a grating of Parmesan.
Notes
- The exact quantities of peppers and tomatoes are not critical. Adjust the quantity of stock accordingly.
- This is a great way of using up tomatoes and peppers that are beyond their best.
- The roasting of the tomatoes will really enhance their flavour, so there's no need to worry if your tomatoes are a bit mediocre.
- And in general, add as much (or as little) stock as you like - I've found that thicker soups work better in school lunch flasks ..... less risk of lunch decorating the school shirt.
Keywords: soup, healthy, cosy
Find it online: https://marmaladeandme.com/tomato-and-red-pepper-soup/
