Foodie Friday - Roasted Tomato And Basil Soup

Brrrr it's a bit chilly out there at the moment isn't it? Fear not the weather is supposed to perk up a little bit of the weekend but for how long! Nothing makes me feel better when I'm cold than a nice bowl of homemade soup. As you've probably gathered from my Foodie Friday posts I'm a huge soup fan. Soup is so easy and cheap to make in fact I don't understand why people buy it! The only soup that we regularly buy is cream of tomato for me , the taste, smell and texture just takes me right back to my childhood, and cream of chicken for Mummy Lou. I've never managed to replicate the taste of tinned tomato soup but I do often make my own tomato based soup. Unlike cream of tomato this soup is super fresh and filled with the flavours of the Mediterranean. Again it's super easy and quick to make, and it's a perfect winter warmer. The majority of the tomatoes that I've used here are home grown (there is nothing better believe me!) as is the basil but even the supermarket value ones will work just fine

Roasted Tomato And Basil Soup

2lbs Fresh Tomatoes

Drizzle Olive Oil

2-4 Garlic Cloves - Halved

Drizzle Olive Oil

Sprinkle Of Chilli Flakes (Optional)
About 1 Litre Of Vegetable Stock

Small Bunch Fresh Basil

Salt, Pepper And Sugar To Taste

1. Preheat your oven to about 200° C. Chop your tomatoes in half, if they are small cherry ones you can leave them whole.

2. Put the tomatoes into a roasting tray, the garlic and drizzle over the olive oil, and if you like add a sprinkle of chilli flakes. Pop the tray into the oven for 20 - 30 minutes.

3. In the meantime make up a litre of vegetable stock and pop it into a large pan - I'm using my trusty pressure cooker pan here but any large pan or stock pot will work

4. After about 30 or so minutes your tomatoes should be soft and slightly blackened and blistered - which means they are done x

add the tomatoes, garlic and all the juices from the roasting dish to the pan x

5. Then chop up your basil - I use the chiffonade method, lol a posh term for rolling up the basil and cutting it in to long thin strips :)

6. Add the basil to the pan and cook the soup for about 10-15 minutes for the basil to wilt and for the flavours come out.

7. Then blend x An immersion blender is best but I still haven't got round to buying a new one, so I carefully pour mine into a free standing blender. Then zap, you can make it as chunky as you like, I like it pretty smooth but Mummy Lou likes it chunky so I always leave a few chunks in it for her :) If your using a free standing blender like me you can add a little bit of milk or water to rinse out the blender and make sure you get every last bit of loveliness out.

8. Return the soup to the pan and check the seasoning, adding a bit of salt, pepper or sugar as needed, personally I normally don't add anything and heat again for about 5-10 minutes.

9. Then serve, you could pop a little bit of cream on the top if you wanted to be decadent or a little bit of pesto but I've just sprinkled mine with a little bit of extra basil :) This recipe made about 5 large bowlfuls, and it freezes well.

I love my soups and this is a super easy and adaptable recipe. It's pretty healthy as it is, but you can add what you have, and you could always add some rice, pasta, potato, lentils, red pepper, or any other vegetables to bulk it up a bit. You could also add a bit of cream or pesto sauce to make it richer and of course more calorific :) If you love your soup stick around :) next Friday's food post will be my review of the month, but by the miracle of scheduled posting the week after's will be another soup recipe :) Happy Eating xx