Tomato Soup

I may have mentioned this (once or twice!) but I love soup. Really, really love it. I could quite easily live on a diet of soup and home-made bread, and not feel I was missing out on anything. Thankfully, soup is almost impossible to mess up – even if it doesn’t quite turn out like you’d expected, it’s generally edible. I wasn’t sure whether to actually even post this soup as it doesn’t have a recipe as such. Every time I make tomato soup it’s slightly different, depending on what other veggies I have available. So, this is one version, and I fully expect another one will appear at some point in the future. I do have to say, despite the simplicity of this, it turned out pretty well. I topped it off with some crispy fried Cavolo Nero (because I was feeling fancy), and sprinkled over a little nooch. It would also be lovely with some ‘bacon’ bits, croutons, or even use it as a base recipe to add beans, spinach, pasta etc. Knock yourself out!

Recipe:

2 packs on-the-vine large tomatoes (roughly 10)

6 cloves of garlic (because that’s all I had)

Olive oil

Balsamic vinegar

1 onion

3 carrots

2 roasted red peppers (from a jar)

750ml chicken flavoured vegan stock

1tsp all purpose seasoning

2tsp dried mixed herbs

Pinch of chilli flakes (optional)

Salt & pepper

Heat the oven to 180C

Slice the tomatoes in half, drizzle with olive oil, balsamic vinegar and season well with salt & pepper. Roast uncovered in the oven for around 20mins, or until they are beginning to look slightly browned.

While the tomatoes are cooking, slice the onion, carrots and red pepper, and sautée in some oil until cooked and golden.

Add the roasted tomatoes, top up with the stock, stir through the mixed herbs and all purpose seasoning.

Simmer for around 10-15mins, then taste before adding final seasoning. (Add the chilli flakes if using).

Blitz it all up until smooth.

Dunk some bread …. and enjoy!