Roasted Tomato Soup

The thing is, we didn't grow up with tomato soup. We made soups with tomatoes, but not just tomato soup. It just looked and tasted like passata or tomato sauce to me. I used to think, how weird! Why not just add some orzo or tubetti pasta in there and complete the dish. It just didn't look like a meal.

And then as I got older and started trying roasted tomato soups, it tasted great and made sense to me, especially when served with grilled cheese sandwiches.Yum! Who doesn't like grilled cheese dipped in tomato soup! 

But I have to say, unless the tomatoes are roasted, the soup can still taste like tomato sauce to me, and that's why I always roast my tomatoes... Oooooh, I just thought of something as I'm typing away. Next time, I'm going to try grilling my tomatoes. What do think? Doesn't that sound good?

I used hot house tomatoes that I had sitting on my kitchen counter that I had to use. Tomatoes should never be stored in the refrigerator. It makes them mealy. I cut them in half and placed them cut side down on paper towels just to absorb some of the water that comes out, so when roasting them, they will have a more concentrated flavour. Place them on a baking tray, brush with a little olive oil, thyme, salt and pepper and put them in the oven. You can even do this ahead of time because once that is done, it only takes 20-30 minutes to make the soup.

I didn't serve my soup with grilled cheese but I did make little croutons with some leftover bread that I had. They added a little "something, something" to the soup.

Roasted Tomato Soup

3 pounds tomatoes, cored and cut in half

olive oil

thyme 

salt and pepper

2 tablespoons of olive oil

1 red onion, chopped

2 cloves of garlic, chopped

3 cups chicken stock

salt and pepper

1/3 cup basil leaves

3 tablespoons cream, optional

Preheat oven to 400F.

Spread the tomato halves on a baking tray. Brush with olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper and place a couple of sprigs of thyme on each tomato half. Roast for 1 hour, until the tomatoes are caramelized.

In the meantime, in a pot over medium heat, sauté the onion and garlic in olive oil until the onions are soft. Add the chicken stock and the roasted tomatoes. Season with salt and pepper. Bring to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer for 20 minutes. Tear the basil leaves and add to the soup. Take off the heat and puree the soup with an immersion blender. Stir in the cream if you are using. Serve with croutons or even better…a grilled cheese sandwich.

m xo