Categories: Food

Roasted Tomato Soup

This is a variation of the roasted tomato soup recipe I featured in Super Natural Cooking. I love it because it’s one of those recipes that is quite simple, but the results are absolutely chef’s kiss. You use just a handful of ingredients – tomatoes, garlic, red pepper, etc. – then slice and roast them to the point of browning and collapse. Puree, season with a kiss of smoked paprika, and enjoy. That’s it.

Roasted Tomato Soup: Inspiration

The inspiration for this soup came years ago when I picked up a Mariquita Farm Mystery Box. So heavy, I suspect it weighed in the thirty pound range. The bus was overflowing with a rainbow of produce – little gem lettuce, Hungarian spicy peppers, lacinato kale, Danish carrot beets, minicor carrots, tomatoes, sweet peppers, chard and scallions. Hidden beneath the rest of it, at the very bottom, so as not to crush her leafy neighbors, was a hefty rouge vif d’estampe pumpkin the color of a fiery sunset. Plenty to keep the kitchen lively in the coming week. But we started by reaching for the tomatoes – slicing them, dicing, and enjoying them raw. And there *still* were plenty that needed to be used up. I thought of the roasted tomato soup in Super Natural Cooking, fired up the oven, and started slicing.

Roasted Tomato Soup: Variations

Too Hot To Use The Oven: Use the grill to cook everything in place of the oven. Puree, load with toppings and enjoy!
Make it Chunky: Save a few of the roasted tomatoes from the blender. Chop those by hand and stir them back in after blending the rest.
Serve it Chilled: I tend to serve this soup heated, but you can serve it hot, cold – or whatever the weather calls for. And you can do it a day or two in advance if need be, it keeps well refrigerated.

What to Serve with This Soup

Serving a soup like this along with some freshly baked bread is the way to go. Some favorite options:

Lemon Focaccia: don’t skimp on the toppings here
Cheddar Jalapeño Oatmeal Bread: might be my favorite of this list of options
Zucchini Bread: well-toasted and smeared with a herby compound butter
Six Seed Soda Bread: Seed crusted . Bonus points for adding a compound butter here as well.
Easy Little Bread: yeast-based, farm-style loaf, made from rolled oats and a blend of all-purpose and whole wheat flours.