i’ve been making a lot of soups lately – even though it’s unbearably hot here right now. they’re cheap to make, i can freeze the leftovers (which end up tasting even nicer a few weeks/months down the line when you reheat them), you can eat them hot or cold, and there is little to no margin for error. i mean, it’s soup – toss it in and let it simmer.
so yesterday i made a roast red pepper & tomato soup. i didn’t follow a recipe, i basically had a bag of rosa tomatoes that needed to be used and were too ripe & soft for a salad – and winged it from there.
this is what you’ll need:
- 3-4 red peppers
- ripe tomatoes (i’d say a bag of cherry/rosa tomatoes or about 10 large tomatoes)
- an onion (white or red)
- 4-5 cloves fresh garlic
- fresh red chillies (optional – use your judgment for desired heat index…)
- olive oil / butter
- herbs for seasoning (fresh thyme is nice, or just use dried oreganum / mixed herbs)
- 2-3 cups vegetable/chicken stock
- crème fraiche (optional)
chop up all the veggies (however you like, i just quartered the peppers & removed the seeds), put them in a roasting pan with some olive oil or butter (measure to your preference) toss in the whole cloves of garlic and choice of herbs. put in the oven at 200°C. roast for 35-40 minutes, until the red peppers skins are brown/blackened.
take the pan out, remove the red peppers & put in a plastic bag to “sweat”. while they’re cooling off, put everything else in a pot (make sure you get all the olive oil / butter drippings & juices) on a low heat. once the peppers have cooled a bit (enough so that they don’t burn you when you pick them up) peel off the skin. don’t worry too much if some of the skins stick, though. pop them into the pot and cover with some veggie stock. i’m not organised enough to have fresh stock on hand, i usually just use ina paarman’s stock powder and mix it with boiling water.
let the soup simmer for 15-20 minutes. or you can just leave it on a very low heat for as long as you like (go take a bath or whatever). when you want to eat, blend the soup a bit with a hand blender (the best invention ever) or use an ordinary blender / food processor.
serve with a dollop of crème fraiche or sour cream (yum!) and, if you’re so inclined, some fresh bread.