roasted tomato soup

This is a roasted tomato soup recipe that I found in a saved magazine from a few years ago.  Before the internet and blogosphere exploded with information about any and all subjects there were magazines and I still have quite a few old ones and still buy the occasional new one.  This recipe was featured in a magazine called 'Grow Veggies For Less' that was put out by Birds and Bloom in 2009 and contained a bonus section of 21 vegetable recipes from Taste of Home.  This recipe takes a few ingredients which are roasted for 30 minutes, run through a blender (I used the food processor) and then cooked an additional few minutes to return to temperature.  It would count as 'quick and easy' and produced a thick, slightly chunky soup with good flavor.


Here are the ingredients:

3 1/2 pounds tomatoes
1 small onion, quartered 
2 garlic cloves, halved
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp fresh thyme leaves
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper

12 fresh basil leaves
salad croutons 
fresh basil for garnish                       

I combined all of the ingredients except the fresh basil in a bowl and stirred them so all were coated with the olive oil and the seasonings were distributed.  We used our paste type tomatoes from the garden.

And then I poured them out onto a parchment lined baking sheet and roasted them at 400° for 30 minutes.

Once they are done roasting the tender vegetable are allowed to cool slightly and then blended or processed until thick and retaining some texture.

I processed mine in two batches and added the 12 basil leaves in with the second batch.

The soup is then returned to the stove in a sauce pan  to heat through.

Garnish with additional basil and croutons if desired.  We did not have croutons but both Caitlin and I agreed that it would have added another layer of interest to the soup.  We did top it off with a little Parmesan cheese partway through our meal and that was a good addition as well.

Other suggestions we came up with were for adding a little cooked pasta or perhaps some corn and/or some black beans as a fun alternative.  I think that in addition to eating this as is it could be a good base for many soup recipes.