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Roasted Tomato and Basil Soup

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  • Author: Caroline Hastings-Brown

Ingredients

Scale
  • 10–12 plum tomatoes (even better are vine-ripened tomatoes if you can get them), cut lengthwise
  • 1 large onion, cut into quarters
  • 6 cloves of garlic, peeled (4 left whole for roasting and 2 crushed for sautéing)
  • 4 tablespoons olive oil (you’ll use 3 tbs for roasting and 1 tbs for frying garlic)
  • 1/3 cup dry red wine
  • 2 cups chicken stock (I used 1½ stock cubes in 2 cups water)
  • 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
  • 2 tablespoons tomato paste
  • 1/4 cup fresh basil, finely chopped (and some extra for garnish)
  • 1 teaspoon sugar
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
  • Optional: ¼ – ½ cup cream if you want it to be a little creamier / less tart

For the cheesy croutons:

  • 4 pieces white or whole-wheat bread
  • Cheese of your choice: Mozzarella and Cheddar are great, you can even use a combination of the two. You need about 1 – 1½ cups grated cheese
  • Butter

 

 

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 180°C.
  2. Place the tomatoes, onions and 4 garlic cloves onto a large roasting tray.  Drizzle with 3 tablespoons of olive oil and season well with salt and pepper.  Roast for 1 hour and allow to cool.
  3. Once cooled, transfer it to a blender and puree until smooth.
  4. In a medium-sized pot (big enough for the soup) and over medium heat, add the remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil, 2 cloves crushed garlic, salt and pepper. Cook for about 1-2 minutes, being careful not to burn the garlic.
  5. Now pour in the pureed tomato mixture and cook for roughly 5 minutes.
  6. Add the tomato paste, sugar, chopped basil, red wine, chicken stock and balsamic vinegar and stir to combine.
  7. Allow the mixture to come to the boil and then reduce the heat to low and allow it to simmer for 45 minutes to an hour.
  8. If you’d like the soup even smoother, run the blender through the soup again.

For the croutons:

  1. Spread butter on both sides of the bread.
  2. Heat a large frying pan over medium heat.
  3. Place the 4 slices of bread in the pan so they can get crispy on one side. Once the bread has browned slightly, flip the bread and sprinkle a little cheese on the crispy sides.
  4. Allow the cheese to melt while the other side of the bread gets crispy and brown.
  5. Now that the cheese has melted, put two slices together ie. you will be making 2 sandwiches.
  6. Continue to flip the sandwiches until they are at the desired level of crispiness!
  7. Remove the sandwiches from the pan, allow to cool for a few minutes and then cut into crouton-sized pieces or larger.
  8. Serve with the soup.

 

Find it online: https://blog.sunshineparties.com/roasted-tomato-and-basil-soup/