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Roasted Tomato and Basil Soup
Author: Lucy Johnson of Edible Ethics
I believe that soup is truly one of the best comfort foods. In particular, tomato soup. The pre-made tinned versions used to get me through sick days, colder months, and lazy evenings. It was like a hug in a bowl.
I never saw any point in making my own though. That was until I tried some of my Mum’s homemade tomato soup which she’d dolloped some rose harissa paste into. It was the stuff that dreams are made of. So, I decided it was time to start experimenting with my own tomato soup recipe.
Roasting the tomatoes
I love roasting vegetables. Not only does it help to enhance the flavour, but it also locks in a lot of the nutrients found inside the vegetables which you often lose when you boil them.
The same goes for tomatoes. I like to roast them until they go all sticky and the edges start to blacken. The taste is incredible and when you blitz this together with a few other ingredients it makes the most amazing soup base, but you can use it for sauces too!
Flavouring the tomato soup
There are many different ways in which you can flavour tomato soup with popular variations including herbs and spices. One of my favourite combinations has to be tomato and basil, it’s a classic for a reason!
I also love spicy foods, so I decided to add some chilli to the mix and it balanced out really nicely with the tomato and basil. That being said, if you don’t like the heat of chilli then you can very easily leave this out!
A nutritious soup
In order to make tomato soup a more nutritionally complete meal I started to add beans into the mix, my favourite for tomato soup being cannellini beans. They add an extra dose of protein as well as B12, iron, potassium and zinc to the soup.
In addition to this, when you blend cannellini beans they add a creamy element to the soup which makes it similar to a cream of tomato soup, just without the dairy!
I have added the nutritional values of this soup underneath the recipe.
What do you serve with tomato soup?
I like to serve my tomato soup with a warm loaf of bread. It goes particularly well with olive ciabatta! When I’m trying to be healthier I will spread some vegan cream cheese onto the bread before dipping it into the tomato soup, other times I’ll just lather on plenty of vegan butter.
You can also choose to serve this on its own or as a starter.
The roasted tomato and basil soup recipe
This recipe makes enough for 4 people as a main course with bread or as a starter on its own.
Ingredients
1.5kg tomatoes
2 red chillies (optional)
4 garlic cloves
1 medium-sized red onion
255g cannellini beans (1 can, drained)
2 tbsp nutritional yeast
1 handful of fresh basil
1 tbsp organic rapeseed oil
Seasoning to taste
Method
- Turn your oven on to 200°C (fan assisted)
- Put all of your tomatoes into a large roasting tin, halving any particularly large tomatoes first
- Cut off the stems of your chillies and add them to the tomatoes
- Roughly chop up your red onion and add it to the tin
- Separate 4 garlic cloves and leave the skin on, add them to the tin
- Sprinkle over a large pinch of salt and black pepper before mixing in the 1 tbsp organic rapeseed oil
- Roast for about 45-50 minutes, until the tomatoes have gone soft and sticky with darkened edges. Make sure to stir regularly if they are cooking too quickly on the top
- Take the roasting tin out of the oven and leave it to cool for about 10 minutes
- Find the garlic cloves and remove the skins
- Put the roasted tomato mixture into a blender along with the nutritional yeast and cannellini beans
- Blitz until smooth and then add in your basil and roughly blitz them into the mix so that you can see specks of green throughout
- Taste the soup and add seasoning as needed
- Pour the soup out into a large saucepan to heat through before serving
- If the soup is a little too thick for your liking then pour in some vegan milk and stir through, otherwise you can eat it as it is!
Nutrition
Per serving (makes 4 servings in total):
Calories: 197 kcals
Protein: 10g
