Homecooked: Roasted Tomato Soup

Soup on the menu is always so tempting, but every time I look at the price, I know that the cost of making the soup is a small fraction of the price of the soup. With the price of one or two bowls of soup, you can cover the cost of making at least 10 or 15 bowls of soup.

What is worse is if the restaurant you're at mixes the soup it makes with pre-made soups, i.e. Campbell or Heinz soup - then you definitely know you're not getting your money's worth, and even worse, may not even satiate your tastebud with what you're going to eat.

With the MCO requiring all dine in to close, I tend to not order soups online because I feel that with especially Western soups, spillage is more likely to happen - restaurants tend to pack Western soups in bowls instead of plastic bag packaging. I really missed Tomato soup, and decided to make it one weekend.

The result turned out different, but better than expected.

I'm not a fan of precise recipes and where there's no need for precision, I tend to eyeball things. So remember to play by ear, ... or taste.

Ingredients:

Large tomatoes (usually around 6 to 7 depending on size)

Cherry tomatoes (half a pack)

One bell pepper (red normally, but does not matter if its green)

Root vegetable (normally 1 carrot)

One yellow onion

Two cloves of garlic

Sweet Basil leaves (half pack)

Chicken stock (about two or three cups)

Tomato paste

Cooking cream

Salt 

Pepper

White wine (optional)

 

(This makes soups for about 8 to 10 pax, you may adjust accordingly).

 

1.        Pre-heat oven to 225c.

2.        Start out cutting the large tomatoes, I normally cut them into quarters.

3.        Cut the cherry tomatoes into halves.

4.        Cut the bell pepper into strips.

5.     Cut the root vegetables (smaller usually as they are harder and take more time to soften up).

6.       Arrange the cut large tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, bell pepper and root vegetable in a tray lined with aluminum foil, and drizzle olive oil, some salt and pepper for about 25 minutes or longer. Ideally, you want the tomatoes to shrivel a little and look like they are 'sweating'.

7.        While the tomatoes, pepper and root vegetables are in the oven, dice the onions and garlic. 

8.        About 5 to 10 minutes before the tomatoes, pepper and root vegetables are ready, the pot goes on the stove and heat up olive oil and garlic. 

9.        Once the garlic starts to brown, I put in the onions and stir them around a bit before putting in some white wine just to cover the onions, I put in some pepper and stir the onions. You do not need white wine, you can alternatively just put enough chicken stock to cover the onions.

10.     I then get a pot lid, just large enough to cover the onions but not the entire pot. and press down the lid for about 1 minute or until onions visually look very soft. This makes the onion cook in its own juices and absorb the white wine. (If you taste the onions at this stage, they are so sweet and yum). 

11.      Turn down the heat and get the tray out from the oven and scoop all the tomatoes, pepper and root vegetables into the pot, together with all the juices that are not rendered onto the aluminum foil covering the tray. 

12.      As you stir the tomatoes and vegetables, mash it up. Add the chicken stock to the thickness preferred. 

13.      Once chicken stock added, add in sweet basil. Some people do not like the flavour of sweet basil, but I think it gives a good nuttiness to the flavour of the soup. 

14.      Stir till the sweet basil is wilted in the soup. 

15.  Take it off the stove and process it/blend it. If you do not have a processor, you may wait for the soup to cool down before blending it. The processor does not blend as finely as the blender, option is yours, however, I prefer some texture to my soup. 

16.      Once the soup is blended, put it back on the stove and salt and pepper to taste. I add in some tomato paste as it gives a bit more variation to the flavour of the soup. 

17.      If you are going to consume all the soup, you may add cream in. But if you intend to keep, only add in cream when you heat up the soup. 

18.      Garnish with some sweet basil leaves. 

 

Note: The soup will not look red-ish like how tomatoes look like. This depends on (i) how red the tomatoes you used are, (ii) if you use a red bell pepper and (iii) how much tomato paste you use. But rest assured that you know all the ingredients are fresh.