Roast tomato soup

The EWN (early warning network) put out a warning notice about heavy rain and flash flooding yesterday.  And yes it rained and flooded!  And it looks like a lot more is to come by that grey cloud out the window.

There's not a lot you can do with a day like this, and I remembered that there was not just one but 2 bags of tomatoes in the downstairs fridge that needed using up soon.  I do my grocery shopping online, and I had somewhat amusingly managed to buy 2 bags rather than just 2 tomatoes for Mr Picking's lunchtime sangers (sandwiches to those of you not in the know).

Soup seems perfect on a rainy day, and it meant I would use up those pesky extra fruits.  Roasting them with the other vegies (oops, now I am calling them vegies) before making it all into a soup gives it a wonderful rich and sweet flavour.  But I still have some tomatoes left over, so who knows what comes next?!

Ingredients:

1.5 kg tomatoes- chopped into chunks-no need to skin them

2 medium red onions- roughly chopped into wedges

4 cloves garlic

2-3 small red chillies - I used 4 and wow was it hot!  (Mr Pickings likes it like that)

2 tbs brown sugar

2 tbs vinegar- I used caramelised strawberry balsamic because I had it in the pantry but use whatever you fancy

2-3 tsp dried oregano

2 tsp smoked paprika

1 tsp sea salt flakes

pepper to taste

1 tbs olive oil

1 tsp chopped ginger

1.25L of chicken stock

fresh coriander leaves

Method:

Simply throw tomatoes, onions, garlic and chillies into a roasting pan, then the sugar, vinegar, oregano, paprika, salt and pepper get scattered over and then you toss it all together

Roast for about an hour at 175C till it smells delicious, and the tomatoes etc look softened and toasty at the edges.  

Grab a big saucepan and heat up the olive oil

place your tomatoey mixture into the pan with the ginger and stock (and extra salt and pepper if you wish)

simmer gently for half an hour, cool a little, then blitz for a few minutes with a handheld stick blender.  This saves you having to take it out of the pan, whizz in a blender then put back in the saucepan.  Warm it up again if you wish.

Serve with fresh coriander leaves and a dollop of sour cream-- very warming!

the ingredients

all chopped up and nowhere to go- except in the pan

chicken stock- luckily I had a bit of home made in the fridge

about to simmer for half an hour

all souped up!

yum- ready to eat