Tomato soup is something we all grew up on, although it was the tinned variety that ruled that day. I never liked tomato soup, and for that fact, tomatoes when I was younger. Even now I have mixed feelings. So this is my boosted version with enough flavour to convert myself.
The bulk of the richness in flavour comes from roasting the tomatoes first and this can be done the day before. Next is the “mirepoix”, which is basically a french combination of onion, carrot and celery (I omit this because my wife doesn’t like it). These are diced and sweated in the pan before anything else is added. Lastly, a little touch of hot sauce or tomato paste can be added at the end to enhance as needed.
Serves: Four with some for lunch Time: 2 hours
1.4kg of mixed tomatos i.e. cherry tomatoes, heirloom tomatoes etc
2-3 Peppers (orange or red)
1-2 Red Chillies
Olive oil
1 Onion
2 Carrot
2 pieces of celery (optional)
1L of vegetable stock
Tomato paste
Hot sauce
Sugar to taste
- Roast the Tomatoes, Peppers and Chillies in the oven at 160 degrees Celsius for one hour and a half. Ensuring the vegetables are coated lightly in olive oil.
- Finely dice the onion, carrot and celery. Cook in a little olive oil in the soup pan until softened.
- Add in the roasted tomatoes and all of the juices from the roasting process.
- Cover the vegetables with stock. Don’t add too much stock here, you can add more going on if the soup is too thick.
- Simmer for 30 minutes and blitz with a hand blender.
- Now taste the soup add sugar if the soup doesn’t have the inherant sweet tomato flavour. Add some tomato paste or chilli sauce to balance.
Recipes from my kitchen, Edinburgh, Scotland 