I was in a mood as dreary as last week’s weather. Such a funk… I’m not referring to the groovy George Clinton live for the funk, die for the funk. I was just awfully moody.
*Grr… *moody face*…
I wanted my momma, and a huge talking teddy bear to hold me, to whisper sweet nothings in my ear…
Like the alphabet…
“A” is for “Aardvark”…
What?
What am I saying?
Talking teddy bear?
Loca…
I was all dark and not so lovely. Its spring, my favorite season and I felt like a total Debbie Downer.
Boo…
All this rain… I mean, I get it – Every living thing needs water (according to Sesame Street); but it just made everything soggy, and sagging. And it’s messed up m’ hair. I was droopy. Not a very good look.
I looked… Melted…
I needed to quickly change my disposition; turn my frown upside down… So I made soup. I loves me some soup. If I could have soup every single day of my life I would. I wouldn’t even need a spoon – Just one of those crazy long swirly straws.
Soup says comfort… And Mommy… And big talking huggie bear…
Roasted tomato and red pepper soup says, well, it says…
Happy dance.
I found a great roasted tomato soup recipe in the bitesized blog. Everything they make is like 2 bites or less; for those who have trouble cooking small… Like me…
I doubled this recipe (totally going against the cooking small deal) and in addition to the tomatoes, I added red peppers… Because they called out to me in the supermarket like sad stray puppies. I’m a sucker for strays. I bought them home and proceeded to roast them at insanely high temperatures with garlic, onions and thyme. I hope they found it in their hearts to forgive me.
The soup was INSANE… Like Crazy Eddie INSANE… Insanely orange…. Immensly bright. You’re gonna need to whip out your shades, man.Roasted red peppers, tomato, and garlic will come at you like a freight train and oddly enough, you’re gonna welcome it with open arms. It warmed up my insides and thawed my heart.
It was just what I needed… It got me out of my funk and straight into that sunshine state of mind. In case you’re wonderin’, m’ hair now looks oh, so lovely.
And balance has been restored…
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Recipe: Roasted Tomato & Red Pepper Soup
Adapted from: The Bite Sized Blog
Ingredients:
To roast tomatoes and peppers:
- 4 large slicing tomatoes
- 6 plum tomatoes
- 3 medium red bell peppers
- 10 cloves garlic, crushed
- 2 medium sized bunches of thyme
- ½ cup olive oil
- Salt and Pepper
- Red pepper flakes
For the Soup:
- 2 tbsp. butter
- 9-10 whole canned tomatoes, plus juices, seeded and coarsely chopped
- 1 large sized onion cut into 4 pieces
- 3 cloves garlic
- 2 cups chicken (or vegetable) stock
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
Instructions
- To roast the tomatoes and peppers, begin by removing the tomato cores from the top. You can use a melon baller for this. Halve and seed the tomatoes and peppers, and place them cut side down in a large roasting pan or casserole dish.
- Take 2 pieces of the quartered onion and slice them. Add the onions to the roasting pan, along with 10 cloves of crushed garlic and thyme. Season everything with salt and pepper, and sprinkle with red pepper flakes.
- Coat the tomatoes and peppers well with olive oil. Cover the roasting pan or casserole dish with foil and roast at 500° Fahrenheit (260 Celsius) for 20-30 minutes, until tomatoes are soft. Uncover and roast for another 5 minutes. The tomatoes and peppers are going to look old and wrinkly. It’s ok…Remove the pan from the oven and allow the oil to cool.
- When oil has cooled, remove tomatoes, thyme and garlic and onion. Discard the thyme, chop the onion and roasted garlic and set aside. Reserve the tomato and pepper juices and olive oil that have gathered in the bottom of the pan and set aside.
- Thinly slice remaining ½ onion, and the 3 additional raw garlic cloves. In a large pot, over medium/high heat melt 2 tablespoons of butter. Add the onions and garlic (raw and roasted) and cook, stirring occasionally until the raw onions and garlic have softened, about 8 minutes. Allow the garlic and onions to brown a bit. Pour the reserved tomato and pepper juice and deglaze the pot by scraping the browned bits of onion and garlic with a wooden spoon.
- Add in roasted tomatoes, canned tomatoes, tomato juices and chicken (or vegetable) stock. Bring up to near boiling point and then reduce to a simmer. Cook until tomatoes are very soft, about 30 minutes.
- Puree the soup in a blender, or a food processor (I used a handheld immersion blender). Add the soup back to the pot (if going the blender or food processor route) and finish seasoning with salt and pepper to taste.
- Add the heavy cream and if necessary (wasn’t for me), adjust the soup’s consistency with additional stock or water. Serve hot. Walk on sunshine…
Variations
You can easily make this soup vegan by omitting the heavy cream, butter and using vegetable stock!